Explore the sense of mystery and fascination for the unknown in

Shelley’s poetry?

Fascination for death

"till death like sleep might steal on me" (Stanzas written in dejection),
"death will come when thou art dead, soon, too soon" (To Night),
“Night closes round, and they are lost for ever” (Mutability)
A Dige and Music when soft voice dies are exclusively talking about death

Everything is hidden
“a Poet hidden” (To a Skylark), “unseen”, “shadow” (Hymn to IB),
"Swiftly walk o’er the western cave [...] out of the misty eastern cave, where, all the
long and lone daylight, thou wovest dreams of joy and fear" (To Night) → Night is hidden in a
cave during the day

Eternal elements
- Nature: “the everlasting universe of things”, “all seems eternal” (Mont Blanc), “I change but
I cannot die” (The Cloud), “whom mortals call the Moon” (The Cloud) →The Cloud is immortal
but the humans are mortal

Mysterious setting
- Oriental settings: “Champak odours”, “stars”, “winds” (The Indian Serenade) → strong
interest for India and countries outside of Europe (little was known of it and not many people could
go there)
- Dark settings: "wandering companionless, among the stars" (To the Moon), "the first sweet
of night, when the winds are breathing low, and the stars are shining bright" (The Indian
Serenade)

Nature as a divinity
"frozen floods [...] blue as the overhanging heaven", “far, far above” → like Heaven (Mont
Blanc),
"the triumphal arch through which I march", "which only the angels hear" (The Cloud),
“Thy light alone [...] gives grace and truth to life’s unquiet dream.” (Hymn to IB),
“Spirit of Night” (To Night), “climbing Heaven” (To the Moon),
“Bird thou never wert, that from Heaven, or near it”, “like a star of Heaven in the
broad daylight” (To a Skylark)

Nature is alone, so it becomes mysterious

“wandering companionless’ (To the Moon)
“great Mountain”, “I”, “my wings”, “bird” →In Shelley’s poetry, Nature is always singular

Nature that raises curiosity

- Shelley asks questions to Nature: “What fields, or waves, or mountains? What shape of
sky or plain? What love of thine own kind? What ignorance of pain?” (To a Skylark)
“the veil of life or death?”, “what were thou, and eath, and stars, and sea if tho the
human mind’s imaginings silence and solitude were vacancy?” (Mont Blanc)