| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | July 8 | | Shelley | | By Craven Langstroth Betts (1853–1941) |
| | | | Percy Bysshe Shelley, the famous young English poet, was drowned in the Bay of Spezia, near Genoa, Italy, July 8, 1822. |
|
|
TO shore the sea-nymphs buoyed their captive dead, | |
| Touched by a human grief; yes, there lay hand, | |
| Heart, lip, and brain of that august command, | |
| All—save the soul that Heaven to music wed. | |
| Clung curling yet the pale locks round the head; | 5 |
| Silent and prone upon the drifted sand, | |
| He clasped her still, his loved Italian land, | |
| The foster-mother to whose breast he fled. | |
| |
| We raised him on the pyre—in one great shine | |
| The body reached the beckoning shade—’twas meet, | 10 |
| That which had given the flaming soul a shrine | |
| Should incorrupt as that bright soul retreat; | |
| Yet, heart of proof, thy substance still divine, | |
| Lingering in earthly love, lay at our feet! | | | |
|
|
|
