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QuillOak

Lyric Poem · Nature

From Vergil's Fourth Georgic

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

1[VERSES 360 ET SEQ.]

2And the cloven waters like a chasm of mountains

3Stood, and received him in its mighty portal

4And led him through the deep's untrampled fountains

5He went in wonder through the path immortal

6Of his great Mother and her humid reign

7And groves profaned not by the step of mortal

8Which sounded as he passed, and lakes which rain

9Replenished not girt round by marble caves

10'Wildered by the watery motion of the main

11Half 'wildered he beheld the bursting waves

12Of every stream beneath the mighty earth

13Phasis and Lycus which the ... sand paves,

14 The chasm where old Enipeus has its birth

15And father Tyber and Anienas[?] glow

16And whence Caicus, Mysian stream, comes forth

17And rock-resounding Hypanis, and thou

18Eridanus who bearest like empire's sign

19Two golden horns upon thy taurine brow

20Thou than whom none of the streams divine

21Through garden-fields and meads with fiercer power,

22Burst in their tumult on the purple brine

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Quick facts

Poem
From Vergil's Fourth Georgic
Poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Length
22 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Nature, Peace

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
22 lines · 8 stanzas of 1–3 lines
Line length
Lines run 9-12 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. 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

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Author record
Percy Bysshe Shelley1792–1822
Source record
PoetryDBFrom Vergil's Fourth Georgic 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 5b9941f1ca521adb
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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