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 5
The powers of life, and like a sign,
Seal thee from thine hour of woe;
And brood on thee, but may not blend
With thine.

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

III
'Sleep, sleep, and with the slumber of
The dead and the unborn 20
Forget thy life and love;^[3]
Forget that thou must wake forever;
Forget the world's dull scorn;
Forget lost health, and the divine
Feelings which died in youth's brief morn; 25
And forget me, for I can never
Be thine.

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

V
The spell is done. How feel you now?'
 'Better—Quite well,' replied
 The sleeper.—'What would do 39
You 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 abide
Awhile, 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.