Lyric Poem · Nature

An Exhortation

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

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1Chameleons feed on light and air:

2Poets' food is love and fame:

3If in this wide world of care

4Poets could but find the same

5With as little toil as they,

6Would they ever change their hue

7As the light chameleons do,

8Suiting it to every ray

9Twenty times a day?

10Poets are on this cold earth,

11As chameleons might be,

12Hidden from their early birth

13in a cave beneath the sea;

14Where light is, chameleons change:

15Where love is not, poets do:

16Fame is love disguised: if few

17Find either, never think it strange

18That poets range.

19Yet dare not stain with wealth or power

20A poet's free and heavenly mind:

21If bright chameleons should devour

22Any food but beams and wind,

23They would grow as earthly soon

24As their brother lizards are.

25Children of a sunnier star,

26Spirits from beyond the moon,

27Oh, refuse the boon!

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“An Exhortation” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/an-exhortation

Quick facts

Poem: An Exhortation
Poet: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Length: 27 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Nature, Love, Childhood

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Shape: 27 lines · 3 stanzas of 9 lines
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Author record: Percy Bysshe Shelley1792–1822
Source record: PoetryDBAn Exhortation by percy-bysshe-shelley, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
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Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Nature Love Childhood

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