“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.