Part One

Shelley’s Career as a Romantic Poet

Percy Bysshe Shelley is regarded as one of major English Romantic poets.
His masterpieces, including Prometheus Unbound, Adonais, The Revolt of
Islam, and The Triumph of Life, are recognized as leading expressions of
revolutionary thought written during the Romantic. In addition, his essay A
Defense of Poetry is highly valued as a statement on the moral importance of
poetry and of poets, whom he calls “the unacknowledged legislators of the
world.” While Shelley's significance to English literature is today widely
acknowledged, he was one of the most controversial literary figures of the
early nineteenth century. Although , he suffered a lot from the sharp attacks
of the conservative sects of the society ,but his greatness is acknowledged by
many master figures. “Matthew Arnold thought that Shelley’s character was
too sensitive for a really great writer and called him a ‘beautiful and
ineffectual angel ,beating in the void his luminous wings in vain ”(1) . In the
Norton Anthology of English Literature regarding Shelley’s greatness is
mentioned that, “As a poet Shelley was greatly admired Robert Browning,
Swinburne , and other Victorians…studies have revealed the coherent
intellectual understructure of his poems and have confirmed Wordsworth’s
early recognition that ;Shelley is one of the best artists of us all I mean in
workmanship of style.’ ”(2 ).

The Romantic Poetry

Romanticism was a movement in art and literature in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries(1798 to 1832) which was a revolt against the
Neoclassicism of the previous centuries. This movement was correspondent

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with many religious, political, economic , social and philosophical changes.
There was a growing suspicion of the established church, and a turn toward
pantheism (the belief that God is a part of the universe rather than separate
from it). Rotledge regards this revolution as ;;”a movement towards greater
freedom and democracy in political and social affairs which is paralleled by
poetry which sought to overturn the existing regime and establish a new
more democratic poetic order” (3) . This period witnessed the flowering of
some of the greatest poets in the English language, including William Blake,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Wordsworth.
The year 1798 corresponds with the publication of lyrical ballads by William
Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge . In the preface to second edition
of this work Wordsworth established certain rules which were to be followed
by the Romantic poets in composing pomes. “Romantic writers used ‘the
language of real men’ and were supportive of revolutions and even ,in the
case of Byron and Shelley, got directly involved in political activities
themselves”.(4) Imagination, emotion, subjectivity and an emphasis on
individualism, freedom from rules, love of and worship of nature, devotion
to beauty and the belief that imagination is superior to reason are regarded as
some of the main themes which were the main concern of the artists in this
period .

Shelley’s Poetry
Much of Shelley's writing reflects the events and concerns of his life. His
passionate belief in reform, the equality of the sexes, and the powers of love
and imagination are frequently expressed in his poetry(5). Shelley's first
mature work, Queen Mab, was printed in 1813, but not distributed due to its

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controversial subject matter. In it Shelley rejected the established social
norms and religion in favor of free love and atheism. The verse drama
Prometheus Unbound (1820) combines mythology, political allegory,
psychology, and religious views. “Drawing on the formal tradition of elegiac
verse, Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats (1821) laments Keats's
early death and, while rejecting the Christian view of resurrection, describes
his return to the eternal beauty of the universe.”(7)
Among his shorter poems, the “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” and “Mont
Blanc” focus on Shelley's belief in an animating spirit, while “Ode to the
West Wind” depicts the opposing forces which coexist in nature.

Critical Reception
During history Shelley's critical reputation has been characterized by radical
shifts. During his lifetime he was generally viewed as a misguided or even
corrupted genius. However , Shelley was known and admired by his great
contemporaries; Byron, Keats, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor
Coleridge. Shelley as a poetic genius was forgotten during the Victorian era,
while, in the early 20th century serious interest in his works began to revive
as scholars recognized the complexity of his style his philosophy, and his
complex themes. “ In examining his style commentators have generally
focused on his imagery, use of language, and technical achievements. The
importance of neo-Platonism, the occult, the Bible, the French Revolution,
and Gothicism, as well as the works of individual philosophers—
Wollstonecraft, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Godwin—to Shelley's thought
and writing has been explored by other critics.”(8). Recently critics have

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expressed their respect for his abilities as a poet and his surprisingly modern
philosophy which are true even to our age.

