Lyric Poem · Love

Song. Translated From the German

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Reading room

1Ah! grasp the dire dagger and couch the fell spear,

2If vengeance and death to thy bosom be dear,

3The dastard shall perish, death's torment shall prove,

4For fate and revenge are decreed from above.

5Ah! where is the hero, whose nerves strung by youth,

6Will defend the firm cause of justice and truth;

7With insatiate desire whose bosom shall swell,

8To give up the oppressor to judgement and Hell —

9For him shall the fair one twine chaplets of bays,

10To him shall each warrior give merited praise,

11And triumphant returned from the clangour of arms,

12He shall find his reward in his loved maiden's charms.

13In ecstatic confusion the warrior shall sip,

14The kisses that glow on his love's dewy lip,

15And mutual, eternal, embraces shall prove,

16The rewards of the brave are the transports of love.

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

Tip: click any line number to copy a ready-made citation for that line.

“Song. Translated From the German” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/song-translated-from-the-german

Quick facts

Poem: Song. Translated From the German
Poet: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Length: 16 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Love, Death & Loss, Childhood

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: Mostly 11-syllable lines.

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake

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: PoetryDBSong. Translated From the German 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 e487c1e0e67a6964…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policy Report a text or rights issue

Lyric Poem Love Death & Loss Childhood

Keep reading

She Walks in Beauty

Lord Byron · 1814

She walks in beauty, like the nightOf cloudless climes and starry skies;And all that's best of dark and bright

18 lines · lyric

Love's Philosophy

Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1819

The fountains mingle with the riverAnd the rivers with the ocean,The winds of heaven mix for ever

16 lines · lyric

When You Are Old

W. B. Yeats · 1893

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,And nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

12 lines · lyric

More love poems →