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About this quote

What does it mean?
The stars disappear at dawn as the sun rises, moving away like fawns fleeing a predator.
In plain terms
Morning light forces the stars to vanish from the sky.
What can you take from it?
New light naturally obscures what came before.

Where it applies

  • nature writing
  • poetic imagery
  • seasonal change

Putting it to work

  • creative writing
  • observation
  • nature photography

Questions to consider

  • What disappears when new light arrives?
  • How do you see change?

Another view

The metaphor is vivid but personifies celestial bodies in a way that is not literal.

More from Percy Bysshe Shelley

  1. Nor yet exempt, though ruling them like slaves, From chance, and death, and mutability, The clogs of that which else might oversoar The loftiest star of unasce…

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  2. Familiar acts are beautiful through love.

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  3. Death is the veil which those who live call life; They sleep, and it is lifted.

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