Lyric Poem · Death & Loss

Spirit of Plato

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

FROM THE GREEK.

Eagle! why soarest thou above that tomb?

To what sublime and star-ypaven home

Floatest thou? —

I am the image of swift Plato's spirit,

Ascending heaven; Athens doth inherit

His corpse below.

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“Spirit of Plato” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/spirit-of-plato

Quick facts

Poem: Spirit of Plato
Poet: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Length: 7 lines
Form: Lyric Poem, Short Poems
Themes: Death & Loss, Nature, Peace, Short

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: 7 lines · 2 stanzas of 1–6 lines
End rhyme: No regular perfect end rhyme. The poem may still be using slant rhyme, assonance, or internal echo, which this check does not score.

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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: PoetryDBSpirit of Plato 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 a3fea52d75daba4e…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Short Poems Death & Loss Nature Peace Short

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