A Fragment: to Music

by Percy Bysshe Shelley — a poem card from Justes Mots

A lyrical fragment addressing music as a pathway to emotional catharsis, where tears and sorrows find temporary solace. Written in 1817 by Shelley, this work exemplifies Romantic meditation on art's power to console. Suitable for contemplative reflection on grief and the role of beauty in processing pain.

[Published in “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.
Dated 1817 (Mrs. Shelley).]

Silver key of the fountain of tears,
Where the spirit drinks till the brain is wild;
Softest grave of a thousand fears,
Where their mother, Care, like a drowsy child,
Is laid asleep in flowers. _5…

Themes: sympathy · grief · reflection