Lyric Poem · Death & Loss

The Irishman's Song

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Reading room

1The stars may dissolve, and the fountain of light

2May sink into ne'er ending chaos and night,

3Our mansions must fall, and earth vanish away,

4But thy courage O Erin! may never decay.

5See! the wide wasting ruin extends all around,

6Our ancestors' dwellings lie sunk on the ground,

7Our foes ride in triumph throughout our domains,

8And our mightiest heroes lie stretched on the plains.

9Ah! dead is the harp which was wont to give pleasure,

10Ah! sunk is our sweet country's rapturous measure,

11But the war note is waked, and the clangour of spears,

12The dread yell of Sloghan yet sounds in our ears.

13Ah! where are the heroes! triumphant in death,

14Convulsed they recline on the blood sprinkled heath,

15Or the yelling ghosts ride on the blast that sweeps by,

16And 'my countrymen! vengeance!' incessantly cry.

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“The Irishman's Song” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/the-irishmans-song

Quick facts

Poem: The Irishman's Song
Poet: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Length: 16 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Death & Loss, Nature, War & Remembrance

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
End rhyme: AABB in 75% of the stanzas — couplets. The remaining stanzas vary, often through slant rhyme.
Line length: Mostly 12-syllable lines (hexameter length).

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Author record: Percy Bysshe Shelley1792–1822
Source record: PoetryDBThe Irishman's Song 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 1054eb7a4e982303…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Death & Loss Nature War & Remembrance

The Irishman's Song

Quick facts

How this poem works

A traceable edition

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