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Lyric Poem · Nature

From Vergil's Fourth Georgic

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

[VERSES 360 ET SEQ.]

And the cloven waters like a chasm of mountains

Stood, and received him in its mighty portal

And led him through the deep's untrampled fountains

He went in wonder through the path immortal

Of his great Mother and her humid reign

And groves profaned not by the step of mortal

Which sounded as he passed, and lakes which rain

Replenished not girt round by marble caves

'Wildered by the watery motion of the main

Half 'wildered he beheld the bursting waves

Of every stream beneath the mighty earth

Phasis and Lycus which the ... sand paves,

The chasm where old Enipeus has its birth

And father Tyber and Anienas[?] glow

And whence Caicus, Mysian stream, comes forth

And rock-resounding Hypanis, and thou

Eridanus who bearest like empire's sign

Two golden horns upon thy taurine brow

Thou than whom none of the streams divine

Through garden-fields and meads with fiercer power,

Burst 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.

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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 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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