Shelley's Poetry Research Articles

The human mind's imaginings: conflict and achievement in Shelley's poetry

Alastor - the fluidities of narrative Hymn to Intellectual Beauty and Mont Blanc - peculiarly emotional? Julian and Maddalo - privacy and revelation The Cenci - language and the suspected self Prometheus Unbound - a perpetual orphic song The Witch of Atlas - fictions, visionary rhyme and human interest Epipsychidion - the before unapprehended relations of things The Triumph of Life - questioning and imagining.

THE INTERPRETING ANGEL IN ‘THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE’

SINCE Northrop Frye's statement long ago that 'if all art is visionary, it must be apocalyptic and revelatory too', the term apocalyptic has gained increasing acceptance among literary critics, particularly those dealing with Romantic literature.1 In the case of Shelley, such expressions as 'apocalyptic humanism', 'apocalyptic vision', and 'apocalyptic skepticism' have been used with reference either to Shelley's poetry in general or to his final poem 'The Triumph of Life' in particular.2 Such designations may not always be helpful. Apocalypsis (an unveiling), for example, would appear to contradict the term 'skepticism' (a veiling). Whatever the relative usefulness of these terms, the tendency to see Romantic literature in terms of apocalypse became widespread enough to prompt the criticism of M. H. Abrams that the word was being used loosely to refer to virtually any form of visionary experience.3 The solution presented by Abrams is to restrict the meaning of the word to the sense in which he says it is used in the Bible, to describe the emergence of a new world order or a new heaven and earth (as in Rev. 21: 1). Appropriated for discussion of Romantic works, the term would signify any vision which features the advent of a new era or better world (p. 41). If this were the only ground for using the word, it would be highly appropriate for Shelley, at least for a work like Prometheus Unbound. However, the genre of apocalyptic in biblical and aprocryphal literature deals with far more than glimpses of a new age or a heavenly city. There are distinguishing features of certain sacred writings, such as the books of Daniel and Revelation, which mark them as apocalyptic

Self-Resolution in Shelley's Julian and Maddalo

Self-Resolution in Shelley9s Julian and Maddalo RICHARD E. BROWN Julian and Maddalo presents a problem common to much of Shelley 's poetry: it depicts a series of characters obviously created dirough audiorial self-projection. Modern critics have generally accepted bodi Julian and die maniac overheard in die middle of die poem as Shelleyan self-portraits; even Maddalo, ostensibly modeled on Byron, shares important features with Julian and; die maniac, and may also be viewed as relevant to Shelley's conception of himself. As Earl Wasserman writes: "the disillusioned and misandiropic Byron who is the model for Maddalo corresponds in many ways to a recurrent figure in Shelley's poetry because Shelley recognized in him die enviably heroic but negating side of himself diat he yearned to convert to his own ends. ... Julian and Maddalo are Shelley's divided and conflicting selves skeptically confronting each other. . . ." J Wasserman's recent analysis of the Richard E. Brown (Ph.D., Cornell) teaches at the University of Nevada (Reno Campus) where he is currendy working on a number of projects concerning Shelley. 'Shelley. A Critical Reading (Baltimore, 1971), pp. 63-64. The opening conversation between Julian and Maddalo is based on Shelley's ride with Byron along the Lido in the late afternoon of 23 August 1818. Shelley describes the historical event in a letter to Mary Shelley of 23-24 August: "So he took me in his gondola—much against my will for I wanted to return to Clare at Mrs. Hoppners who was anxiously waiting for me—across the laguna to a long sandy island which defends Venise [sic] from the Adriatic. When we disembarked, we found his horses waiting for us, and we rode along the sea talking. Our conversations consisted in histories of his wounded feelings, and questions as to my affairs, and great professions of friendship and regard for me. . . . We talked of literary matters, his fourth Canto [of Childe Harold] which he says is very good, and indeed repeated some stanzas of great energy to me . . ." (The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley, ed. Frederick L. Jones, II, 36-37). Shelley is apparently recalling this incident when he remarks, in a letter to Leigh Hunt (15 August 1819), that Julian and Maddalo "was composed last year at Este; two of the characters you will recognize; ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW39 poem is the most elaborate attempt yet made to explain Shelley's selfinvolvement He suggests diat diere are important relationships among the Shelleyan figures: Julian and Maddalo, optimist and pessimist respectively about the power of the human will to realize good, interact in their opening debate as "die Yeatsian self and die antidietical self which we assume to impose discipline upon ourselves." 2 Julian is fascinated by his opponent from the outset, suggesting to Wasserman that Shelley uses Maddalo to express the "enviably heroic but negating side of himself diat he yearns to expose and convert to optimism dirough debate widi Julian.3 Julian and Maddalo turn to the maniac, bodi expecting diat his example will bolster their differing views on human potential; but according to Wasserman, the maniac proves to be "drawn ambiguously ," supporting in part the claims of each.4 The poem ends, in diis interpretation, not with a synthesis of die dialectic, but widi anticlimactic irresolution. Shelley's skeptical method, forWasserman, demands a conclusion in which opposites remain distinct and relatively unreconciled ; the effect is to express a nervous poise, as Shelley cannot finally commit himself to either view. the third [presumably the maniac, who appears in the middle of the poem] is also in some degree a painting from nature, but with respect to time and place ideal." The relationship between the maniac and Shelley has been discussed from many angles. See H. S. Salt, Percy Bysshe Shelley (London, 1888), pp. 90-91; Carl Grabo, The Magic Plant (Chapel Hill, 1936), pp. 265-71; John Harrington Smith, "Shelley and Claire Clairmont," PMLA, 54 (1939), 785-814; Ivan Roe, Shelley. The Last Phase (London, 1953), pp. 135 fT. Other critics have seen links between the maniac and the Italian Renaissance poet, Torquato Tasso; such a connection does not necessarily deny that the maniac is also a Shelleyan...

