A dream has power to poison sleep.
Percy Bysshe ShelleyRead
A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A poet finds joy in their creativity even when in solitude.
This quote by Percy Bysshe Shelley highlights the essence of a poet's experience, portraying the poet as a nightingale that, despite being alone in the darkness, creates beautiful music. The act of singing serves as a personal solace, suggesting that artistic expression can bring happiness and meaning during times of isolation.
Themes
PoetCreativitySolitudeArtExpression
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of creativity, this quote illustrates how artists can find joy in solitude.
More from Percy Bysshe Shelley
All quotes βSenseless is the breast and cold _x000D_ _x000D_ Which relenting love would fold;_x000D_ _x000D_ Bloodless are the veins and chill _x000D_ _x000D_ Which the pulse of pain did fill; _x000D_ _x000D_ Every little living nerve _x000D_ _x000D_ That from bitter words did swerve _x000D_ _x000D_ Round the tortur'd lips and brow, _x000D_ _x000D_ Are like sapless leaflets now _x000D_ _x000D_ Frozen upon December's bough.
Percy Bysshe ShelleyRead
A sensitive plant in a garden grew,_x000D_ _x000D_ And the young winds fed it with silver dew,_x000D_ _x000D_ And it opened its fan_x000D_ _x000D_ like leaves to the light,_x000D_ _x000D_ and closed them beneath the kisses of night.
Percy Bysshe ShelleyRead
I am the daughter of Earth and Water, And the nursling of the Sky; I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; I change, but I cannot die. For after the rain when with never a stain The pavilion of Heaven is bare, And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams Build up the blue dome of air, I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, And out of the caverns of rain, Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, I arise and unbuild it again.
Percy Bysshe ShelleyRead
O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?
Percy Bysshe ShelleyRead
Ah, woe is me! Winter is come and gone. But grief returns with the revolving year.
Percy Bysshe ShelleyRead
Similar quotes
When you're writing fiction or poetry... it really comes down to this: indifference to everything except what you're doing... A young writer could do worse than follow the advice given in those lines.
Raymond CarverRead
If it were not for the intellectual snobs who pay - in solid cash - the arts would perish with their starving practitioners. Let us thank heaven for hypocrisy.
Aldous HuxleyRead
The painter must enclose himself within his work; he must respond not with words, but with paintings.
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But in the next world I shan't be doing music, with all the striving and disappointments. I shall be being it.
Ralph Vaughan WilliamsRead
The world is a king, and like a king, desires flattery in return for favor; but true art is selfish and perverse β it will not submit to the mold of flattery.
Ludwig Van BeethovenRead
Our language needs endless synonyms for beautiful; the eyes could see what the tongue cannot possibly describe.
Anne RiceRead