Lyric Poem · Peace
Sonnet. on Launching Some Bottles Filled With Knowledge into the Bristol Channel
Vessels of heavenly medicine! may the breeze
Auspicious waft your dark green forms to shore;
Safe may ye stem the wide surrounding roar
Of the wild whirlwinds and the raging seas;
And oh! if Liberty e'er deigned to stoop
From yonder lowly throne her crownless brow,
Sure she will breathe around your emerald group
The fairest breezes of her West that blow.
Yes! she will waft ye to some freeborn soul
Whose eye-beam, kindling as it meets your freight,
Her heaven-born flame in suffering Earth will light,
Until its radiance gleams from pole to pole,
And tyrant-hearts with powerless envy burst
To see their night of ignorance dispersed.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Sonnet. on Launching Some Bottles Filled With Knowledge into the Bristol Channel” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-on-launching-some-bottles-filled-with-knowledge-into-the-bristol-channel
Quick facts
- Poem
- Sonnet. on Launching Some Bottles Filled With Knowledge into the Bristol Channel
- Poet
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Peace, Love
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
- 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
- Line length
- Lines run 10-12 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. 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
- PoetryDBSonnet. on Launching Some Bottles Filled With Knowledge into the Bristol Channel 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 42b9f5161b567de0…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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