Part of a famous line in the poem "
Ode to the West Wind" written by
Percy Bysshe Shelley,
romantic English poet, and husband to author
Mary Shelley. The full line from the poem states "I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!". Often imitated, and transmutated, used in other poems and writings, notably in
On Turning Ten by
Billy Collins, but other places as well.
It has become a poetic
meme.