Shelley
The Romantic Period, which lasted about 45 years, gave birth to a new genre of literature, political thought, and it began a new era of history. Many authors contributed to the new ideals that characterize The Romantic Period. One author in particular was Percy Shelley who had written during The Romantic Period. The romantic ideals and characteristics can be found in the writings of Shelley. One of the ideologies of The Romantic Period was the creativity of the imagination, and Shelley’s writings are littered with examples of this ideology. One example of this is in Shelley’s poem “To Sidmouth and Castlereagh”, in this poem Shelley refers to these men as “Two vipers tangled into one” (20). Through this description Shelley indicates what he thinks of these two men by attributing non-human characteristics to them, and thus gives an example of the use of Shelley’s imagination. Another example of Shelley giving humans non-human characteristics is in the poem “Ode to the West Wind” in which Shelley gives himself these characteristics as “What if my leaves are falling like its own!” (58) Also in the poem “The flower that smiles today”, Shelley gives a flower positive human characteristic, “ . . .
Another characteristic of The Romantic Period that is seen in Shelley’s writings is the theme of the supernatural. Furthermore Shelley writes, “Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread On the blue surface of thine aery surge. The mention of gods, death, or characters of myth are present throughout Shelley’s works. . ” (618-619) applying that ruin or destruction is one in the same as death. In the poem “To a Sky-Lark”, Shelley gives the lark a godly attribute “Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!” (1), by making the bird seem to be a higher deity than the writer. Throughout Shelley’s works he uses the supernatural to explain his ideas and tries to entice the readers with the addition of supernatural characters. ” (50-51) Further in “Alastor” Shelley gives the indication that all loved the poet, “Strangers have wept to hear his passionate notes And virgins, as unknown he past, have pined And wasted for fond love of his wild eyes. ” (1) Even in the poem “O World, O Life, O Time”, Shelley imagines that he must deal with the challenges that each brings to him, “O World, O Life, O Time, On whose last steps I climb. ” (427-428) It appears that although Shelley puts great importance on the poet, Shelley puts even greater importance on the supernatural as seen as death. Throughout this poem Shelley mourns for Keats, who is known in the poem as Adonais, and attempts to glorify Keats and to place him upon a pedestal above everyone else therefore glorify him. In a while after this Shelley writes that “Ruin calls His brother Death. ” (1-2) It can be seen that Shelley’s imagination provided him with a strong basis for his writings. Shortly thereafter Shelley continues to attempt to glorify the poet, “The Poet wandering on, through Arabie And Persia, and the wild Carmanian waste. An example of the supernatural in Shelley’s poems is in the poem “Alastor”, in which Shelley makes reference to a “colossal Skeleton” (611), as the angel of death.
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