5. We are not happy, sweet! our state _25 Is strange and full of doubt and fear; More need of words that ills abate;-- Reserve or censure come not near Our sacred friendship, lest there be No solace left for thee and me. _30 6. Gentle and good and mild thou art, Nor can I live if thou appear Aught but thyself, or turn thine heart Away from me, or stoop to wear The mask of scorn, although it be _35 To hide the love thou feel'st for me. NOTES: _2 wert 1839; did 1824. _3 fear 1824, 1839; yearn cj. Rossetti. _23 Their 1839; thy 1824. _30 thee]thou 1824, 1839. _32 can I 1839; I can 1824. _36 feel'st 1839; feel 1824. *** TO --. [Published in "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition. See Editor's Note.] Yet look on me--take not thine eyes away, Which feed upon the love within mine own, Which is indeed but the reflected ray Of thine own beauty from my spirit thrown. Yet speak to me--thy voice is as the tone _5 Of my heart's echo, and I think I hear That thou yet lovest me; yet thou alone Like one before a mirror, without care Of aught but thine own features, imaged there; And yet I wear out life in watching thee; _10 A toil so sweet at times, and thou indeed Art kind when I am sick, and pity me... *** MUTABILITY. [Published with "Alastor", 1816.] We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon; How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver, Streaking the darkness radiantly!--yet soon Night closes round, and they are lost for ever: Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings _5 Give various response to each varying blast, To whose frail frame no second motion brings One mood or modulation like the last. We rest.--A dream has power to poison sleep; We rise.--One wandering thought pollutes the day; _10 We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep; Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away: It is the same!--For, be it joy or sorrow, The path of its departure still is free: Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow; _15 Nought may endure but Mutability. NOTES: _15 may 1816; can Lodore, chapter 49, 1835 (Mrs. Shelley). _16 Nought may endure but 1816; Nor aught endure save Lodore, chapter 49, 1835 (Mrs. Shelley). *** ON DEATH. [For the date of composition see Editor's Note. Published with "Alastor", 1816.] THERE IS NO WORK, NOR DEVICE, NOR KNOWLEDGE, NOR WISDOM, IN THE GRAVE, WHITHER THOU GOEST.--Ecclesiastes. The pale, the cold, and the moony smile Which the meteor beam of a starless night Sheds on a lonely and sea-girt isle, Ere the dawning of morn's undoubted light, Is the flame of life so fickle and wan That flits round our steps till their strength is gone. _5