from Queen Mab: Part VI

Percy Bysshe Shelley

(excerpt)

"Throughout these infinite orbs of mingling light,

Of which yon earth is one, is wide diffus'd

A Spirit of activity and life,

That knows no term, cessation, or decay;

That fades not when the lamp of earthly life,

Extinguish'd in the dampness of the grave,

Awhile there slumbers, more than when the babe

In the dim newness of its being feels

The impulses of sublunary things,

And all is wonder to unpractis'd sense:

But, active, steadfast and eternal, still

Guides the fierce whirlwind, in the tempest roars,

Cheers in the day, breathes in the balmy groves,

Strengthens in health, and poisons in disease;

And in the storm of change, that ceaselessly

Rolls round the eternal universe and shakes

Its undecaying battlement, presides,

Apportioning with irresistible law

The place each spring of its machine shall fill;

So that when waves on waves tumultuous heap

Confusion to the clouds, and fiercely driven

Heaven's lightnings scorch the uprooted ocean-fords,

Whilst, to the eye of shipwreck'd mariner,

Lone sitting on the bare and shuddering rock,

All seems unlink'd contingency and chance,

No atom of this turbulence fulfils

A vague and unnecessitated task,

Or acts but as it must and ought to act.

Even the minutest molecule of light,

That in an April sunbeam's fleeting glow

Fulfils its destin'd, though invisible work,

The universal Spirit guides; nor less,

When merciless ambition, or mad zeal,

Has led two hosts of dupes to battlefield,

That, blind, they there may dig each other's graves,

And call the sad work glory, does it rule

All passions: not a thought, a will, an act,

No working of the tyrant's moody mind,

Nor one misgiving of the slaves who boast

Their servitude to hide the shame they feel,

Nor the events enchaining every will,

That from the depths of unrecorded time

Have drawn all-influencing virtue, pass

Unrecogniz'd or unforeseen by thee,

Soul of the Universe! eternal spring

Of life and death, of happiness and woe,

Of all that chequers the phantasmal scene

That floats before our eyes in wavering light,

Which gleams but on the darkness of our prison,

Whose chains and massy walls

We feel, but cannot see.

"Spirit of nature! all-sufficing power,

Necessity! thou mother of the world!

Unlike the god of human error, thou

Requir'st no prayers or praises; the caprice

Of man's weak will belongs no more to thee

Than do the changeful passions of his breast

To thy unvarying harmony: the slave,

Whose horrible lusts spread misery o'er the world,

And the good man, who lifts with virtuous pride

His being in the sight of happiness

That springs from his own works; the poison-tree,

Beneath whose shade all life is wither'd up,

And the fair oak, whose leafy dome affords

A temple where the vows of happy love

Are register'd, are equal in thy sight:

No love, no hate thou cherishest; revenge

And favouritism, and worst desire of fame

Thou know'st not: all that the wide world contains

Are but thy passive instruments, and thou

Regard'st them all with an impartial eye,

Whose joy or pain thy nature cannot feel,

Because thou hast not human sense,

Because thou art not human mind.

"Yes! when the sweeping storm of time

Has sung its death-dirge o'er the ruin'd fanes

And broken altars of the almighty Fiend

Whose name usurps thy honours, and the blood

Through centuries clotted there has floated down

The tainted flood of ages, shalt thou live

Unchangeable! A shrine is rais'd to thee,

Which, nor the tempest-breath of time,

Nor the interminable flood

Over earth's slight pageant rolling,

Availeth to destroy—

The sensitive extension of the world.

That wondrous and eternal fane,

Where pain and pleasure, good and evil join,

To do the will of strong necessity,

And life, in multitudinous shapes,

Still pressing forward where no term can be,

Like hungry and unresting flame

Curls round the eternal columns of its strength."

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Similar Poems:

The Two Hermits by Kahlil Gibran

Upon a lonely mountain, there lived two hermits who worshipped God
and loved one another.

Now these two hermits had one earthen bowl, and this was their only
possession.

One day an evil spirit entered into the heart of the older hermit
and he came to the younger and said, “It is long that we have
lived together. The time has come for us to part. Let us divide
our possessions.”

Then the younger hermit was saddened and he said, “It grieves
me, Brother, that thou shouldst leave me. But if thou must needs
go, so be it,” and he brought the earthen bowl and gave it to him
saying, “We cannot divide it, Brother, let it be thine.”

Then the older hermit said, “Charity I will not accept. I will
take nothing but mine own. It must be divided.”

And the younger one said, “If the bowl be broken, of what use would
it be to thee or to me? If it be thy pleasure let us rather cast
a lot.”

But the older hermit said again, “I will have but justice and mine
own, and I will not trust justice and mine own to vain chance. The
bowl must be divided.”

Then the younger hermit could reason no further and he said, “If
it be indeed thy will, and if even so thou wouldst have it let us
now break the bowl.”

But the face of the older hermit grew exceedingly dark, and he
cried, “O thou cursed coward, thou wouldst not fight.”