Adonais :its style

Adonais is a pastoral elegy, a highly stylized composition which follows
the rules, or conventions, of the ancient Greek poets . Adonais, like Milton’s
Lycidas, is a remarkably successful English adaptation of the classical elegy
form perfected by the Greek poets. This long poem, is written in 55
Spenserian stanzas, closely follows the pattern of the pastoral elegy.
“Spenserian stanza is a nine-line stanza with the following rhyme scheme:
abab bcbc c .”(9). As the poet states in his subtitle, it is “An Elegy on the
Death of John Keats.”

The title of the poem is very suggestive, and moves the reader to reflect on
Shelley’s highly conscious design. Following the classical patterns of
pastoral elegy, Shelley names John Keats , Adonais which is the fictional
name taken from Greek Mythology. In Greek mythology Adonais was the
handsome youth whom the goddess Venus loved and who also died a tragic
and early death. It was said that every year the Greek women would mourn
for Adonis when he died, then rejoice when he was resurrected (in the form
of the windflower). Using this myth as the central theme in the elegy,
Shelley wants to convey to reader his idea , that Keats shall be as immortal
as the young Adonis. Adonai has another connotation which comes from
Judaic tradition; Adonai in Hebrew means God or Lord. This connotation
also implies that Shelley wants to give his diseased friend a godlike
characterization.

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Analysis (Romantic Elements & Poetic Devices )

The poem opens with a highly pessimistic mood, but ends in an optimistic
view on the nature of this dilemma , with a hope that Keat,s artistic spirit
would be incarnated in the form of other poets in future and would inspire
revolutionary changes throughout Europe. “In a sense, Keats is not dead, for
like other great poets, he lives within those who benefited from his life and
poetry, and he is alive because he is “one with Nature.” He is even Christ
like, a divinity among the best of poets. Even so, he died too soon. In death,
he beacons the living to join him in eternity.”(10)
The first line of the poem expresses poet’s grief over his beloved friend :
“I weep for Adonais—he is dead!” Stanzas 2 through 35 will present a
procession of mourners who, have come to accompany the grieving poet .In
second stanza the poet alludes to the anonymous review of Keat,s work
Endymion as the reason of his friend’s death. In third stanza he uses
apostrophe, when the narrator calls Urania to attend his son’s funeral .

O, weep for Adonais-he is dead! a

Wake, melancholy Mother, wake and weep! b
Yet wherefore? Quench within their burning bed a
Thy fiery tears, and let thy loud heart keep b
Like his, a mute and uncomplaining sleep; b
For he is gone, where all things wise and fair c

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 Descend;-oh, dream not that the amorous Deep b
Will yet restore him to the vital air; c
Death feeds on his mute voice, and laughs at our despair. (st 3) c

Through these lines the poet urges the fallen Adonais’s mother, Urania,
to awaken to lead the mourners at his bier. The poet wonders why Adonis’
mother (“Urania”) was not able to do more to save her beloved son. He
personifies the fiery tears of the mother who are extinguishing the fire . He
calls her to weep and console her heart ,so may her heart also find a rest like
her deceased son’s eternal sleep. With a very pessimistic prospective ,using
terms like , Descend and Deep he expresses his belief that Good is a subject
to Evil at the end and destruction awaits for all creatures. He advises
Urania ,not to be in a vain believe, that after this Deep(death) there may be a
restoring to the Heaven(resurrection). Here at the beginning the poet reveals
his rejection of the theological views on the nature of life and death.
In the first and 2nd line the poet uses many words that alliterate with ‘weep’,
and this contributes to the musical effect and emphasizes the grief of the
poet and his emotional intensity. In the last two lines many words begin with
‘d’, and they have the same function. Heart, Deep and Death are personified.
The last line which begins with Death and ends with despair portrays the
poets melancholy and his catastrophic condition.
For the moment, however, there is only despair, and readers are urged
to “weep for Adonais—he is dead!” Stanza 9 brings as leaders of the solemn
procession the dead shepherd/poet’s “flocks”—his dreams and inspirations .
Continuing through stanza 13, the poet discusses and personifies, one by one
those thoughts and feelings, attitudes and skills, which made his genius, as

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they view the corpse in shocked disbelief. Even the Nature participates in
the funeral. From stanza 14 up to 17 the sympathy of Nature is expressed
and this technique is one of the most important ones tackled by Romantic
poets.

