Prometheus Unbound: Act II

by Percy Bysshe Shelley
First published in 1820, this lyrical drama tells the story of how Prometheus is freed from his imprisonment after he defies the gods by giving fire to humans. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the play: Act I, Act II, Act III, Act IV
35 words 11 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. unwonted
    out of the ordinary
    From all the blasts of heaven thou hast descended;
    Yes, like a spirit, like a thought, which makes
    Unwonted tears throng
  2. roseate
    of something having a dusty purplish pink color
    ...and through yon peaks of cloudlike snow
    The roseate sunlight quivers; hear I not
    The Æolian music of her sea-green plumes
    Winnowing the crimson dawn?
  3. athwart
    across, especially at an oblique angle
    But on the shadows of the morning clouds,
    Athwart the purple mountain slope, was written
    FOLLOW, OH, FOLLOW! as they vanished by
  4. ebb
    fall away or decline
    How the notes sink upon the ebbing wind!
  5. twain
    two items of the same kind
    The path through which that lovely twain
    Have passed, by cedar, pine, and yew
  6. anemone
    a plant grown for its beautiful, brightly colored flowers
    Between the trunks of the hoar trees,
    Hangs each a pearl in the pale flowers
    Of the green laurel blown anew,
    And bends, and then fades silently,
    One frail and fair anemone
  7. languid
    lacking spirit or liveliness
    Another from the swinging blossom,
    Watching to catch the languid close
    Of the last strain, then lifts on high
    The wings of the weak melody
  8. eddy
    a miniature whirlpool or whirlwind
    There those enchanted eddies play
    Of echoes, music-tongued, which draw,
    By Demogorgon's mighty law,
    With melting rapture, or sweet awe
  9. billow
    a large sea wave
    And so they float upon their way,
    Until, still sweet, but loud and strong,
    The storm of sound is driven along,
    Sucked up and hurrying; as they fleet
    Behind, its gathering billows meet
    And to the fatal mountain bear
    Like clouds amid the yielding air.
  10. lucent
    softly bright or radiant
    And when these burst, and the thin fiery air,
    The which they breathed within those lucent domes,
    Ascends to flow like meteors through the night
  11. headlong
    excessively quick
    They ride on them, and rein their headlong speed
  12. oracular
    of or relating to prophecy or someone who tells the future
    Hither the sound has borne us—to the realm
    Of Demogorgon, and the mighty portal,
    Like a volcano's meteor-breathing chasm,
    Whence the oracular vapor is hurled up
    Which lonely men drink wandering in their youth,
    And call truth, virtue, love, genius, or joy
  13. dregs
    sediment that has settled at the bottom of a liquid
    That maddening wine of life, whose dregs they drain
    To deep intoxication; and uplift,
    Like Mænads who cry loud, Evoe! Evoe!
  14. cleave
    separate or cut with a tool, such as a sharp instrument
    And far on high the keen sky- cleaving mountains
    From icy spires of sunlike radiance fling
    The dawn, as lifted Ocean's dazzling spray,
    From some Atlantic islet scattered up,
    Spangles the wind with lamp-like waterdrops.
  15. spangle
    decorate with shiny adornments
    And far on high the keen sky- cleaving mountains
    From icy spires of sunlike radiance fling
    The dawn, as lifted Ocean's dazzling spray,
    From some Atlantic islet scattered up,
    Spangles the wind with lamp-like waterdrops.
  16. vale
    a valley
    The vale is girdled with their walls, a howl
    Of cataracts from their thaw-cloven ravines
    Satiates the listening wind, continuous, vast,
    Awful as silence. Hark! the rushing snow!
  17. cataract
    a large waterfall; violent rush of water over a precipice
    The vale is girdled with their walls, a howl
    Of cataracts from their thaw-cloven ravines
    Satiates the listening wind, continuous, vast,
    Awful as silence. Hark! the rushing snow!
  18. satiate
    fill to satisfaction
    The vale is girdled with their walls, a howl
    Of cataracts from their thaw-cloven ravines
    Satiates the listening wind, continuous, vast,
    Awful as silence. Hark! the rushing snow!
  19. countenance
    the appearance conveyed by a person's face
    A countenance with beckoning smiles; there burns
    An azure fire within its golden locks!
  20. taper
    stick of wax with a wick in the middle
    As the fawn draws the hound,
    As the lightning the vapor,
    As a weak moth the taper
  21. pervade
    spread or diffuse through
    Where the air is no prism,
    And the moon and stars are not,
    And the cavern-crags wear not
    The radiance of Heaven,
    Nor the gloom to Earth given,
    Where there is one pervading, one alone
  22. primal
    having existed from the beginning
    Who reigns? There was the Heaven and Earth at first,
    And Light and Love; then Saturn, from whose throne
    Time fell, an envious shadow; such the state
    Of the earth's primal spirits beneath his sway
  23. disquietude
    feelings of anxiety that make you tense and irritable
    And in their desert hearts fierce wants he sent,
    And mad disquietudes, and shadows idle
    Of unreal good, which levied mutual war,
    So ruining the lair wherein they raged.
  24. idle
    without a basis in reason or fact
    And in their desert hearts fierce wants he sent,
    And mad disquietudes, and shadows idle
    Of unreal good, which levied mutual war,
    So ruining the lair wherein they raged.
  25. tendril
    slender structure by which some plants attach to an object
    ...and Love he sent to bind
    The disunited tendrils of that vine
    Which bears the wine of life, the human heart
  26. implicated
    culpably involved
    He taught the implicated orbits woven
    Of the wide-wandering stars; and how the sun
    Changes his lair, and by what secret spell
    The pale moon is transformed, when her broad eye
    Gazes not on the interlunar sea.
  27. adversary
    someone who offers opposition
    Not Jove: while yet his frown shook heaven, aye when
    His adversary from adamantine chains
    Cursed him, he trembled like a slave.
  28. avail
    be of use to, be useful to
    For what would it avail to bid thee gaze
    On the revolving world?
  29. brethren
    people who are members of the same social or cultural group
    A Spirit with a dreadful countenance
    Checks its dark chariot by the craggy gulf.
    Unlike thy brethren, ghastly Charioteer,
    Who art thou?
  30. lurid
    shining with an unnatural red glow
    That terrible Shadow floats
    Up from its throne, as may the lurid smoke
    Of earthquake-ruined cities o'er the sea.
  31. outstrip
    go far ahead of
    I desire—and their speed makes night kindle;
    I fear—they outstrip the typhoon
  32. enamored
    marked by foolish or unreasoning fondness
    Hearest thou not sounds i' the air which speak the love
    Of all articulate beings? Feelest thou not
    The inanimate winds enamoured of thee?
  33. shroud
    cover as if with a burial garment
    And this atmosphere divinest
    Shrouds thee wheresoe'er thou shinest.
  34. clad
    having an outer covering especially of thin metal
    Lamp of Earth! where'er thou movest
    Its dim shapes are clad with brightness
  35. profound
    situated at or extending to great depth
    Till, like one in slumber bound,
    Borne to the ocean, I float down, around,
    Into a sea profound of ever-spreading sound.
Created on Mon Mar 28 15:16:11 EDT 2022 (updated Mon Apr 18 09:15:50 EDT 2022)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.