Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition

The Grave of Shelley (Author: Oscar Wilde)

p.763

1. 1] Like burnt-out torches by a sick man's bed
   2] Gaunt cypress-trees stand round the sun-bleached stone;
   3] Here doth the little night-owl make her throne,
   4] And the slight lizard show his jewelled head.
   5] And, where the chaliced poppies flame to red,
   6] In the still chamber of yon pyramid
   7] Surely some Old-World Sphinx lurks darkly hid,
   8] Grim warder of this pleasaunce of the dead.
2. 9] Ah! sweet indeed to rest within the womb
   10] Of Earth, great mother of eternal sleep,
   11] But sweeter far for thee a restless tomb
   12] In the blue cavern of an echoing deep,
   13] Or where the tall ships founder in the gloom
   14] Against the rocks of some wave-shattered steep.

Rome