An Allegory

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)



I.
A portal as of shadowy adamant
Stands yawning on the highway of the life
Which we all tread, a cavern huge and gaunt;
Around it rages an unceasing strife
Of shadows, like the restless clouds that haunt
The gap of some cleft mountain, lifted high
Into the whirlwinds of the upper sky.

II.
And many pass it by with careless tread,
Not knowing that a shadowy...
Tracks every traveller even to where the dead
Wait peacefully for their companion new;
But others, by more curious humour led,
Pause to examine;—these are very few,
And they learn little there, except to know
That shadows follow them where’er they go.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
150

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXBCBCAA ADXDEDEFF
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 611
Words 112
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 9

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. more…

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