THE world's great age begins anew, 
   The golden years return, 
The earth doth like a snake renew 
   Her winter weeds outworn; 
Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam 
Like wrecks of a dissolving dream. 

A brighter Hellas rears its mountains 
   From waves serener far; 
A new Peneus rolls his fountains 
   Against the morning star; 
Where fairer Tempes bloom, there sleep 
Young Cyclads on a sunnier deep. 

A loftier Argo cleaves the main, 
   Fraught with a later prize; 
Another Orpheus sings again, 
   And loves, and weeps, and dies; 
A new Ulysses leaves once more 
Calypso for his native shore. 

O write no more the tale of Troy, 
   If earth Death's scroll must be-- 
Nor mix with Laian rage the joy 
   Which dawns upon the free, 
Although a subtler Sphinx renew 
Riddles of death Thebes never knew. 

Another Athens shall arise, 
   And to remoter time 
Bequeath, like sunset to the skies, 
   The splendour of its prime; 
And leave, if naught so bright may live, 
All earth can take or Heaven can give. 

Saturn and Love their long repose 
   Shall burst, more bright and good 
Than all who fell, than One who rose, 
   Than many unsubdued: 
Not gold, not blood, their altar dowers, 
But votive tears and symbol flowers. 

O cease! must hate and death return? 
   Cease! must men kill and die? 
Cease! drain not to its dregs the urn 
   Of bitter prophecy! 
The world is weary of the past-- 
O might it die or rest at last! 

Added: May 2 2005 | Viewed: 555 times | Comments (0)

Poet: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Poem: Hellas

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