Reading and Studying Literature
Florafoza
Shelly_Chapter2.pptxChapter 2 Percy Bysshe Shelley: Inner and Outer Lives by Richard Allen and Clare Spencer
Arab Open University/Kuwait Branch
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) Book 2, Chapter 2, pp 39-67 by Richard Allen and Clare Spencer In this chapter, we will continue to explore the persona/s of the Romantic poet, his poetic vocation, and how the poet’s identity is constructed in the writing, editing, and reception of his poetry.
*Wordsworth vs Shelley
Wordsworth's gravestone evokes notions of home, simplicity and rootedness in nature, while Shelley's conveys contrasting ideas of exile, rootlessness, mysteriousness, and classical affinities.
In his poetry, Wordsworth attempted to project a grand, unified 'self', described through conscious, autobiographical acts of recollection. Instead, Shelley's works project versions of the poet that are varied, elusive, often accusatory and sometimes prophetic in tone; they are dramatised rather than recollected, and shifting rather than stable.
In his poetry, Wordsworth’s Romantic life is rooted in a specific landscape (Lake District), whereas Shelley’s is one of a rootless nature.
Shelley’s poetry explored in this chapter is divided into groups according to the position the Romantic persona assumes:
To a Skylark and Ode to the West Wind both explore the centrality of the imagination to the vocation of the poet.
The Mask of Anarchy, England in 1819 and To the Lord Chancellor feature the figure of the poet in the voice of the accuser; they offer a satire of the establishment; Shelley the political radical.
Ozymandias and Written on Hearing the News of the Death of Napoleon feature the figure of the poet as a historical observer; a witness on history.
Mont Blanc features the younger Romantic poet's heroic quest for truth and the ideal through an encounter with the awe-inspiring landscape of the Alps.
The mythologized airy version Shelley: A life edited by Mrs Shelley– Unlike Wordsworth, his short lifespan did not allow him to edit his own works. 19th century and Victorian readers viewed Shelley as the ideal archetypal Romantic poet. What are the features of this authorial archetype?
Read Activity1, pp 41 + Discuss Figure 2.1, pp42
John Bailey’s image of Shelley was based on the constructed version of Shelley’s life by his wife:
Elevated being who existed on another level than us/other-worldly— “we are of the earth earthy and he is airy of the air.” This figure is “distant, solitary, and aloof.”
This airy figure has access to higher powers of the cosmos
A nature poet that deals with the elements rather than a landscape
There is no sense of a poet who engaged contemporary issues
**** The aforementioned image was promoted & sustained by his wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley when editing his collection of work, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, published after his death. Her Shelley is far less political than the Shelley who had been feted by radicals in the circulation of his first poem, Queen Mab. Discuss how the constructed image by his wife differs from the actual radical life of Shelley. Pp43-45.
A life of the imagination
To a Skylark was written and published 1820, and is arguably the poem which best conveys the image of the poet that Mary Shelley wanted preserved.
The poem was inspired by an evening walk the Shelley’s were having near Pisa, Italy on 7 July when they heard the caroling of a skylark, according to Mary.
Activity 3, pp46. How does the poem capture Mary’s image of her husband?
The imagery in which the skylark is compared to 'a cloud of fire' (I. 8), 'a star of Heaven' (I. 18), and even to a poet-figure 'hidden / In the light of thought' (II. 36-7) contributes to that airy, cosmic frame of reference associate with the mythologised Shelley. Discuss further.
Discuss biographical context surrounding the composition of the poem– the death of daughter? How does it contribute to the reading of the poem?
Does the poem represent an escape from reality? Turning away from the difficult world?
How does the shape and movement in the poem along with its biographical context contributing to our reading of the poem? Discuss Activity 3, pp47.
Stanza form: irregular where four centered compact lines (in trochaic trimetre) are followed by one much longer line (in iambic hexametre).
The rhythm soars up and away in the final line to create the impression of a bird rising and singing in the sky. Shelley has apparently discovered the 'purest form' to capture the image of flight and compare it with the liberating impetus of poetic creativity.
Points of irregularity and tension within this pattern suggest that the unease of Shelley's real-world life is never entirely transcended.
