Fragment: ‘Such Hope, as Is the Sick Despair of Good’

Fragment: The Deserts of Dim Sleep.

[Published by Rossetti, “Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.”, 1870.]

I went into the deserts of dim sleep—
That world which, like an unknown wilderness,
Bounds this with its recesses wide and deep—

Fragment: ‘The Viewless and Invisible Consequence’.

[Published by Rossetti, “Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.”, 1870.]

The viewless and invisible Consequence
Watches thy goings-out, and comings-in,
And…hovers o’er thy guilty sleep,
Unveiling every new-born deed, and thoughts
More ghastly than those deeds— _5

Fragment: A Serpent-Face.

[Published by Rossetti, “Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.”, 1870.]

His face was like a snake’s—wrinkled and loose
And withered—

Fragment: Death in Life.

[Published by Dr. Garnett, “Relics of Shelley”, 1862.]

My head is heavy, my limbs are weary,
And it is not life that makes me move.

[Published by Dr. Garnett, “Relics of Shelley”, 1862.]

Such hope, as is the sick despair of good,
Such fear, as is the certainty of ill,
Such doubt, as is pale Expectation’s food
Turned while she tastes to poison, when the will
Is powerless, and the spirit… _5