Lyric Poem · Death & Loss

On Death

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

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1THERE IS NO WORK, NOR DEVICE, NOR KNOWLEDGE, NOR WISDOM,

2IN THE GRAVE, WHITHER THOU GOEST. — Ecclesiastes.

3The pale, the cold, and the moony smile

4Which the meteor beam of a starless night

5Sheds on a lonely and sea-girt isle,

6Ere the dawning of morn's undoubted light,

7Is the flame of life so fickle and wan

8That flits round our steps till their strength is gone.

9O man! hold thee on in courage of soul

10Through the stormy shades of thy worldly way,

11And the billows of cloud that around thee roll

12Shall sleep in the light of a wondrous day,

13Where Hell and Heaven shall leave thee free

14To the universe of destiny.

15This world is the nurse of all we know,

16This world is the mother of all we feel,

17And the coming of death is a fearful blow

18To a brain unencompassed with nerves of steel;

19When all that we know, or feel, or see,

20Shall pass like an unreal mystery.

21The secret things of the grave are there,

22Where all but this frame must surely be,

23Though the fine-wrought eye and the wondrous ear

24No longer will live to hear or to see

25All that is great and all that is strange

26In the boundless realm of unending change.

27Who telleth a tale of unspeaking death?

28Who lifteth the veil of what is to come?

29Who painteth the shadows that are beneath

30The wide-winding caves of the peopled tomb?

31Or uniteth the hopes of what shall be

32With the fears and the love for that which we see?

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“On Death” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/on-death

Quick facts

Poem: On Death
Poet: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Length: 32 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Death & Loss, Peace, Love

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Author record: Percy Bysshe Shelley1792–1822
Source record: PoetryDBOn Death by percy-bysshe-shelley, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
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Lyric Poem Death & Loss Peace Love

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