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Lyric Poem · Death & Loss

Death

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

1Death is here and death is there,

2Death is busy everywhere,

3All around, within, beneath,

4Above is death — and we are death.

5Death has set his mark and seal

6On all we are and all we feel,

7On all we know and all we fear,

8...

9First our pleasures die — and then

10Our hopes, and then our fears — and when

11These are dead, the debt is due,

12Dust claims dust — and we die too.

13All things that we love and cherish,

14Like ourselves must fade and perish;

15Such is our rude mortal lot —

16Love itself would, did they not.

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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.
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
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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