The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/Sonnet: Ye hasten to the grave

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

SONNET

[Published by Leigh Hunt, The Literary Pocket-Book, 1823. There is a transcript amongst the Ollier MSS., and another in the Harvard MS. book.]

Ye hasten to the grave!^[1] What seek ye there, Ye restless thoughts and busy purposes Of the idle brain, which the world's livery wear? O thou quick heart, which pantest to possess All that pale Expectation^[2] feigneth fair! 5Thou vainly curious mind which wouldest guessWhence thou didst come, and whither thou must^[3] go,And all that^[4] never yet was known would^[4] know—Oh, whither hasten ye, that thus ye press,With such swift feet life's green and pleasant path, 10Seeking, alike from happiness and woe,A refuge in the cavern of gray death?O heart, and mind, and thoughts! what thing do youHope to inherit in the grave below?

 

1. Sonnet.—1 grave Ollier MS.; dead Harvard MS., 1823, edd. 1824, 1839.
2. Sonnet.—5 pale Expectation Ollier MS.; anticipation Harvard MS., 1823, edd. 1824, 1839.
3. 7 must Harvard MS., 1823; mayst 1824; mayest edd. 1839.
4. 8 all that Harvard MS., 1823; that which edd. 1824, 1839. would Harvard MS., 1823; wouldst edd. 1839.