Shelley on Social Cycles

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THE world's great age begins anew, 
  The golden years return, 
The earth doth like a snake renew 
  Her winter weeds outworn; 
Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam   
Like wrecks of a dissolving dream. 
 
A brighter Hellas rears its mountains 
  From waves serener far; 
A new Peneus rolls his fountains 
  Against the morning star; 
Where fairer Tempes bloom, there sleep 
Young Cyclads on a sunnier deep. 
 
A loftier Argo cleaves the main, 
  Fraught with a later prize; 
Another Orpheus sings again,
  And loves, and weeps, and dies; 
A new Ulysses leaves once more 
Calypso for his native shore.

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