Lyric Poem · Death & Loss
On the Dark Height of Jura
1Ghosts of the dead! have I not heard your yelling
2Rise on the night-rolling breath of the blast,
3When o'er the dark aether the tempest is swelling,
4And on eddying whirlwind the thunder-peal passed?
5For oft have I stood on the dark height of Jura,
6Which frowns on the valley that opens beneath;
7Oft have I braved the chill night-tempest's fury,
8Whilst around me, I thought, echoed murmurs of death.
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“On the Dark Height of Jura” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/on-the-dark-height-of-jura
Quick facts
- Poem
- On the Dark Height of Jura
- Poet
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Length
- 16 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Death & Loss, 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
- 16 lines · 4 quatrains
- Line length
- Lines run 11-14 syllables (median 12), consistent with hexameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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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
- PoetryDBOn the Dark Height of Jura 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 2a91333400638153…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.