A Lament
O World! O Life! O Time!
On whose last steps I climb,
Trembling at that where I had stood before;
When will return the glory of your prime?
No more --Oh, never more!
Out of the day and night
A joy has taken flight:
Fresh spring, and summer, and winter hoar
Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight
No more --Oh, never more!
A glimpse at Shelley's original draft, give us an insight to how he had built this poem up. His notes show how he was working on the meter and shape even before he had the words...Ah time, oh night oh day Ni na ni na, na ni Ni na ni na, ni na Oh life O death, O timeTime a di Never time Ah time, a time O-time time !Published by Mrs. Shelley, Posthumous Poems, 1824.
