Lyric Poem · Love

Music, When Soft Voices Die

by Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1821

Reading room

1Music, when soft voices die,

2Vibrates in the memory—

3Odours, when sweet violets sicken,

4Live within the sense they quicken.

5Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,

6Are heaped for the belovèd's bed;

7And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,

8Love itself shall slumber on.

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“Music, When Soft Voices Die” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/music-when-soft-voices-die

Quick facts

Poem: Music, When Soft Voices Die
Poet: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Published: 1821
Length: 8 lines
Form: Lyric Poem, Short Poems
Themes: Love, Death & Loss, Short

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: 8 lines · 2 quatrains
Line length: Mostly 7-syllable lines.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

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Author record: Percy Bysshe Shelley1792–1822
Source record: QuillOak curated editionMusic, When Soft Voices Die (1821) by percy-bysshe-shelley
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: 1821
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 53759201bbbc2f0c…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Short Poems Love Death & Loss Short

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