The Grave of Shelley
The Grave of Shelley - fact Summary
Tribute to Shelley
Oscar Wilde’s poem is a short elegy honoring Percy Bysshe Shelley. It portrays a sun-bleached gravesite ringed by cypress, sphinx-like guardians, and small animals, then contrasts peaceful burial with a poet’s preferred restless fate: a dramatic tomb at sea where ships founder against wave-scarred rocks. The poem frames Shelley as a restless, Romantic spirit whose best memorial fits turbulence and the music of the deep rather than tranquil earth.
Read Complete AnalysesLIKE burnt-out torches by a sick man's bed Gaunt cypress-trees stand round the sun-bleached stone; Here doth the little night-owl make her throne, And the slight lizard show his jewelled head. And, where the chaliced poppies flame to red, In the still chamber of yon pyramid Surely some Old-World Sphinx lurks darkly hid, Grim warder of this pleasaunce of the dead. Ah! sweet indeed to rest within the womb Of Earth, great mother of eternal sleep, But sweeter far for thee a restless tomb In the blue cavern of an echoing deep, Or where the tall ships founder in the gloom Against the rocks of some wave-shattered steep.
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