The Billows on the Beach are Leaping Around It
A speaker urges a child to escape by sea, saying that the child's brother and sister have been taken and bound to a coercive faith. In a storm-tossed boat with the child's mother, the speaker comforts the frightened child and promises a home in Italy or Greece and an education in Greek heroic lore.
By Percy Bysshe Shelley · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Political Poetry · 571 words
First lines
1.
The billows on the beach are leaping around it, / The bark is weak and frail, / The sea looks black, and the clouds that bound it / Darkly strew the gale. / Come with me, thou delightful child, / Come with me, though the wave is wild, / And the winds are loose, we must not stay, / Or the slaves of the law may rend thee away.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Six rhymed stanzas address a child directly through urgent appeals, affectionate reassurance and promises about the child's future.
- Political Poetry — The speaker denounces legal pursuers, tyrants and coercive priests, imagines their power collapsing, and promises the child a patriotic education.
Tags
escape by sea · religious persecution · family separation · storms · childhood · Greek lore
What this Textopian page supports
The Billows on the Beach are Leaping Around It 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, Political Poetry
- Length: 571 words
- Structure: 1 section, 12 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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