| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | IV. Sonnet: “Ye hasten to the dead!” | | By Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) |
| | | YE hasten to the dead! What seek ye there, | |
| Ye restless thoughts and busy purposes | |
| Of the idle brain, which the world’s livery wear? | |
| O thou quick Heart, which pantest to possess | |
| All that anticipation feigneth fair! | 5 |
| Thou vainly curious mind which wouldest guess | |
| Whence thou didst come, and whither thou may’st go, | |
| And that which never yet was known wouldst know— | |
| O, whither hasten ye, that thus ye press | |
| With such swift feet life’s green and pleasant path, | 10 |
| Seeking alike from happiness and woe | |
| A refuge in the cavern of gray death? | |
| O heart, and mind, and thoughts! What thing do you | |
| Hope to inherit in the grave below? | | | | |
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