Lyric Poem · Nature
A Bridal Song
The golden gates of Sleep unbar
Where Strength and Beauty, met together,
Kindle their image like a star
In a sea of glassy weather!
Night, with all thy stars look down, —
Darkness, weep thy holiest dew, —
Never smiled the inconstant moon
On a pair so true.
Let eyes not see their own delight; —
Haste, swift Hour, and thy flight
Oft renew.
Fairies, sprites, and angels, keep her!
Holy stars, permit no wrong!
And return to wake the sleeper,
Dawn, — ere it be long!
O joy! O fear! what will be done
In the absence of the sun!
Come along!
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“A Bridal Song” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/a-bridal-song
Quick facts
- Poem
- A Bridal Song
- Poet
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Length
- 18 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature, Peace, Sad
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 18 lines · 2 stanzas of 7–11 lines
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Percy Bysshe Shelley1792–1822
- Source record
- PoetryDBA Bridal Song by percy-bysshe-shelley, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 b7fa3eb0c546c262…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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