To --. 'Oh! there are spirits of the air'
Oh! there are spirits of the air,And genii of the evening breeze,And gentle ghosts, with eyes as fairAs star-beams among twilight trees:--Such lovely ministers to meetOft hast thou turned from men thy lonely feet.
With mountain winds, and babbling springs,And moonlight seas, that are the voiceOf these inexplicable things,Thou didst hold commune, and rejoiceWhen they did answer thee; but theyCast, like a worthless boon, thy love away.
And thou hast sought in starry eyesBeams that were never meant for thine,Another's wealth:--tame sacrificeTo a fond faith! still dost thou pine?Still dost thou hope that greeting hands,Voice, looks, or lips, may answer thy demands?
Ah! wherefore didst thou build thine hopeOn the false earth's inconstancy?Did thine own mind afford no scopeOf love, or moving thoughts to thee?That natural scenes or human smilesCould steal the power to wind thee in their wiles?
Yes, all the faithless smiles are fledWhose falsehood left thee broken-hearted;The glory of the moon is dead;Night's ghosts and dreams have now departed;Thine own soul still is true to thee,But changed to a foul fiend through misery.
This fiend, whose ghastly presence everBeside thee like thy shadow hangs,Dream not to chase;--the mad endeavourWould scourge thee to severer pangs.Be as thou art. Thy settled fate,Dark as it is, all change would aggravate.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- commune n.
- The commonalty; the common people. [F., fr. commun. See Common.]
- boon n.
- A prayer or petition. [OE. bone, boin, a petition, fr. Icel. b; akin to Sw. & Dan. b, AS. b, and perh. to E. ban; but influenced by F. bon good, fr. L. bonus. Ban, Bounty.]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
- endeavour v. t.
- To exert physical or intellectual strength for the attainment of; to use efforts to effect; to strive to achieve or reach; to try; to attempt. [OE. endevor; pref. en- + dever, devoir, duty, F. devoir: cf. F. se mettre en devoir de faire quelque chose to try to do a thing, to go about it. See Devoir, Deb]
- scourge n.
- A lash; a strap or cord; especially, a lash used to inflict pain or punishment; an instrument of punishment or discipline; a whip. [F. escourgée, fr. L. excoriata (sc. scutica) a stripped off (lash or whip), fr. excoriate to strip, to skin. See Excoriate.]
- aggravate v. t.
- To make heavy or heavier; to add to; to increase. [L. aggravatus, p. p. of aggravare. See Aggrieve.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To --. 'Oh! there are spirits of the air' is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #4798; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Percy Bysshe Shelley, To --. 'Oh! there are spirits of the air', in Ode to the West Wind, and Other Poems (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/to-oh-there-are-spirits-of-the-air.html, id L16300.
Form and metre
To --. 'Oh! there are spirits of the air' is 36 lines in 6 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCC airA · breezeB · fairA · treesB · meetC · feetC
- 2 ABABCC springsA · voiceB · thingsA · rejoiceB · theyC · awayC
- 3 ABABCC eyesA · thineB · sacrificeA · pineB · handsC · demandsC
- 4 ABABCC hopeA · inconstancyB · scopeA · theeB · smilesC · wilesC
- 5 ABABCC fledA · heartedB · deadA · departedB · theeC · miseryC
- 6 ABABCC everA · hangsB · endeavourA · pangsB · fateC · aggravateC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh! there are spirits of the air, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And genii of the evening breeze, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And gentle ghosts, with eyes as fair | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| As star-beams among twilight trees:-- | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Such lovely ministers to meet | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| Oft hast thou turned from men thy lonely feet. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With mountain winds, and babbling springs, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And moonlight seas, that are the voice | 8 | ·/······ |
| Of these inexplicable things, | 8 | ···˘/˘˘· |
| Thou didst hold commune, and rejoice | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| When they did answer thee; but they | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Cast, like a worthless boon, thy love away. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And thou hast sought in starry eyes | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Beams that were never meant for thine, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Another's wealth:--tame sacrifice | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| To a fond faith! still dost thou pine? | 8 | ········ |
| Still dost thou hope that greeting hands, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Voice, looks, or lips, may answer thy demands? | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Ah! wherefore didst thou build thine hope | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| On the false earth's inconstancy? | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| Did thine own mind afford no scope | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Of love, or moving thoughts to thee? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That natural scenes or human smiles | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Could steal the power to wind thee in their wiles? | 10 | ···/······ |
| Yes, all the faithless smiles are fled | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Whose falsehood left thee broken-hearted; | 9 | ·/···/˘/˘ |
| The glory of the moon is dead; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Night's ghosts and dreams have now departed; | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Thine own soul still is true to thee, | 8 | ········ |
| But changed to a foul fiend through misery. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| This fiend, whose ghastly presence ever | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| Beside thee like thy shadow hangs, | 8 | ˘/···/·· |
| Dream not to chase;--the mad endeavour | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Would scourge thee to severer pangs. | 8 | ········ |
| Be as thou art. Thy settled fate, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Dark as it is, all change would aggravate. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.