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Lyric Poem · Nature

From the Original Draft of the Poem to William Shelley

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

1The world is now our dwelling-place;

2Where'er the earth one fading trace

3Of what was great and free does keep,

4That is our home!...

5Mild thoughts of man's ungentle race

6Shall our contented exile reap;

7For who that in some happy place

8His own free thoughts can freely chase

9By woods and waves can clothe his face

10In cynic smiles? Child! we shall weep.

11This lament,

12The memory of thy grievous wrong

13Will fade...

14But genius is omnipotent

15To hallow...

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“From the Original Draft of the Poem to William Shelley” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/from-the-original-draft-of-the-poem-to-william-shelley

Quick facts

Poem
From the Original Draft of the Poem to William Shelley
Poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Length
15 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Nature, Sad, Childhood

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
15 lines · 2 stanzas of 5–10 lines
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
PoetryDBFrom the Original Draft of the Poem to William Shelley 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 3bb0261b707e7017…
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policyReport a text or rights issue
Lyric PoemNatureSadChildhood

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