Percy Shelley’s “Bereavement” captures the raw loneliness of a person grieving before a coffin. The mourner bows under “still grief,” shuns the mockery of others, and weeps at the memory of a lost perfection—the beloved now dead. Despair streams down his cheek; no blissful hope lights his bosom. Even when his anguish is briefly lulled in a dream, he starts awake to find affection’s soft ties torn. The mood is heavy, suffocating. Then the tone pivots from helpless empathy to visionary assurance. Shelley asks when day will dawn on the night of the grave, when summer will succeed the winter of death. He urges the mourner to rest, promising that heaven will reclaim the faded spirit. An eternal vision opens: an amaranth bower, a flower-filled shelter of unfading bloom, where no clouds of fate lower over the sweet prospect, and woe fades like the mist of the heath. The reader is moved from intimate despair to a quiet, luminous hope.
Bereavement — Summary
How stern are the woes of the desolate mourner, As he bends in still grief o'er the hallowed bier, As enanguished he turns from the laugh of the scorner, And drops, to Perfection's remembrance, a tear; When floods of despair down his pale cheek are streaming, When no blissful hope on his bosom is beaming, Or, if lulled for awhile, soon he starts from his dreaming, And finds torn the soft ties to affection so dear.
Ah! when shall day dawn on the night of the grave, Or summer succeed to the winter of death? Rest awhile, hapless victim, and Heaven will save The spirit, that faded away with the breath. Eternity points in its amaranth bower, Where no clouds of fate o'er the sweet prospect lower, Unspeakable pleasure, of goodness the dower, When woe fades away like the mist of the heath.