We Meet not as we Parted by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Meeting again, the speaker feels heavy-hearted while the other person doubts them. A fleeting moment of joy marks the beginning of a life of pain, and the speaker addresses sweet lips as the cause of a crushed heart.
By Percy Bysshe Shelley · Genre: Romantic Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Elegiac Poetry · 269 words
First lines
1.
We meet not as we parted, / We feel more than all may see; / My bosom is heavy-hearted, / And thine full of doubt for me: - / One moment has bound the free.
2.
That moment is gone for ever, / Like lightning that flashed and died- / Like a snowflake upon the river- / Like a sunbeam upon the tide, / Which the dark shadows hide.
Genres
- Romantic Poetry — The text employs high lyricism and intense emotional focus on personal grief, using metaphors of lightning and snowflakes to describe a transformative moment, characteristic of the Romantic tradition.
- Lyric Poetry — The work is a short, musical poem expressing the speaker's subjective feelings of pain and delusion in a first-person address to a beloved, fitting the lyric form.
- Elegiac Poetry — The poem laments a lost past and a 'life of pain' resulting from a specific moment, functioning as a lament for a destroyed relationship or state of being.
Tags
love · grief · lost joy · lyric poetry
What this Textopian page supports
We Meet not as we Parted 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: Romantic Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Elegiac Poetry
- Length: 269 words
- Structure: 1 section, 10 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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