The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe: Death

Death

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.]

1.
Death is here and death is there,
Death is busy everywhere,
All around, within, beneath,
Above is death--and we are death.

2.
Death has set his mark and seal _5
On all we are and all we feel,
On all we know and all we fear,

...

3.
First our pleasures die--and then
Our hopes, and then our fears--and when
These are dead, the debt is due, _10
Dust claims dust--and we die too.

4.
All things that we love and cherish,
Like ourselves must fade and perish;
Such is our rude mortal lot--
Love itself would, did they not. _15