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The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/On a Faded Violet

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To Mary—
The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1821)
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
On a Faded Violet
Lines written among the Euganean Hills
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Known also as On a Dead Violet

216178The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — On a Faded VioletPercy Bysshe Shelley
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ON A FADED VIOLET

[Published by Hunt, Literary Pocket-Book, 1821. Reprinted by Mrs. Shelley, Posthumous Poems, 1824. Again reprinted, with several variants, P. W., 1839, 1st ed. Our text is that of the editio princeps, 1821. A transcript is extant in a letter from Shelley to Sophia Stacey, dated March 7, 1820.]

I The odour[1] from the flower is gone  Which like thy kisses breathed[2] on me; The colour[3] from the flower is flown  Which glowed[4] of thee and only thee!
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IIA shrivelled,[5] lifeless, vacant form, 5 It lies on my abandoned breast.And mocks the heart which yet is warm, With cold and silent[6] rest.
IIII weep,—my tears revive it not! I sigh,—it breathes no more on me; 10Its mute and uncomplaining lot Is such as mine should be.

  1. ↑ On a Faded Violet—odour] colour 1839.
  2. ↑ kisses breathed] sweet eyes smiled 1839.
  3. ↑ colour] odour 1839.
  4. ↑ glowed] breathed 1839.
  5. ↑ shrivelled] withered 1839.
  6. ↑ cold and silent all edd.; its cold, silent Stacey MS.
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