Lyric Poem · Winter

Lines to a Reviewer

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Reading room

1Alas, good friend, what profit can you see

2In hating such a hateless thing as me?

3There is no sport in hate where all the rage

4Is on one side: in vain would you assuage

5Your frowns upon an unresisting smile,

6In which not even contempt lurks to beguile

7Your heart, by some faint sympathy of hate.

8Oh, conquer what you cannot satiate!

9For to your passion I am far more coy

10Than ever yet was coldest maid or boy

11In winter noon. Of your antipathy

12If I am the Narcissus, you are free

13To pine into a sound with hating me.

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“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

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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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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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Lyric Poem Winter Love Nature

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