Lyric Poem · Sad

Despair

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Reading room

1Ask not the pallid stranger's woe,

2With beating heart and throbbing breast,

3Whose step is faltering, weak, and slow,

4As though the body needed rest. —

5Whose 'wildered eye no object meets,

6Nor cares to ken a friendly glance,

7With silent grief his bosom beats, —

8Now fixed, as in a deathlike trance.

9Who looks around with fearful eye,

10And shuns all converse with man kind,

11As though some one his griefs might spy,

12And soothe them with a kindred mind.

13A friend or foe to him the same,

14He looks on each with equal eye;

15The difference lies but in the name,

16To none for comfort can he fly. —

17'Twas deep despair, and sorrow's trace,

18To him too keenly given,

19Whose memory, time could not efface —

20His peace was lodged in Heaven. —

21He looks on all this world bestows,

22The pride and pomp of power,

23As trifles best for pageant shows

24Which vanish in an hour.

25When torn is dear affection's tie,

26Sinks the soft heart full low;

27It leaves without a parting sigh,

28All that these realms bestow.

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“Despair” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/despair

Quick facts

Poem: Despair
Poet: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Length: 28 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Sad, Love, Nature

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: 28 lines · 7 quatrains
Line length: Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).

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Author record: Percy Bysshe Shelley1792–1822
Source record: PoetryDBDespair 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 4fcccee635d41218…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Sad Love Nature

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