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Poetry · Poem

From the Arabic

Percy Bysshe ShelleyEnglish RomanticismPoem
SOURCE TEXT · English original
MY faint spirit was sitting in the light
Of thy looks, my love;
It panted for thee like the hind at noon
For the brooks, my love.
Thy barb, whose hoofs outspeed the tempest’s flight,
Bore thee far from me;
My heart, for my weak feet were weary soon,
Did companion thee.

Ah! fleeter far than fleetest storm or steed,
Or the death they bear,
The heart which tender thought clothes like a dove
With the wings of care;
In the battle, in the darkness, in the need,
Shall mine cling to thee,
Nor claim one smile for all the comfort, love,
It may bring to thee.
Cultural reading

Reading the poem

The speaker's spirit, sitting in the light of the beloved's looks, is left behind when a swift horse carries the beloved away, and he sends his heart—faster than storm or steed—to keep company through battle, darkness and need without claiming one smile in return.

Language notes

Text and edition

The heading indicates derivation or imitation from an Arabic source rather than extraction from a longer English work; the supplied two-stanza lyric is treated as complete.