Lyric Poem · Love
Good-Night
Good-night? ah! no; the hour is ill
Which severs those it should unite;
Let us remain together still,
Then it will be GOOD night.
How can I call the lone night good,
Though thy sweet wishes wing its flight?
Be it not said, thought, understood —
Then it will be — GOOD night.
To hearts which near each other move
From evening close to morning light,
The night is good; because, my love,
They never SAY good-night.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Good-Night” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/good-night
Quick facts
- Poem
- Good-Night
- Poet
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Length
- 12 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Love
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
- 12 lines · 3 quatrains
- Line length
- Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).
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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
- PoetryDBGood-Night 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 9a4af1d971ee32d2…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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