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Lyric Poem · Nature

Homer's Hymn to the Sun

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

1Offspring of Jove, Calliope, once more

2To the bright Sun, thy hymn of music pour;

3Whom to the child of star-clad Heaven and Earth

4Euryphaessa, large-eyed nymph, brought forth;

5Euryphaessa, the famed sister fair

6Of great Hyperion, who to him did bear

7A race of loveliest children; the young Morn,

8Whose arms are like twin roses newly born,

9The fair-haired Moon, and the immortal Sun,

10Who borne by heavenly steeds his race doth run

11Unconquerably, illuming the abodes

12Of mortal Men and the eternal Gods.

13Fiercely look forth his awe-inspiring eyes,

14Beneath his golden helmet, whence arise

15And are shot forth afar, clear beams of light;

16His countenance, with radiant glory bright,

17Beneath his graceful locks far shines around,

18And the light vest with which his limbs are bound,

19Of woof aethereal delicately twined,

20Glows in the stream of the uplifting wind.

21His rapid steeds soon bear him to the West;

22Where their steep flight his hands divine arrest,

23And the fleet car with yoke of gold, which he

24Sends from bright Heaven beneath the shadowy sea.

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Quick facts

Poem
Homer's Hymn to the Sun
Poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Length
24 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Nature, Peace, 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
24 lines · 2 stanzas of 12 lines
Line length
Lines run 10-11 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

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
PoetryDBHomer's Hymn to the Sun 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 beabad8bb1db77a9
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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