Adonaïs
Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep,
He hath awakened from the dream of life;
'Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep
With phantoms an unprofitable strife,
And in mad trance, strike with our spirit's knife
Invulnerable nothings. -We decay
Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief
Convulse us and consume us day by day,
And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay.
*******
✎ Percy Bysshe Shelley (Horsham, Sussex, England, 4 August 1792 ~ Gulf of La Spezia, Kingdom of Sardinia, 8 July 1822).◙ Artwork: William Blake.