Invocation to Misery by Percy Bysshe Shelley
The speaker addresses personified Misery as a reluctant bride and a companion of many years, proposing love despite the loss of pleasure. Invitations to rest on the grass and sleep beneath a willow give way to a bridal bed beneath the grave, where the speaker imagines lasting sleep and oblivion. The surrounding world appears as a procession of puppets whose passage offers only mockery.
By Percy Bysshe Shelley · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Melancholic Poetry · 605 words
First lines
Come, be happy! -sit near me, / Shadow-vested Misery: / Coy, unwilling, silent bride, / Mourning in thy robe of pride, / Desolation-deified!
Come, be happy! -sit near me: / Sad as I may seem to thee, / I am happier far than thou, / Lady, whose imperial brow / Is endiademed with woe.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The first-person speaker addresses Misery directly in rhymed stanzas, expressing a desire for companionship and release.
- Melancholic Poetry — Pleasure has died, formerly sweet sensations have become sorrowful, and the speaker imagines oblivion beneath the grave.
Tags
personification · misery · despair · death · oblivion · lyric poetry
What this Textopian page supports
Invocation to Misery 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: Lyric Poetry, Melancholic Poetry
- Length: 605 words
- Structure: 1 section, 13 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Invocation to Misery by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph