Shelley

A detailed Summary of 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. The mention of gods, death, or characters of myth are present throughout Shelley's works. 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. In a while after this Shelley writes that "Ruin calls His brother Death." (618-619) applying that ruin or destruction is one in the same as death. Another example of evidence of the supernatural is in Shelley's "Stanzas Written in Dejection-December 18, near Naples". In this sample of writing the mood is very sad and sullen and so Shelley makes a reference to death as being metaphorically attached to sleep "Till Death like Sleep might steal on me" (33) and thus there is a connection between normal human characteristics and the supernatural. 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. Further on in the same poem Shelley writes that the bird is "Like a star of Heaven In the broad day-light Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight" (18-20), here Shelley sets the bird upon a pedestal as comparing the bird to a star. In the poem "Hellas", Shelley makes several references to myths and supernatural beings of ancient Greece. For

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Approximate Word count = 966
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels