“one day i’ll watch as you’re leaving / and life will lose all its meaning / for the last time”

[larryhammer]

For Poetry Monday, one more late Shelly:

“The flower that smiles to-day,” Percy Shelley

    The flower that smiles to-day
        To-morrow dies;
All that we wish to stay
        Tempts and then flies.
What is this world’s delight?
Lightning that mocks the night,
        Brief even as bright.

    Virtue, how frail it is!
        Friendship how rare!
Love, how it sells poor bliss
        For proud despair!
But we, though soon they fall,
Survive their joy, and all
        Which ours we call.

    Whilst skies are blue and bright,
        Whilst flowers are gay,
Whilst eyes that change ere night
        Make glad the day;
Whilst yet the calm hours creep,
Dream thou—and from thy sleep
        Then wake to weep.


Another poem written in the last year of his life and published posthumously with an editorial title, though this time the title Mary supplied was “Mutability.” It’s common to point out, for context, that Percy and Mary lost three children in early childhood. Like many of his shorter lyrics, it’s been set to music several times.

He nails that dismount.

---L.

Subject quote from Anti-Hero, Taylor Swift.

Comments

[oracne]

He does indeed nail the dismount.

[larryhammer]

I only just noticed how the rhyme sounds reinforce that nailing -- the last lines are the first use of /ee/ in a rhyme, which is the first use of a rhyme vowel so far forward in the mouth. Until then he's floating around with /ay/ and /eye/ (and a lone /i/).

[sovay]

The flower that smiles to-day

TRA-LA

Dream thou—and from thy sleep
Then wake to weep.

That is good.

[larryhammer]

Innit? I need to play around some more, but I'm pretty sure that ending wouldn't land as hard with only two stanzas, instead of three to build it up.

ETA: Yeah, it's a three-part argument, and without one of the legs, the tripod is wobbly.