All he had loved, and moulded into thought,

From shape, and hue, and odour, and sweet sound,
Lamented Adonais. Morning sought
Her eastern watch-tower, and her hair unbound,
Wet with the tears which should adorn the ground,….(14)
In this stanza he alludes to Adonais’s love of nature and in return
Nature’s love for him. Here all natural elements like the physical landscapes,
the hue and the oudor of the plants ant flowers and the sweet sound of the
birds, express their sorrow for the one who loved them and expressed his
love in his poetry . Here a very profound image of natural beauty is
presented through, Morning personified as a beautiful lady. Here
metaphorically the lady adores with (dew) her tears the plants .

By stanza twenty, the grieving poet finally perceives a separation

between the body and the spirit. The is body is going to fertilize new life in
nature, the soul persisting to inspire aesthetic beauty. Here the poet reveals
his believe in platonic view of the universe. This universe for him has two
levels, world of matter and world of spirit . From now on this idea develops
more and more until the end of the poem. In following lines we have the
image of flowers , and the spirit of Adonais is incarnated in these beautiful
natural elements. The spirit of the poet after returning to Nirvana finds

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presence in this world another time , but this time in the mold of beautiful
flowers. The imaginative spirit’s mixing with nature, and the natural setting
being infused with the spirit of the poet which comes from that
transcendental world are some examples of the poet’s Romantic style. Spirit
is personified, as a person who touches the corpse but the this time
he(spirit), does not give the leprous body life (breath). Instead gives gentle
breath to the flowers and becomes incarnated in their mold.

The leprous corpse, touched by this spirit tender,

Exhales itself in flowers of gentle breath;

Awakened by the grieving poet as well as by the figure Misery, Urania

appears in stanza 22, and the poet repeats his lament: “He will awake no
more, oh, never more!
…."Leave me not wild and drear and comfortless,
As silent lightning leaves the starless night!
Leave me not!" cried Urania: her distress
Roused Death: Death rose and smiled, and met her vain caress. (25)

In the wild distraction of her grief she urges her son to arise, to awake; her
pleas are in vain. This is when Urania awakens from her own dejected sleep
and takes flight across the land, provoking death to “meet her” but realizing
she is “chained to time” and cannot be with her beloved son, so she is again
left feeling hopeless and dejected. Death again is personified and up to this
stage has full dominance on those who are mourning for the diseased poet.
Thus ceased she: and the mountain shepherds came,
Their garlands sere, their magic mantles rent;
The Pilgrim of Eternity, whose fame

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 Over his living head like Heaven is bent,
An early but enduring monument,
Came, veiling all the lightnings of his song
In sorrow; from her wilds Irene sent
The sweetest lyrist of her saddest wrong,
And Love taught Grief to fall like music from his tongue.(30)

Stanzas 30 through 34 bring a select group of human mourners. The

“Pilgrim of Eternity,” to anyone familiar with Byron’s first great work,
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812-1818), is George Gordon, Lord Byron.
The next is the Irish poet Thomas Moore, whose themes also comment on
the sorrows and losses which are the outcome of time’s passage. “Finally,
stanzas 31 through 34 present a Shelleyan self-portrait: “one frail Form”
who has “fled astray,” “his branded and ensanguined brow,” a brow “like
Cain’s or Christ’s.”
This image is not simply of himself but of the poetic soul in general as a
gentle, high-strung creature who, as an outcast, survives the darts of his
callous fellow mortals with dignity and a quiet grace ”(11) . The image
represents the beginning of a substantial shift in the poet’s attitude toward
Adonais’s death.
To this point, the poet has lamented his and others’ helplessness to make
sense of that death. In stanza 37, however, the poet reflects on a suitable
punishment for the “nameless worm” and “noteless blot” who is the
anonymous and highly critical reviewer of Keats’s Endymion (1818), who,
in Shelley’s opinion, drove John Keats/Adonais to an early grave. The worst
punishment that Shelley can think about to be carried out, is that such a
scoundrel should live:
Live thou, whose infamy is not thy fame!

