Fragment: ‘when a Lover Clasps his Fairest'
A collective voice calls for cruel laughter at a lover's despair and his beloved's death, then urges watching a mother outlive the child she has long loved.
By Percy Bysshe Shelley · Genre: Poetry, Tragic Poetry · 95 words
First lines
1.
When a lover clasps his fairest, / Then be our dread sport the rarest. / Their caresses were like the chaff / In the tempest, and be our laugh / His despair-her epitaph!
2.
When a mother clasps her child, / Watch till dusty Death has piled / His cold ashes on the clay; / She has loved it many a day- / She remains,-it fades away.
Genres
- Poetry — Two five-line stanzas use rhyme to link a lover's embrace and a mother's embrace with death.
- Tragic Poetry — The lover's despair and the mother's survival of her child place bereavement at the center of both stanzas.
Tags
death · bereavement · cruelty · lovers · maternal grief
What this Textopian page supports
Fragment: ‘when a Lover Clasps his Fairest' is listed on Textopian as a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Poetry, Tragic Poetry
- Length: 95 words
- Structure: 1 section, 4 paragraphs
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Fragment: ‘when a Lover Clasps his Fairest' by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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