Fragment: Life Rounded With Sleep
The babe is at peace within the womb; The corpse is at rest within the tomb: We begin in what we end.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
The babe is at peace within the womb; The corpse is at rest within the tomb: We begin in what we end.
In just three lines, Shelley sketches a life bracketed by a deep, dreamless peace. Before we’re born, we float in the quiet of the womb; after we die, we lie still in the tomb. The speaker feels no terror—only a calm recognition that our initial and final states are strangely alike.
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