Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is: What if my leaves are falling like its own! The tumult of thy mighty harmonies Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone, Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce, My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Shelley asks the spirit to make him an instrument of art, accepting that his own decline will contribute to a beautiful, autumnal song.
- In plain terms
- Make me your instrument even if I am dying, so we can make beautiful sad music together.
- What can you take from it?
- Accept change to become part of something greater.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What does it mean to be an instrument?
- How do you handle change?
Another view
It romanticizes decline and loss as necessary for art.
More from Percy Bysshe Shelley
Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
Permalink to quote #93 The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
Permalink to quote #95 Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams The blue Mediterranean, where he lay, Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams Beside a pumice isle in Bai?'s …
Permalink to quote #92
Related quotes
I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms; But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know.
Wallace StevensWallace Stevens quote #54 The ladies of St. James's! They're painted to the eyes; Their white it stays forever Their red it never dies: But Phillida, my Phillida! Her color comes and go…
Henry Austin DobsonHenry Austin Dobson quote #1 If you're listening to this song You may think the chords are going wrong But they're not We just wrote it like that
George HarrisonGeorge Harrison quote #1