Explore "Sonnet from the Italian of Cavalcanti" by Percy Bysshe Shelley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Returning from its daily quest, my Spirit / Changed thoughts and vile in thee doth weep to find: / It grieves me that thy mild and gentle mind / Those ample virtues which it did inherit / Has lost. Once thou didst loathe the multitude / Of blind and madding men-I then loved thee- / I loved thy lofty songs and that sweet mood / When thou wert faithful to thyself and me / I dare not now through thy degraded state / Own the delight thy strains inspire-in vain / I seek what once thou wert-we cannot meet / And we were wont. Again and yet again / Ponder my words: so the false Spirit shall fly / And leave to thee thy true integrity.