The Spirit saw

The Spirit saw
The vast frame of the renovated world
Smile in the lap of Chaos, and the sense
Of hope thro’ her fine texture did suffuse
Such varying glow, as summer evening casts
On undulating clouds and deepening lakes.
Like the vague sighings of a wind at even,
That wakes the wavelets of the slumbering sea
And dies on the creation of its breath,
And sinks and rises, fails and swells by fits,
Was the sweet stream of thought that with wild motion
Flowed o’er the Spirit’s human sympathies.
The mighty tide of thought had paused awhile,
Which from the Daemon now like Ocean’s stream
Again began to pour.—

About Percy Bysshe Shelley

Major English Romantic poet regarded as one of the finest lyric poets in the English language.

More poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley

View all Percy Bysshe Shelley poems →

More Hope & Inspiration poems

View all Hope & Inspiration poems →