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Lyric Poem · Nature

Hope

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

And said I that all hope was fled,

That sorrow and despair were mine,

That each enthusiast wish was dead,

Had sank beneath pale Misery's shrine. —

Seest thou the sunbeam's yellow glow,

That robes with liquid streams of light;

Yon distant Mountain's craggy brow.

And shows the rocks so fair, — so bright —

Tis thus sweet expectation's ray,

In softer view shows distant hours,

And portrays each succeeding day,

As dressed in fairer, brighter flowers, —

The vermeil tinted flowers that blossom;

Are frozen but to bud anew,

Then sweet deceiver calm my bosom,

Although thy visions be not true, —

Yet true they are, — and I'll believe,

Thy whisperings soft of love and peace,

God never made thee to deceive,

'Tis sin that bade thy empire cease.

Yet though despair my life should gloom,

Though horror should around me close,

With those I love, beyond the tomb,

Hope shows a balm for all my woes.

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Quick facts

Poem
Hope
Poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Length
24 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Nature, Hope, 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
24 lines · 6 quatrains
Line length
Consistent with long metre. Four eight-syllable lines (8.8.8.8), the hymn stanza's longer cousin.

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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
PoetryDBHope 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 45d7da4ae288a48d
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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