Lift Not The Painted Veil Which Those Who Live.. ~ P.B.Shelley.

an oil painting: The Funeral of Shelley By Louis Edouard Fournier (1889). Pictured in the center are ,From left, Trelawny, Hunt and Byron.

Lift not the painted veil which those who live,

Call Life: Though unreal shapes be pictured there,

And it but mimic all we would believe

with colours idly spread,--behind, lurk Fear

And Hope, twin Destinies, Who ever weave

Their shadows, o'er the chasm, sightless and drear.

I knew one who had left it--he sought,

For his lost heart was tender, things to love,

But found them not, Alas! nor was there aught

The world contains, the which he could approve.

Through the unheeding many he did move,

A splendor among shadows, a bright blot

Upon this gloomy scene, a spirit that strove

For truth, and like the preacher found it not.