To Mary Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.]

My dearest Mary, wherefore hast thou gone,
And left me in this dreary world alone?
Thy form is here indeed—a lovely one—
But thou art fled, gone down the dreary road,
That leads to Sorrow's most obscure abode;
Thou sittest on the hearth of pale despair,
Where
For thine own sake I cannot follow thee.

***