Percy Bysshe Shelley

“ Innumerable systems widely rolled,
⁠And countless spheres diffused
⁠An ever varying glory.
It was a sight of wonder! Some were horned,
And, like the moon's argentine crescent hung
In the dark dome of heaven, some did shed
A clear mild beam like Hesperus, while the sea
Yet glows with fading sun-light; others dashed
Athwart the night with trains of bickering fire.
Like spherèd worlds to death and ruin driven;
Some shone like stars, and as the chariot passed
⁠Bedimmed all other light
⁠Spirit of Nature! ”

“ Shadows, and skeletons, and fiendly shapes,
Thronging round human graves, and o'er the dead
Sculpturing records for each memory
In verse, such as malignant gods pronounce,
Blasting the hopes of men, when heaven and hell
Confounded burst in ruin o'er the world:
And they did build vast trophies, instruments
Of murder, human bones, barbaric gold,
Skins torn from living men, and towers of skulls
With sightless holes gazing on blinder heaven,
Mitres, and crowns, and brazen chariots stained
With blood, and scrolls of mystic wickedness,
The sanguine codes of venerable crime. ”

“ Floating on waves of music and of light
The chariot of the Daemon of the World
⁠Descends in silent power:
Its shape reposed within: slight as some cloud
That catches but the palest tinge of day
⁠When evening yields to night. ”