Lyric Poem · Death & Loss

An Ode, Written October, 1819, Before the Spaniards Had Recovered Their Liberty

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Reading room

1Arise, arise, arise!

2There is blood on the earth that denies ye bread;

3Be your wounds like eyes

4To weep for the dead, the dead, the dead.

5What other grief were it just to pay?

6Your sons, your wives, your brethren, were they;

7Who said they were slain on the battle day?

8Awaken, awaken, awaken!

9The slave and the tyrant are twin-born foes;

10Be the cold chains shaken

11To the dust where your kindred repose, repose:

12Their bones in the grave will start and move,

13When they hear the voices of those they love,

14Most loud in the holy combat above.

15Wave, wave high the banner!

16When Freedom is riding to conquest by:

17Though the slaves that fan her

18Be Famine and Toil, giving sigh for sigh.

19And ye who attend her imperial car,

20Lift not your hands in the banded war,

21But in her defence whose children ye are.

22Glory, glory, glory,

23To those who have greatly suffered and done!

24Never name in story

25Was greater than that which ye shall have won.

26Conquerors have conquered their foes alone,

27Whose revenge, pride, and power they have overthrown

28Ride ye, more victorious, over your own.

29Bind, bind every brow

30With crownals of violet, ivy, and pine:

31Hide the blood-stains now

32With hues which sweet Nature has made divine:

33Green strength, azure hope, and eternity:

34But let not the pansy among them be;

35Ye were injured, and that means memory.

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

Tip: click any line number to copy a ready-made citation for that line.

“An Ode, Written October, 1819, Before the Spaniards Had Recovered Their Liberty” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/an-ode-written-october-1819-before-the-spaniards-had-recovered-their-liberty

Quick facts

Poem: An Ode, Written October, 1819, Before the Spaniards Had Recovered Their Liberty
Poet: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Length: 35 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Death & Loss, Sad, War & Remembrance

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: 35 lines · 5 septets

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.

Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake

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: PoetryDBAn Ode, Written October, 1819, Before the Spaniards Had Recovered Their Liberty 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 33b229c79e7c4646…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policy Report a text or rights issue

Lyric Poem Death & Loss Sad War & Remembrance

Keep reading

She Walks in Beauty

Lord Byron · 1814

She walks in beauty, like the nightOf cloudless climes and starry skies;And all that's best of dark and bright

18 lines · lyric

Love's Philosophy

Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1819

The fountains mingle with the riverAnd the rivers with the ocean,The winds of heaven mix for ever

16 lines · lyric

When You Are Old

W. B. Yeats · 1893

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,And nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

12 lines · lyric

More poems about death →