by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822)
Love, from its awful throne of patient...
Language: English
Love, from its awful throne of patient power In the wise heart, from the last giddy hour Of dread endurance, from the slippery, steep, And narrow verge of crag-like agony, springs And folds over the world its healing wings. Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and Endurance, These are the seals of that most firm assurance Which bars the pit over Destruction's strength; [And if, with infirm hand, Eternity, Mother of many acts and hours, should free The serpent that would clasp her with his length;]1 These are the spells by which to [reassume]2 An empire o'er the disentangled doom. To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite; To forgive wrongs darker than death or night; To defy Power, which seems omnipotent; [To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;]3 Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent; This[, like thy glory, Titan,]1 is to be Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free; This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory.
R. Vaughan Williams sets stanza 1 in (at least) one setting - see below for more information
R. Vaughan Williams sets stanza 3 in (at least) one setting - see below for more information
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Dyson and Vaughan Williams in Symphony #7
2 Dyson: "assume"
3 omitted by Vaughan Williams in Symphony #7
Authorship:
- by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), no title, appears in Prometheus Unbound, excerpt [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "A song of healing", stanza 1 [ unison chorus and orchestra (or piano) ], from Six choral songs to be sung in time of war, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "Prelude", 1949-1952, first performed 1953, stanza 3 [ soprano and orchestra ], from Symphony no. 7 - Sinfonia Antartica, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:
- by George Dyson (1883 - 1964), "To find the Western path", from Quo Vadis: a Cycle of Poems, no. 9
Research team for this page: Ahmed E. Ismail , Harry Joelson
This text was added to the website: 2005-12-31
Line count: 22
Word count: 166