Lyric Poem · Death & Loss

The Tower of Famine

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Reading room

1Amid the desolation of a city,

2Which was the cradle, and is now the grave

3Of an extinguished people, — so that Pity

4Weeps o'er the shipwrecks of Oblivion's wave,

5There stands the Tower of Famine. It is built

6Upon some prison-homes, whose dwellers rave

7For bread, and gold, and blood: Pain, linked to Guilt,

8Agitates the light flame of their hours,

9Until its vital oil is spent or spilt.

10There stands the pile, a tower amid the towers

11And sacred domes; each marble-ribbed roof,

12The brazen-gated temples, and the bowers

13Of solitary wealth, — the tempest-proof

14Pavilions of the dark Italian air, —

15Are by its presence dimmed — they stand aloof,

16And are withdrawn — so that the world is bare;

17As if a spectre wrapped in shapeless terror

18Amid a company of ladies fair

19Should glide and glow, till it became a mirror

20Of all their beauty, and their hair and hue,

21The life of their sweet eyes, with all its error,

22Should be absorbed, till they to marble grew.

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“The Tower of Famine” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/the-tower-of-famine

Quick facts

Poem: The Tower of Famine
Poet: Percy Bysshe Shelley
Length: 22 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Death & Loss, Sad, Childhood

Craft notes

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Shape: 22 lines · 7 stanzas of 3–4 lines
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Author record: Percy Bysshe Shelley1792–1822
Source record: PoetryDBThe Tower of Famine by percy-bysshe-shelley, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
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Lyric Poem Death & Loss Sad Childhood

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