Ugolino by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Imprisoned with his sons in Famine's Tower, the speaker dreams of a wolf and its cubs hunted down, then hears his children begging for bread and the tower's outlet being locked. The children offer their bodies as food, but he quiets himself; they die between the fourth and sixth days, and he calls to them for three days afterward.
By Percy Bysshe Shelley · Genre: Narrative Poetry, Gothic Poetry · 784 words
First lines
Inferno 33, 22-75
Now had the loophole of that dungeon, still / Which bears the name of Famine's Tower from me, / And where 'tis fit that many another will
Genres
- Narrative Poetry — The first-person verse account follows a father's ominous dream, the locking of the tower, his children's hunger and their deaths on successive days.
- Gothic Poetry — A locked dungeon, a dream of wolves torn by hounds, the father's gnawing of his hands and the children's deaths give the verse concrete scenes of confinement and horror.
Tags
starvation · imprisonment · children · nightmares · grief · narrative poetry
What this Textopian page supports
Ugolino 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: Narrative Poetry, Gothic Poetry
- Length: 784 words
- Structure: 1 section, 23 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Ugolino by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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