Lyric Poem · Spring
Otho
Thou wert not, Cassius, and thou couldst not be,
Last of the Romans, though thy memory claim
From Brutus his own glory — and on thee
Rests the full splendour of his sacred fame:
Nor he who dared make the foul tyrant quail
Amid his cowering senate with thy name,
Though thou and he were great — it will avail
To thine own fame that Otho's should not fail.
'Twill wrong thee not — thou wouldst, if thou couldst feel,
Abjure such envious fame — great Otho died
Like thee — he sanctified his country's steel,
At once the tyrant and tyrannicide,
In his own blood — a deed it was to bring
Tears from all men — though full of gentle pride,
Such pride as from impetuous love may spring,
That will not be refused its offering.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Otho” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/otho
Quick facts
- Poem
- Otho
- Poet
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Length
- 16 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Spring, Love, Death & Loss
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 · 2 octaves
- Line length
- Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).
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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
- PoetryDBOtho 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 7de050d7880d89b8…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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