Page:Shelley, a poem, with other writings (Thomson, Debell).djvu/28

"Breathing for ever Heaven's inviolate calm,
   I knew not how on Earth the wild winds blow;
Singing for ever Heaven's ecstatic psalm,
   I knew not how on earth the wails of woe
   And shrieks of rage to maddening discord grow;
Circling for ever in the Sun's full light,
I knew not Earth's black clouds and sphereless night.

"I could not understand men; all their hearts
   Had secrets which I could not even guess.
Their greed for dross upon the daily marts,
   Their pride and fawning in the palaces,
   Their solemn church-attending worldliness,
Their servile fear of Custom's lawless law,
Filled me with sad perplexity and awe.

"Their gods seemed hideous monsters only great
   In power and malice, or such phantoms vain
As self-bewildered thought might evocate
   To mock the yearning heart and weary brain.
   I strove to teach them the true God, Whose reign
Is infinite love for all things that exist;
And I was branded as an Atheist.

"I pitied both the tyrant and the slave;
   The one so cursed with pride and heartless mood,
The other from the cradle to the grave
   With soul and body famishing for food.
   I charged them by their common brotherhood
To fling their mutual bonds off and be free:
They paused in their old strife to spurn at me.