The Romantic Period

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The Romantic Period
Percy Bysshe Shelley
pg. 730

• Percy Bysshe Shelley
• (August 4, 1792 July 8, 1822)
• Major English Romantic poet
• Considered to be among the finest lyrical poets
  of the English language

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The Romantic Period
Percy Bysshe Shelley

• Unconventional life
• Uncompromising
• idealism
• Strong skeptical voice
• Notorious figure during his life

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The Romantic Period
Percy Bysshe Shelley

• He is perhaps most famous
• for the following
• Ozymandias
• Ode to the West Wind
• To a Skylark

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Percy Bysshe Shelley

• Shelley became the idol of the next two or
  three generations of poets including the major
  Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite poets
• Robert Browning
• Alfred Tennyson
• William Butler Yeats

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Percy Bysshe Shelley

• He is famous for his association with
  contemporaries John Keats and Lord Byron.
• He was married to the famous novelist Mary
  Shelley, author of Frankenstein.
• Shelley wrote the introduction to the 1818
  edition of his wifes novel.

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Percy Bysshe Shelley

• 1814 Shelley fell in love
• and eloped with Mary, the
• 16 year-old daughter of
• William Godwin and
• Mary Wollstonecraft.
• For the next few years, the couple travelled in
  Europe.

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Percy Bysshe Shelley

• 1822 Shelley moved to Italy and
• published the journal The Liberal
• with Leigh Hunt and Lord Byron.
• By publishing it in Italy, the three
• men remained free from prosecution
• by the British authorities.
• The first edition of The Liberal sold 4,000
• copies.
• Soon after its publication, Percy Bysshe
• Shelley was lost at sea on July 8, 1822, while
• sailing to meet Leigh Hunt.

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Read pgs. 730-740 Percy Bysshe Shelley pg.
730 Preview Info pg. 731 Literary
terms imagery descriptive language appeals
to the senses Romantic philosophy link
nature and spirit
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Read Ozymandias pg. 733 Ode to the West
Wind pg. 734-736 To a Skylark pg. 737-740
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"Ozymandias"
pg. 733
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The feet of the colossus of Rameses II on which
Shelley's poem Ozymandias is based. 
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Logical Structure

• Ozymandias, or Ramese II, was pharaoh of Egypt
  in the thirteenth century B.C. 
• The poem, as an Italian sonnet, can be divided
  into two parts
• the first eight lines (octave)
• the next six lines (sestet)

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Logical Structure

• The octave part describes the fragments of a
  sculpture the traveler sees on an ancient ruin.
• The sestet goes further to record the words on
  the pedestal and then describe the surrounding
  emptiness.

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Logical Structure

• The words on the pedestal are in contrast to both
  the octave and the last three lines of the poem.
• The reader must ask
• What does Ozymandias want to achieve, as opposed
  to what is left behind him?

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• Irony
• The most obvious kind of opposition exists
  (between what Ozymandias said and what is left
  behind him). 
• This opposition has the effect of dramatic
  irony.   

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• Structure of Narration
• Frame story
• The poem contains a story (told by Ozymandias)
  within a story (told by the traveler) within a
  story (told by the speaker of the poem).
• In the core of this multiple story, the
  Ozymandias we know is only a sculpture and the
  words on it.

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• NOTES
• Message power is fleeting humans cannot
  escape effects of time
• Message is relevant accomplishments, pride,
  power
• Lines 1-8 description of statue
• Lines 9-14 irony wrecked condition
• Heart longing desire
• Hand creative aspect

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• NOTES
• Ironic comment on human pride ambition
• Inscription Look on my works, ye Mighty, and
  despair!
• Remnants of statue
• Empty desert
• Ozymandiass works crumbled b/c of time and
  nature

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• NOTES
• Contrast Kings pride/passion vs. image of
  devastation emptiness
• Most important idea meaninglessness of earthly
  power
• Ozymandias was an actual king of Egypt thousands
  of years before Shelley wrote
• Political message No dictator can ever truly
  rule absolutely

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• NOTES
• A traveler describes crumbling remains of statue
  commemorating Egyptian pharaoh
• Statues expression obscured but includes
  frown, wrinkled lip, sneer
• Condescending, proud ruler

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• NOTES
• Lines 10-11
• My name is Ozymandias, king of kings / Look on
  my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
• Words on pedestal convey attitude of pride
  arrogance

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• NOTES
• Lines 12-14 Round the decay / Of that colossal
  wreck, boundless and bare, / The lone and level
  sands stretch far away.
• Idea expressed Nature more powerful than any
  human king
• Irony of inscription Ozymandias expected his
  works to last forever.
• The statue and his entire civilization have been
  destroyed.