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 Live! fear no heavier chastisement from me,
Hot Shame shall burn upon thy secret brow,
And like a beaten hound tremble thou shalt-as now.(37)
Gradually the pet gets closer to the climax or the point that he can find
consolation. Faced with the contradiction that he would wish a long life
upon the criminal who took his hero’s life, in stanza 39 the poet bursts open
the gates of consolation that are required of the pastoral elegy:
Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep-
He hath awakened from the dream of life-
'Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep
With phantoms an unprofitable strife,
And in mad trance, strike with our spirit's knife
Invulnerable nothings.-We decay
Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief
Convulse us and consume us day by day,
And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay.39

In stanza 39 through forty-one, the poem takes a major shift. The

narrator begins to rejoice, becoming aware that the young Adonis is alive (in
spirit) and will live on forever. We see the Romantic notion that he is now
“one with nature,” and just as other young poets who have died (Shelley lists
them), their spirits all live on in the inspiration we draw from their work and
short lives. Even so, Keats is a head above the rest. The speaker now calls
upon anyone who mourns for Adonis as a “wretch,” arguing that his spirit is
immortal, and that immortal spirit makes him as permanent as the great city
of Rome. According to Lawrence “in the conventional Christian elegy , the
climax is always a revelation of the soul,s salvation : the center of the pem
thus restates the central tenet of Christian theology, that we die to live.” She
later adds , “In Adonais , Shelley offers a variation on this theme, describing

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the spirit,s immortality in terms of natural religion.The dead soul , instead of
rising up to heaven, diffuses itself everywhere in the living word below(12);
He is made one with Nature: there is heard
. . . . . . . . . . . .
He is a presence to be felt and known
In darkness and in light, from herb and stone, ….(42)

Shelley’s Neoplatonism
This desire of gaining immortality through the vital forces of the nature
is reflected in many romantic poems. The doctrine which Wordsworth calls
it pantheism , believe that God resides in nature. Most of the romantic poets,
rejected religion’s explanation to the question of Death and Life. Some
followed the Pantheistic doctrine, others like Shelley , accepted the Platonic
philosophy. They desired to achieve immortality through natural elements.
Plato in his Phaedrus presents this philosophy. The following lines by
Plato express his philosophy , which was adopted by Shelley and we can see
its full presence in the climax and the concluding stanzas. Plato says; “The
soul in its totality has the care of all that is inanimate, and traverses the
whole heaven, appearing now in one shape, now in another, when it is
perfect, and fully winged, it soars on high and regulates the entire
world”(13).
According to Neoplatonic doctrine of forms or ideas an unseen world
of essence exists above the realm of the sense, endowing the physical world
with spiritual significance. This spiritual world of ideas also is called
Nirvana. In Shelly’s concept Adonais joins to that world of ideas(realm of
all spirit no matter). In this poem he associates Keats with pervasive
“Power” and “ the one Spirit’s plastic stress” which ‘ sweeps through the
dull dense world”. He thus becomes a part of that eternal world and a

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member close to the divine forms, which impress on dead matter an
elemental beauty, infusing it with light.
In final stanzas Shelley expresses his sense of a spiritual presence
controlling from above, the universe in terms of a Neoplatonic conception of
the universe . This light which is a metaphor for Divine presence or the
‘One’, origins from above, gives light to the world of shadows and colors.
According to Karen Lawrence, “The notion of a prism which stains, bends,
shatters, refracts, and ‘transfuses’ the pure, heavenly light into the illusory
images of the world suggests that the world is a fragmented and shadowy
imitation of the ‘One’. She further adds “ this inferior nature of mortal life
becomes a longing for death”(14). The poet expresses this longing in “…
Die , if thou wouldst be with that which thou dost seek.”
The One remains, the many change and pass;
Heaven's light forever shines, Earth's shadows fly;
Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,
Stains the white radiance of Eternity,
Until Death tramples it to fragments.-Die,
If thou wouldst be with that which thou dost seek!
Follow where all is fled!-Rome's azure sky,
Flowers, ruins, statues, music, words, are weak
The glory they transfuse with fitting truth to speak. 53

Comparing this stanza’s mood and atmosphere with the early stanzas we
see that the poet , now is in calm of mind and his use of a different
terminology proves this state of mind. Heaven’s light which is immortal is
juxtaposed with the, shadowy and mortal world of the senses. He uses simile
and likens the shadowy world to an arched roof , covered with colored
glass , and although it looks fascinating in appearance , but in comparing to

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the light of eternity(Nirvana) ,it is worthless and it is doomed to
destruction(Death).
“Follow where all is fled,” he urges, and he provokes his own heart into
having the courage to face not extinction but “that Light whose smile kindles
the Universe.”
That Light whose smile kindles the Universe,
That Beauty in which all things work and move,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
The breath whose might I have invoked in song
Descends on me; my spirit's bark is driven
Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng
Whose sails were never to the tempest given;
The massy earth and sphered skies are riven!
I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar;
Whilst, burning through the inmost veil of Heaven,
The soul of Adonais, like a star,
Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are. 56
The poem concludes by imagining Adonais to be a part of “the white
radiance of Eternity.” As the poem ends, “like a star,” the soul of the dead
poet “Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.”

