Lyric Poem · Nature

The Solitary

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Reading room

1Dar'st thou amid the varied multitude

2To live alone, an isolated thing?

3To see the busy beings round thee spring,

4And care for none; in thy calm solitude,

5A flower that scarce breathes in the desert rude

6To Zephyr's passing wing?

7Not the swart Pariah in some Indian grove,

8Lone, lean, and hunted by his brother's hate,

9Hath drunk so deep the cup of bitter fate

10As that poor wretch who cannot, cannot love:

11He bears a load which nothing can remove,

12A killing, withering weight.

13He smiles — 'tis sorrow's deadliest mockery;

14He speaks — the cold words flow not from his soul;

15He acts like others, drains the genial bowl, —

16Yet, yet he longs — although he fears — to die;

17He pants to reach what yet he seems to fly,

18Dull life's extremest goal.

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.

“The Solitary” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/the-solitary

Quick facts

Poem: The Solitary
Poet: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Length: 18 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Nature, Spring, 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: 18 lines · 3 sestets
Line length: Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).

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: PoetryDBThe Solitary 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 99ae91c04456a83b…
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 Nature Spring Love

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 nature poems →