Lyric Poem · Nature

Remembrance

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Reading room

1Swifter far than summer's flight —

2Swifter far than youth's delight —

3Swifter far than happy night,

4Art thou come and gone —

5As the earth when leaves are dead,

6As the night when sleep is sped,

7As the heart when joy is fled,

8I am left lone, alone.

9The swallow summer comes again —

10The owlet night resumes her reign —

11But the wild-swan youth is fain

12To fly with thee, false as thou. —

13My heart each day desires the morrow;

14Sleep itself is turned to sorrow;

15Vainly would my winter borrow

16Sunny leaves from any bough.

17Lilies for a bridal bed —

18Roses for a matron's head —

19Violets for a maiden dead —

20Pansies let MY flowers be:

21On the living grave I bear

22Scatter them without a tear —

23Let no friend, however dear,

24Waste one hope, one fear for me.

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“Remembrance” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/remembrance

Quick facts

Poem: Remembrance
Poet: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Length: 24 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Nature, Death & Loss, Summer

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: 24 lines · 3 octaves
Line length: Mostly 7-syllable lines.

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Author record: Percy Bysshe Shelley1792–1822
Source record: PoetryDBRemembrance 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 c345c20f9a3a09f5…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Nature Death & Loss Summer

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