Explore "Lift not the Painted Veil which those who Live" by Percy Bysshe Shelley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Lift not the painted veil which those who live / Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there, / And it but mimic all we would believe / With colours idly spread,-behind, lurk Fear / And Hope, twin Destinies; who ever weave / Their shadows, o'er the chasm, sightless and drear. / I knew one who had lifted it-he sought, / For his lost heart was tender, things to love / But found them not, alas! nor was there aught / The world contains, the which he could approve. / Through the unheeding many he did move, / A splendour among shadows, a bright blot / Upon this gloomy scene, a Spirit that strove / For truth, and like the Preacher found it not.