The Indian Serenade - Percy Bysshe Shelley
A Nocturnal Confession of Love and Longing
I arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep of night,
When the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining bright:
I arise from dreams of thee,
And a spirit in my feet
Hath led me—who knows how?
To thy chamber-window, sweet!
The wandering airs they faint
On the dark, the silent stream—
The champak odours fail
Like sweet thoughts in a dream;
The nightingale’s complaint
It dies upon her heart;
As I must on thine,
O belovèd as thou art!
O lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast;—
Oh! press it close to thine again,
Where it will break at last.
In “The Indian Serenade,” Percy Bysshe Shelley offers a brief but intensely passionate poem that captures the essence of nocturnal longing and idealized love. Told from the perspective of a speaker who has awakened from dreams to seek out the beloved’s window, the verses intertwine a dreamlike atmosphere with sensual urgency.
Romantic tropes abound: soft breezes, moonlit silence, and the voice of a nightingale intensify the night’s enchantment. Even as the speaker yearns for an intimate union—implying that only the beloved’s kiss can revive him—Shelley frames this desperation as both ecstatic and vulnerable. The poem’s brevity heightens its emotional resonance, turning each stanza into a stage for mingling hope and near-despair.
Shelley’s use of delicate natural imagery (fainting airs, champak odors, murmuring streams) situates the poem firmly in the Romantic tradition, where the external landscape mirrors the speaker’s shifting emotional state. The culminating cry—“O lift me from the grass!”—underscores a physical and spiritual need for reciprocated love. By the final stanza, the poem suggests that love’s passion can become overwhelming, even perilous, unless the beloved answers the speaker’s plea for unifying embrace.
Key points
• Depicts night as a realm of love, dream, and heightened emotion.
• Blends imagery of nature (winds, stars, nightingale) with the speaker’s urgent longing.
• Emphasizes vulnerability and the near-painful intensity of passion.
• Showcases Shelley’s Romantic style through sensuous descriptions and heartfelt pleas.