Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

For many of us, Frankenstein was Boris Karloff, who memorably crystalized the monster's image in celluloid. The real Frankenstein –the literary one – was something quite different.

Today we note the birth date of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (August 30, 1797 – February 1, 1851) English novelist, poet, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley.

I Must Forget Thy Dark Eyes' Love-Fraught Gaze

I must forget thy dark eyes' love-fraught gaze,
Thy voice, that fill'd me with emotion bland,
Thy vows, which lost me in this 'wild'ring maze,
The thrilling pressure of thy gentle hand;
And, dearer yet, that interchange of thought,
That drew us nearer still to one another,
Till in two hearts one sole idea wrought,
And neither hoped nor fear'd but for the other.

I must forget to deck myself with flowers:
Are not those wither'd which I gave to thee?
I must forget to count the day-bright hours,
Their sun is set- thou com'st no more to me!
I must forget thy love!- Then let me close
My tearful eyes upon unwelcome day,
And let my tortured thoughts seek that repose
Which corpses find within the tomb alway.

Oh! for the fate of her who, changed to leaves,
No more can weep, nor any longer moan;
Or the lorn queen, who, chilling as she grieves,
Finds her warm beating heart grow calm in stone.
Oh! for a draught of that Lethean wave,
Mortal alike to joy and to regret!
It may not be! not even that would save!
Love, hope, and thee, I never can forget!

--Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

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“Hateful day when I received life!' I exclaimed in agony. 'Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemlance. Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred.' - Frankenstein” 
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein