The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/Summer and Winter

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

SUMMER AND WINTER

[Published by Mrs. Shelley in The Keepsake, 1829. Mr. C. W. Frederickson of Brooklyn possesses a transcript in Mrs. Shelley's handwriting.]

It was a bright and cheerful afternoon,Towards the end of the sunny month of June,

When the north wind congregates in crowdsThe floating mountains of the silver cloudsFrom the horizon—and the stainless sky 5Opens beyond them like eternity.All things rejoiced beneath the sun: the weeds,The river, and the corn-fields, and the reeds;The willow leaves that glanced in the light breeze,And the firm foliage of the larger trees. 10

It was a winter such as when birds die^[1]In the deep forests; and the fishes lieStiffened in the translucent ice, which makesEven the mud and slime of the warm lakesA wrinkled clod as hard as brick; and when, 15Among their children, comfortable menGather about great fires, and yet feel cold:Alas, then, for the homeless beggar old!

 

1. Summer and Winter.—11 birds die 1839; birds do die 1829.