Percy Bysshe Shelley (
1792-
1822)
Poet of
Nature, thou hast wept to know
That things depart which never may return:
Childhood and youth, friendship and
love's first glow,
Have fled like
sweet dreams, leaving thee to mourn.
These common woes I feel. One loss is mine
Which thou too feel'st, yet I alone deplore.
Thou wert as a
lone star, whose light did shine
On some frail bark in winter's midnight roar:
Thou hast like to a rock-built refuge stood
Above the blind and battling multitude:
In honored poverty thy voice did weave
Songs consecrate to
truth and
liberty, -
Deserting these, thou leavest me to grieve,
Thus having been, that thou shouldst
cease to be.
William Wordsworth was once a radical poet whose views grew increasingly conservative with age. Shelly, a iconoclast if there ever was one, laments the loss of a kindred spirit, though to be fair, pretty much everyone was conservative compared to Shelly.