I. <br />Fairest of the Destinies, <br />Disarray thy dazzling eyes: <br />Keener far thy lightnings are <br />Than the winged [bolts] thou bearest, <br />And the smile thou wearest <br />Wraps thee as a star <br />Is wrapped in light. <br /> <br />II. <br />Could Arethuse to her forsaken urn <br />From Alpheus and the bitter Doris run, <br />Or could the morning shafts of purest light <br />Again into the quivers of the Sun <br />Be gathered—could one thought from its wild flight <br />Return into the temple of the brain <br />Without a change, without a stain,-- <br />Could aught that is, ever again <br />Be what it once has ceased to be, <br />Greece might again be free! <br /> <br />III. <br />A star has fallen upon the earth <br />Mid the benighted nations, <br />A quenchless atom of immortal light, <br />A living spark of Night, <br />A cresset shaken from the constellations. <br />Swifter than the thunder fell <br />To the heart of Earth, the well <br />Where its pulses flow and beat, <br />And unextinct in that cold source <br />Burns, and on ... course <br />Guides the sphere which is its prison, <br />Like an angelic spirit pent <br />In a form of mortal birth, <br />Till, as a spirit half-arisen <br />Shatters its charnel, it has rent, <br />In the rapture of its mirth, <br />The thin and painted garment of the Earth, <br />Ruining its chaos—a fierce breath <br />Consuming all its forms of living death.<br /><br />Percy Bysshe Shelley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/fragments-written-for-hellas/
