Atheist Burning

I was an infant when my mother went
To see an atheist burned. She took me there.
The dark — robed priests were met around the pile;
The multitude was gazing silently;
And as the culprit passed with dauntless mien,
Tempered disdain in his unaltering eye,
Mixed with a quiet smile, shone calmly forth;
The thirsty fire crept round his manly limbs;
His resolute eyes were scorched to blindness soon;
His death — pang rent my heart! the insensate mob
Uttered a cry of triumph and I wept.
Weep not, child! cried my mother, for that man
Has said, There is no God.

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley (born:1792-08-04 died:1822-07-08 at age:29) Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem 1813