Song for ‘Tasso' by Percy Bysshe Shelley
A speaker contrasts former bright thoughts with a despair in which love and thought persist, mixing present and past. Sometimes the speaker sees a silver spirit resembling Leonora and watches it fade beside a barred window.
By Percy Bysshe Shelley · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Melancholic Poetry · 222 words
First lines
I loved-alas! our life is love; / But when we cease to breathe and move / I do suppose love ceases too. / I thought, but not as now I do, / Keen thoughts and bright of linked lore, / Of all that men had thought before. / And all that Nature shows, and more.
And still I love and still I think, / But strangely, for my heart can drink / The dregs of such despair, and live, / And love;... / And if I think, my thoughts come fast, / I mix the present with the past, / And each seems uglier than the last.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Three rhymed stanzas express a speaker's continuing love, altered thoughts, and vision of a form resembling Leonora.
- Melancholic Poetry — The speaker endures despair, finds present and past increasingly ugly, and watches the spirit-like form fade with a sigh.
Tags
love · despair · memory · visions
What this Textopian page supports
Song for ‘Tasso' 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: 222 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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