Lyric Poem · Death & Loss
Death
Death is here and death is there,
Death is busy everywhere,
All around, within, beneath,
Above is death — and we are death.
Death has set his mark and seal
On all we are and all we feel,
On all we know and all we fear,
...
First our pleasures die — and then
Our hopes, and then our fears — and when
These are dead, the debt is due,
Dust claims dust — and we die too.
All things that we love and cherish,
Like ourselves must fade and perish;
Such is our rude mortal lot —
Love itself would, did they not.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Death” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/death
Quick facts
- Poem
- Death
- Poet
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Length
- 16 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Death & Loss, Love, Hope
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
- 16 lines · 5 stanzas of 1–4 lines
- Line length
- Lines run 7-9 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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
- PoetryDBDeath 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 1e148e581a4dd84d…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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