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Lyric Poem · Nature

A Bridal Song

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

1The golden gates of Sleep unbar

2Where Strength and Beauty, met together,

3Kindle their image like a star

4In a sea of glassy weather!

5Night, with all thy stars look down, —

6Darkness, weep thy holiest dew, —

7Never smiled the inconstant moon

8On a pair so true.

9Let eyes not see their own delight; —

10Haste, swift Hour, and thy flight

11Oft renew.

12Fairies, sprites, and angels, keep her!

13Holy stars, permit no wrong!

14And return to wake the sleeper,

15Dawn, — ere it be long!

16O joy! O fear! what will be done

17In the absence of the sun!

18Come along!

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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
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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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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