“The Question” Summary

“The Question” Themes

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  Poetry and Artistic Inspiration

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• 

  The Beauty and Power of the Imagination

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• 

  Artistry and Audience

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Question”

• Lines 1-3

  I dreamed that, as I wandered by the way,
  Bare Winter suddenly was changed to Spring,
  And gentle odours led my steps astray,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 4-8

  Mixed with a sound of waters murmuring
  Along a shelving bank of turf, which lay
  Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling
  Its green arms round the bosom of the stream,
  But kissed it and then fled, as thou mightest in dream.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-13

  There grew pied wind-flowers and violets,
  Daisies, those pearled Arcturi of the earth,
  The constellated flower that never sets;
  Faint oxlips; tender bluebells, at whose birth
  The sod scarce heaved;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  and that tall flower that wets—
  Like a child, half in tenderness and mirth—
  Its mother's face with Heaven's collected tears,
  When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine,
  Green cowbind and the moonlight-coloured may,
  And cherry-blossoms, and white cups, whose wine
  Was the bright dew, yet drained not by the day;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-24

  And wild roses, and ivy serpentine,
  With its dark buds and leaves, wandering astray;
  And flowers azure, black, and streaked with gold,
  Fairer than any wakened eyes behold.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-28

  And nearer to the river's trembling edge
  There grew broad flag-flowers, purple pranked with white,
  And starry river buds among the sedge,
  And floating water-lilies, broad and bright,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 29-32

  Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge
  With moonlight beams of their own watery light;
  And bulrushes, and reeds of such deep green
  As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 33-38

  Methought that of these visionary flowers
  I made a nosegay, bound in such a way
  That the same hues, which in their natural bowers
  Were mingled or opposed, the like array
  Kept these imprisoned children of the Hours
  Within my hand,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 38-40

  —and then, elate and gay,
  I hastened to the spot whence I had come,
  That I might there present it!—Oh! to whom?

  

  

  

  

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“The Question” Symbols

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  Winter

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• 

  Spring

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• 

  The Landscape

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• 

  The Nosegay

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“The Question” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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“The Question” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• A shelving bank of turf
• Copse
• Bosom
• As thou mightest
• Pied wind-flowers
• Wind-flowers
• Pearled
• Arcturi
• Constellated
• Oxlips
• The sod scarce heaved
• Eglantine
• Cowbind
• Moonlight-coloured may
• White cups
• Serpentine
• Azure
• Fairer
• Flag-flowers
• Pranked
• Sedge
• Bulrushes
• Sober sheen
• Methought
• Visionary
• Nosegay
• Bowers
• Array
• Elate and gay
• Whence

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Question”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“The Question” Speaker

“The Question” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “The Question”

More “The Question” Resources

• External Resources

  • Listen to the Poem Out Loud — A recording of "The Question" set to music.  

  • A Biography of the Poet — The Poetry Foundation on Shelley's life and career.     

  • A Brief Guide to Romanticism — Read about the poetic movement of which Shelley was a part.

  • Read Shelley's "A Defence of Poetry" — A famous essay in which Shelley argues for the importance of poetry and the imagination.  

  • Shelley's Posthumous Fame and Legacy — An article written for the 200th anniversary of Shelley's death.  

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley

  • England in 1819

  • Love’s Philosophy

  • Music, When Soft Voices Die

  • Mutability

  • Ode to the West Wind

  • Ozymandias

  • Song to the Men of England

  • Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples

  • To a Skylark