< Page:Prometheus Unbound - Shelley.djvu
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ODE TO THE WEST WIND.
A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed

One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.


V.


Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies


Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!


Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,


Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawakened earth


The trumpet of a prophecy! O, wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

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