By Percey Bysshe Shelley
Swift as a spirit hastening to his task
Of glory & of good, the Sun sprang forth
Rejoicing in his splendour, & the mask
Of darkness fell from the awakened Earth.
A Project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, University of Plymouth, and Nottingham Trent University.
Swift as a spirit hastening to his task
Of glory & of good, the Sun sprang forth
Rejoicing in his splendour, & the mask
Of darkness fell from the awakened Earth.
This is the first stanza of Shelley’s unfinished poem, written in Italy just before his death. You can read the full version, edited by Shelley’s wife’s Mary and published posthumously in 1824, here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45143/the-triumph-of-life