The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/The Magnetic Lady to her Patient

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

THE MAGNETIC LADY TO HER PATIENT

[Published by Medwin, The Athenæum, August 11, 1832. There is a copy amongst the Trelawny MSS.]

I'Sleep,^[1] sleep on! forget thy pain;My hand is on thy brow,My spirit on thy brain;My pity on thy heart, poor friend;And from my fingers flow 5The powers of life, and like a sign,Seal thee from thine hour of woe;And brood on thee, but may not blendWith thine.

II'Sleep,^[1] sleep on! I love thee not; 10But when I think that heWho made and makes my lotAs full of flowers as thine of weeds,Might have been lost like thee;And that a hand which was not mine 15Might then have charmed^[2] his agonyAs I another's—my heart bleedsFor thine.

III'Sleep, sleep, and with the slumber ofThe dead and the unborn 20Forget thy life and love;^[3]Forget that thou must wake forever;Forget the world's dull scorn;Forget lost health, and the divineFeelings which died in youth's brief morn; 25And forget me, for I can neverBe thine.

IV'Like a cloud big with a May shower,My soul weeps healing rainOn thee, thou withered flower! 30It breathes mute music on thy sleepIts odour calms thy brain!Its light within thy gloomy breastSpreads like a second youth again.By mine thy being is to its deep 35Possessed.

VThe spell is done. How feel you now?'  'Better—Quite well,' replied The sleeper.—'What would do 39You good when suffering and awake? What cure your head and side?—''What would cure, that would kill me, Jane:^[4]  And as I must on earth abideAwhile, yet tempt me not to break^[5]  My chain.' 45

 

1. 1, 10 Sleep Trelawny MS., 1839, 2nd ed.; Sleep on 1832, 1839, 1st ed.
2. 16 charmed Trelawny MS.; chased 1832, edd. 1839.
3. 21 love] woe 1832.
4. 42 so Trelawny MS.; 'Twould kill me what would cure my pain 1832, edd. 1839.
5. 44 A while yet, cj. A. C Bradley.