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• NOTES
• Although Shelley described only what the traveler
  saw, the reader should understand the traveler
  had other senses as well.
• For example, the traveler very likely felt the
  heat from the sun, etc.

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Ode to the West Wind
pg. 734-736

• Apostrophe Poem addresses the West Wind
• Poem describes force of West Wind
• West Wind
• drives dead leaves
• stirs up the ocean
• destroys plants
• announces winters arrival

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Ode to the West Wind

• Shelley
• in awe of winds natural strength
• disillusioned with his own spiritual emptiness
• calls on West Wind to lift him up, destroy him,
  and then purify him (similar to changing of
  seasons)
• understands that decay will lead ultimately to
  the renewal of spring

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Ode to the West Wind NOTES

• First two sections (I and II)
• Images of violence, death, decay, and burial
• Lines 16-17 Heaven and the Ocean are like
  trees.
• Lines 24-25 (Metaphor) Night is a tomb.
• Lines 46-48 Emphasis on driving force of winds
  strength

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Ode to the West Wind NOTES

• Wind associated with autumn
• Leaves seeds scatter will bring new life
• Movement of clouds initiates new weather
• Speaker asks wind to lift him as it would a
  wave, a leaf, a cloud.
• The heavy weight of hours (line 55) prompts
  speaker to ask wind to lift him up.

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Ode to the West Wind NOTES

• Line 57 Make me thy lyre, even as the forest
  is
• Best expresses speakers hopes for West Wind
• Lines 57-63 Speaker sees himself in the autumn
  wind. Asks the wind to enable his spirit to be
  one with that of the wind.

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Ode to the West Wind NOTES

• Shelley is not only examining the wind literally,
  he is also examining the wind figuratively
  speaking as well.
• The West Wind is an appropriate force to call on
  for new birth b/c it marks the changing of
  seasons fall spring.
• Old is destroyed and replaced by new in the
  spring.

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Ode to the West Wind NOTES

• Line 70 If Winter comes, can Spring be far
  behind?
• Even the bleakest situations are followed by
  times of renewal and hope.
• Line 70 ties together the poem b/c it sums up the
  theme hope and a new beginning
• Summary The West Winds destructiveness makes
  new life possible.

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To a Skylark NOTES
pg. 737-740

• This poem is similar to Ode to the West Wind
  b/c both the wind and the skylark are constantly
  in motion.
• Define blithe cheerful
• Stanza 1 The speaker claims the skylark is not
  a bird.
• The point? The birds song is something not of
  this world b/c the song is so beautiful.

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To a Skylark NOTES

• Lines 6-35 images of light suggest bird is
  celestial or other worldly
• Speaker says skylarks song is heard everywhere,
  even in heaven
• Lines 16-20 appeal to sight, sound, and touch
• Overall image presented of skylark bird is
  often invisible speaker perceives skylark, at
  times, only through sense of hearing.

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To a Skylark NOTES

• Line 35 image suggests skylarks music is
  everywhere at once
• Lines 36-55 speaker compares bird to the
  following
• Poet
• Highborn maiden
• Glowworm
• Rose

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To a Skylark NOTES

• Lines 36-40 the skylark, like a poets hymns,
  creates sympathies and fears
• Lines 41-45 the skylark, like a sad maiden,
  sings songs to soothe the soul
• Lines 46-50 the skylark, like a glowworm's
  light, sings a song that fill the air
• Lines 51-55 the skylark, like the scent of
  fallen roses, sings a song that intoxicates the
  senses
• Each comparison suggests the skylarks song can
  transform the world or even a soul.

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To a Skylark NOTES

• Poet believes skylarks songs are sweeter than
  songs of humans
• Skylark does not know annoyance and pain
• Skylark understands death more deeply than
  humans, though
• Lines 86-87 We look before and after, / And
  pine for what is not
• Unlike the bird, humans sulk and feel sorry for
  what is not and what will not be.

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To a Skylark NOTES

• Lines 88-90 Our sincerest laughter / With some
  pain is fraught / Our sweetest songs are those
  that tell of saddest thought.
• Even human laughter has grief.
• Human happiness is different from the skylarks
  happiness b/c human happiness is always tinged
  with sorrow.

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To a Skylark NOTES

• Line 103 harmonious madness
• The gladness of the skylark is too pure to be
  understood by humans.
• If the skylarks gladness/happiness were
  translated into poetry, the verses would be
  startlingly beautiful, but impossible to
  understand.

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To a Skylark NOTES

• Shelley focuses on
• Limitations of human condition
• Poets struggle with limitations
• Quality Shelley perceives praises above all in
  the skylarks existence
• Purity simplicity of skylarks joy
• Shelleys description of nature in all three
  poems
• Nature has much to teach us.