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Lyric Poem · Nature

'Mighty Eagle'

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

SUPPOSED TO BE ADDRESSED TO WILLIAM GODWIN.

Mighty eagle! thou that soarest

O'er the misty mountain forest,

And amid the light of morning

Like a cloud of glory hiest,

And when night descends defiest

The embattled tempests' warning!

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Quick facts

Poem
'Mighty Eagle'
Poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Length
7 lines
Form
Lyric Poem, Short Poems
Themes
Nature, Short

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
7 lines · 2 stanzas of 1–6 lines

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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
PoetryDB'Mighty Eagle' 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 1812be5c6f2c4e21
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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