The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/Time Long Past
TIME LONG PAST
[Published by Rossetti, Complete P. W. of P. B. S., 1870. This is one of three poems (cf. Love's Philosophy and Good-Night) transcribed by Shelley in a copy of Leigh Hunt's Literary Pocket-Book for 1819 presented by him to Miss Sophia Stacey, December 29, 1820.]
I
Like the ghost of a dear friend dead
Is Time long past.
A tone which is now forever fled,
A hope which is now forever past,
A love so sweet it could not last, 5
Was Time long past.
Like the ghost of a dear friend dead
Is Time long past.
A tone which is now forever fled,
A hope which is now forever past,
A love so sweet it could not last, 5
Was Time long past.
II
There were sweet dreams in the night
Of Time long past:
And, was it sadness or delight,
Each day a shadow onward cast 10
Which made us wish it yet might last—
That Time long past.
There were sweet dreams in the night
Of Time long past:
And, was it sadness or delight,
Each day a shadow onward cast 10
Which made us wish it yet might last—
That Time long past.
III
There is regret, almost remorse,
For Time long past.
'Tis like a child's belovèd corse 15
A father watches, till at last
Beauty is like remembrance, cast
From Time long past.
There is regret, almost remorse,
For Time long past.
'Tis like a child's belovèd corse 15
A father watches, till at last
Beauty is like remembrance, cast
From Time long past.