Caros leitores, segue um soneto de Percy Bysshe Shelley: "To a Balloon, Laden with Knowledge".
To a Balloon, Laden with Knowledge
Bright ball of flame that through the gloom of even
Silently takest thine etherial way
And with surpassing glory dimm´st each ray
Twinkling amid the dark blue Depths of Heaven,
Unlike the Fire thou bearest, soon shalt thou
Fade like a meteor in surrounding gloom,
Whilst that, unquenchable, is doomed to glow
A 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.
(Poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley)