Poetry Catalog

Swift as a spirit hastening to his taskOf glory and of good, the Sun sprang forthRejoicing in his splendour, and the mask Of darkness fell from the awakened Earth—The smokeless altars of the mountain snowsFlamed above crimson clouds, and at the birth Of light, the Ocean’s orison arose,To which the birds tempered their matin lay.All flowers in field or forest which … [Read more...] about The Triumph of Life, By: Percy Bysshe Shelley

Sweet Spirit! Sister of that orphan one,Whose empire is the name thou weepest on,In my heart’s temple I suspend to theeThese votive wreaths of withered memory. Poor captive bird! who, from thy narrow cage,Pourest such music, that it might assuageThe rugged hearts of those who prisoned thee,Were they not deaf to all sweet melody;This song shall be thy rose: its petals paleAre … [Read more...] about Epipsychidion, By: Percy Bysshe Shelley

1. Before those cruel Twins, whom at one birthIncestuous Change bore to her father Time,Error and Truth, had hunted from the EarthAll those bright natures which adorned its prime,And left us nothing to believe in, worthThe pains of putting into learned rhyme,A lady-witch there lived on Atlas’ mountainWithin a cavern, by a secret fountain. 2. Her mother was one of the … [Read more...] about The Witch of Atlas, By: Percy Bysshe Shelley

The spider spreads her webs, whether she beIn poet’s tower, cellar, or barn, or tree;The silk-worm in the dark green mulberry leavesHis winding sheet and cradle ever weaves;So I, a thing whom moralists call worm,Sit spinning still round this decaying form,From the fine threads of rare and subtle thought—No net of words in garish colours wroughtTo catch the idle buzzers of the … [Read more...] about Letter to Maria Gisborne, By: Percy Bysshe Shelley

I rode one evening with Count MaddaloUpon the bank of land which breaks the flowOf Adria towards Venice: a bare strandOf hillocks, heaped from ever-shifting sand,Matted with thistles and amphibious weeds,Such as from earth’s embrace the salt ooze breeds,Is this; an uninhabited sea-side,Which the lone fisher, when his nets are dried,Abandons; and no other object breaksThe waste, … [Read more...] about Julian and Maddalo, By: Percy Bysshe Shelley