Lyric Poem · Winter
Lines to a Reviewer
Alas, good friend, what profit can you see
In hating such a hateless thing as me?
There is no sport in hate where all the rage
Is on one side: in vain would you assuage
Your frowns upon an unresisting smile,
In which not even contempt lurks to beguile
Your heart, by some faint sympathy of hate.
Oh, conquer what you cannot satiate!
For to your passion I am far more coy
Than ever yet was coldest maid or boy
In winter noon. Of your antipathy
If I am the Narcissus, you are free
To pine into a sound with hating me.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Lines to a Reviewer” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/lines-to-a-reviewer
Quick facts
- Poem
- Lines to a Reviewer
- Poet
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Length
- 13 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Winter, Love, Nature
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
- 13 lines · one 13-line stanza
- Line length
- Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter 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
- PoetryDBLines to a Reviewer 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 528f4d079046b76d…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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