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Conclusion
Shelley’s poem is therefore a sincere act of public mourning and
reaffirmation in the face of an apparently needless and certainly tragic death;
yet it is also a literary broadside of the first order. Throughout the poem the
poet suffers from the ambiguity of the nature of life and death. Like other
revolutionary poets of the romantic era he seeks the answer not in Religion.
He is not satisfied with limited and insufficient answers proposed by
clergymen. He seeks his answer in more rational and philosophical
explanations of the ancient Greeks. Shelley uses Neoplatonism
In a way similar to the Christian paradox of life in death, so that death
becomes a movement from dark to light, cold to heat. Shelley’s paganism is
austere , and his consolations are metaphoric, aesthetic, and philosophical
rather than religious.

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 Notes
1- Adventures in English Literature, Athena Edition , Editorial, Prt. U.S.A. 2007 (p
543)
2-6-Abrams, M. H. , The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 2nd Vol. W.W.
Norton Company Inc. 2000 p 699

3---Ronald Carter and John McRae, The Routledge History of Literature in English,
London, T. J. International Ltd. 1998 P220

4- Ibid (the same page)

5- Adventures in English Literature, Athena Edition , Editorial, Prt. U.S.A. 2007

(p 543)

6-Abrams, M. H. , The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 2nd Vol. W.W.

Norton Company Inc. 2000 p 670

7- "Shelley, Percy Bysshe - Introduction." Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed.

Juliet Byington. Vol. 93. Gale Cengage, 2001. eNotes.com. 2006. 7 May, 2011
<http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/

8- Ibid

9- Adventures in English Literature, Athena Edition , Editorial, Prt. U.S.A. 2007

p 113

10- http//www.gradesaver.com/study guides/ romantic poetry/Shelley/ adonais

11- "Romanticism: Introduction." Literary Movements for Students. Ed. Marie Rose
Napierkowski. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 7 May 2011.
<http://www.enotes.com/romanticism/introduction>.

12-5- Lawrence, Katren, The McGraw-Hill Guide to English Literature, 2nd Vol,
McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, USA 1985 p 113

13- http://www.classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedrus.html / 28/5/2011

14-Lawrence, Katren, The McGraw-Hill Guide to English Literature, 2nd Vol,

McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, USA 1985 p 113

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 Bibliography

1- "Shelley, Percy Bysshe - Introduction." Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism.

Ed. Juliet Byington. Vol. 93. Gale Cengage, 2001. eNotes.com. 2006. 7 May, 2011
<http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/
shelley-percy-bysshe>

2- Russell Elliott Murphy. "Adonais." Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition. Salem
Press, 2002. eNotes.com. 2006. 7 May, 2011 <http://www.enotes.com/adonais-
salem/adonais>

3- "Romanticism: Introduction." Literary Movements for Students. Ed. Marie Rose

Napierkowski. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 7 May 2011.
<http://www.enotes.com/romanticism/introduction>.

4- French, Kory. Kissel, Adam ed. *Percy Shelley: Poems Study Guide : Summary
and Analysis of "Adonais"*. GradeSaver, 29 August 2010 Web. 8 May 2011.

5- Lawrence, Katren, The McGraw-Hill Guide to English Literature, 2nd Vol,

McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, USA 1985

6-Abrams, M. H. , The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 2nd Vol. W.W.

Norton Company Inc. 2000

7-Ronald Carter and John McRae, The Routledge History of Literature in English,
London, T. J. International Ltd. 1998

8- Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Adventures in English Literature, Athena Edition ,

Editorial, Prt. U.S.A. 2007

9- http://www.classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedrus.html / 28/5/2011

10- http://www.classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/bl-cl-etexts/html 28/5/2011

11- http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/pshelley/bl-pshel-
collected.htm/2011/4/8

12- http//www.gradesaver.com/study guides/ romantic poetry/Shelley/ adonais

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