Explore "When the Lamp is Shattered" by Percy Bysshe Shelley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
When the lamp is shattered / The light in the dust lies dead- / When the cloud is scattered / The rainbow's glory is shed. / When the lute is broken, / Sweet tones are remembered not; / When the lips have spoken, / Loved accents are soon forgot.
As music and splendour / Survive not the lamp and the lute, / The heart's echoes render / No song when the spirit is mute: - / No song but sad dirges, / Like the wind through a ruined cell, / Or the mournful surges / That ring the dead seaman's knell.
When hearts have once mingled / Love first leaves the well-built nest; / The weak one is singled / To endure what it once possessed. / O Love! who bewailest / The frailty of all things here, / Why choose you the frailest / For your cradle, your home, and your bier?
Its passions will rock thee / As the storms rock the ravens on high; / Bright reason will mock thee, / Like the sun from a wintry sky. / From thy nest every rafter / Will rot, and thine eagle home / Leave thee naked to laughter, / When leaves fall and cold winds come.