Lyric Poem · Love
Time Long Past
Like the ghost of a dear friend dead
Is Time long past.
A tone which is now forever fled,
A hope which is now forever past,
A love so sweet it could not last,
Was Time long past.
There were sweet dreams in the night
Of Time long past:
And, was it sadness or delight,
Each day a shadow onward cast
Which made us wish it yet might last —
That Time long past.
There is regret, almost remorse,
For Time long past.
'Tis like a child's beloved corse
A father watches, till at last
Beauty is like remembrance, cast
From Time long past.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Time Long Past” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — quilloak.com/poems/time-long-past
Quick facts
- Poem
- Time Long Past
- Poet
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Length
- 18 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Love, Death & Loss, Hope
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
- End rhyme
- ABABBB in 67% of the stanzas. The remaining stanzas vary, often through slant rhyme.
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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
- PoetryDBTime Long Past 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 82eab7eac6636b89…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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