For all the escapist identification with the skylark, the reality of earthly loss and pain seems to make itself felt as a subtle rhythmic undercurrent in the poem.
In lines 67-9, the phrases 'triumphal chant', 'empty vaunt' and 'hidden want' provide half-rhymes. This enacts the sense of lack in the stanza itself: human song can never aspire to match that of the skylark.
From line 61 onwards stress the contrast between the transcendent perfection of the birdsong and the shortcomings of human existence.
In lines 77-80, the skylark is free from 'langour', 'annoyance' and the 'sad satiety' of worldly love.
Lines 86-90 remind us of the 'difficulties and secret gloom' which characterised Shelley's life at this time.
The skylark itself soars so high that it disappears from view, though the joy of its song continues to echo throughout the poem.
The focus of the final stanza is not so much the birdsong as the poet himself and his vocation: note the use of the pronouns 'me', 'my' and 'I' at this critical moment. There is a poignant appeal from the speaker to his audience in the phrase 'The world should listen then' (1. 105). A poem which might initially have seemed to turn away from the real world thus returns us forcibly to it.
Themes:
The skylark’s songs emanate from heaven; it sings a pure expression of happiness that inspires the poet.
The mystery behind the skylark’s song is that it is free of every kind of knowledge that gives pain to man. It loves without pain.
The skylark knows what lies behind death and has no fear.
Man’s laughter and happiness is fraught with pain and sadness– man is aware of death.
Even if man frees himself from hatred/fear/pride, man’s joy will never equalize nor exceed that of the skylark.
The secret of the skylark’s capacity to sing would be a gift to the poet– if the skylark could communicate half the secret of its happiness, the poet would write poetry that would read as joyful as the carols of the skylark.
Ode to the West Wind written of 25th of October 1819.
Ode is a lyric poem, usually addressing a particular person or thing—In this poem, the poet-speaker demands to be heard by the west wind.
The poem consists of five cantos, each consisting of 14 lines very similar to the structure of a sonnet.
Rhyme scheme, tercet: Aba bcb cdc ded ee. A forward momentum anticipating the sound that will come next. Significance?
According to Shelley, it was composed in a moment of direct inspiration when the couple were living in Florence. See pp 49
Activity 4, pp 49-50
Similarities and differences with To a Skylark:
The focus on the elements of nature, but in the Ode in a more turbulent form– the wind is “wild,” “fierce,” and impetuous.
The imagery remains airy, however, with the west wind is compared to breath and fleeing ghosts.
The motif of music and song is also shared with To a Skylark. In this case instead of a 'rain of melody' (I. 35) and notes which flow like a 'crystal stream' (i. 85), we have the summoning call of 'clarion' (i. 10) and 'trumpet' (i. 69).
The tone of the poet-speaker is urgent, even demanding, when compared with the rapturous wonderment and reflection evoked by the song of the skylark.
The accumulation of imperative verbs in the final stanza: 'drive', 'scatter' and the repeated 'be'. The second-person address which is characteristic of the ode as a form is here more insistent; the voice of the poet-speaker demands to be heard.
The listening persona of To a Skylark, inspired by an animated nature, is replaced here by a more intensely personal voice which becomes almost self-dramatising in its anxiety to be heard, not only by the wind but by 'mankind' (1.67) and even 'the universe' (1.63).
The use of the terza rima is borrowed from Dante’s The Divine Comedy, continuing a tradition of classical poetry.
The poem alludes to Roman history in the mention of “Baiae’s bay.” It also alludes to Milton’s Paradise Lost by echoing descriptions of the fallen angel. In addition, the description, “Destroyer and Preserver” evokes the Hindu Gods Shiva and Vishnu.
Ode to the West Wind contains a poetic ambition that appears to be energetic and hopeful: the storm unleashes forces which 'surge' (1. 19), 'waken' (1. 29) and 'fly' (1. 44). The winds from the Atlantic may hint at the revolutionary change which had led to the creation of the United States of America in 1776. There is a sense here of the forward-looking poet anticipating a regenerated society.
But there remains a hint of gloom in stanza four that is similar to that in To a Skylark. Pp 51
Conclusion: Both of these poems seem at some level to conform in their imagery, word choice, and subject matter to the version of the Romantic life constructed by Mary Shelley.
