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ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students

Sonnet. to a Balloon Laden With Knowledge

Percy Bysshe Shelley·1792–1822
Lines:14Movement:Romanticism
Bright ball of flame that through the gloom of evenSilently takest thine aethereal way,And with surpassing glory dimm'st each rayTwinkling amid the dark blue depths of Heaven,--Unlike the fire thou bearest, soon shalt thouFade like a meteor in surrounding gloom,Whilst that, unquenchable, is doomed to glowA watch-light by the patriot's lonely tomb;A ray of courage to the oppressed and poor;A spark, though gleaming on the hovel's hearth,Which through the tyrant's gilded domes shall roar;A beacon in the darkness of the Earth;A sun which, o'er the renovated scene,Shall dart like Truth where Falsehood yet has been.