The Drowned Lover by Percy Bysshe Shelley
At deep midnight, faint and weary, a desolate woman quits her pitiless home despite the stern tempest, hastening to a green grove of myrtle and calling to Henry to stay his boat on the lake. Her bosom swells with affection and dear recollection as she waits for him, though the speaker warns that the stern voice of fate bids happiness flee. Under lowering clouds and a dim moon the speaker reveals that her love's pallid corpse is laved by wild surges, then bids a parting spirit not to fear, since its goodness is saving a seat in eternity's bowers.
By Percy Bysshe Shelley · Genre: Romantic Poetry, Gothic Poetry, Elegiac Poetry · 366 words
First lines
1.
Ah! faint are her limbs, and her footstep is weary, / Yet far must the desolate wanderer roam; / Though the tempest is stern, and the mountain is dreary, / She must quit at deep midnight her pitiless home. / I see her swift foot dash the dew from the whortle, / As she rapidly hastes to the green grove of myrtle; / And I hear, as she wraps round her figure the kirtle, / ‘Stay thy boat on the lake,-dearest Henry, I come.'
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The Drowned Lover is listed on Textopian as a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Romantic Poetry, Gothic Poetry, Elegiac Poetry
- Length: 366 words
- Structure: 1 section, 6 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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- Work identity for The Drowned Lover by Percy Bysshe Shelley
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Genres
- Romantic Poetry — The verse foregrounds feeling and a stormy mountain landscape at midnight, voicing the wanderer's 'throb of affection' and 'dear recollection' before the 'stern voice of fate' overturns her hope.
- Gothic Poetry — The setting is a tempest at deep midnight with a moon dimly gleaming through lowering clouds, and the climax reveals a 'pallid corse' laved by wild surges, building dread and tragic mortality.
- Elegiac Poetry — The final stanza mourns a love whose pallid corse the wild surges are laving, and consoles a 'parting spirit' with a seat in eternity's bowers, pairing lament with consolation.
Tags
elegy · gothic · tragic love · drowning · storm · love poetry · death · romanticism