"Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief / Convulse us and consume us day by day, / And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay."
— Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)
Place of Publication
Pisa
Date
1821
Metaphor
"Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief / Convulse us and consume us day by day, / And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay."
Metaphor in Context
Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep--
He hath awakened from the dream of life--
'Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep
With phantoms an unprofitable strife,
And in mad trance, strike with our spirit's knife
Invulnerable nothings.--We decay
Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief
Convulse us and consume us day by day,
And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay.
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Shelley's Poetry and Prose. Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Donald H. Reiman and Sharon B. Powers. New York: Norton, 1977.
Date of Entry
12/23/2007
