Percy Bysshe Shelley

he had no heart to burn
and only one to give.
it was said by some
he lost the will to live;
others say his ship was rammed
or simply poorly built
in Genoa where wild roses
bloom but never wilt.
but what did he see
under the waves being tossed
that could have spoken
to the radical genius lost?
was there a last strong line
of allegorical note
he might have uttered
toward the bottom of his boat?
was Lord Byron mad that Don Juan
was no longer floating?
the Tory newspaper
The Courier meanwhile was gloating:
Shelley has been drowned
and "now he knows
whether there is God or no."
but they were foes
not friends
as were his beloved Mary and Claire
and John Keats and Leigh Hunt
of a literary circle in England near where
he wrote The Revolution of the Golden City.
Prometheus Unbound was completed in Rome
before he set sail from Livorno to Lerici.
Tragically, he did not get home.