Self-Resolution in Shelley's "Julian and Maddalo"

Julian and Maddalo presents a problem common to much of Shelley's poetry: it depicts a series of characters obviously created through authorial self-projection. Modern critics have generally accepted both Julian and maniac overheard in middle of poem as Shelleyan self-portraits; even Maddalo, ostensibly modeled on Byron, shares important features with Julian and; maniac, and may also be viewed as relevant to Shelley's conception of himself. As Earl Wasserman writes: the disillusioned and misanthropic Byron who is model for Maddalo corresponds in many ways to a recurrent figure in Shelley's poetry because Shelley recognized in him enviably heroic but negating side of himself that he yearned to convert to his own ends.... Julian and Maddalo are Shelley's divided and conflicting selves skeptically confronting each other....'1 Wasserman's recent analysis of

A Study of Shelley's Poetry

A Study of Shelley's Poetry

A Study of Shelley's Poetry. Seymour Reiter , ShelleyShelleyan Ideas in Victorian Literature. Roland A. Duerkson , ShelleyShelley and Synthesthesia. Glenn O'Malley , ShelleyShelley at Work. Neville Rogers , Shelley

<i>A Study of Shelley's Poetry</i>. Seymour Reiter , Shelley<i>Shelleyan Ideas in Victorian Literature</i>. Roland A. Duerkson , Shelley<i>Shelley and Synthesthesia</i>. Glenn O'Malley , Shelley<i>Shelley at Work</i>. Neville Rogers , Shelley

The Unity of Wordsworth's Poetry; A Study of Shelley's Poetry; Coleridge and the Abyssinian Maid

The Unity of Wordsworth's Poetry; A Study of Shelley's Poetry; Coleridge and the Abyssinian Maid Get access The Unity of Wordsworth's Poetry. By Bernard Groom. Macmillan. 35s.A Study of Shelley's Poetry. By Seymour Reiter. New Mexico U.P. $8·95.Coleridge and the Abyssinian Maid. By Geoffrey Yarlott. Methuen. 55s. Michael Thorpe Michael Thorpe Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar English: Journal of the English Association, Volume 17, Issue 98, Summer 1968, Pages 62–63, https://doi.org/10.1093/english/17.98.62 Published: 01 July 1968

A Scientific Approach to Shelley's Poetry : An Introduction to Shelley and Synesthesia

A Scientific Approach to Shelley's Poetry : An Introduction to Shelley and Synesthesia

Music and Musical Themes in Shelley's Poetry

Music and Musical Themes in Shelley's Poetry

Structure, Symbol, and Theme in “Lines Written Among the Euganean Hills”

Over forty years ago Oliver Elton wrote of “Lines written among the Euganean Hills”: “This poem is perfectly put together, and it is an intellectual pleasure to see its firm development, even apart from the rapid, impassioned, shimmering brilliancy of the imagery, which resolves itself into the emotions of the poet.” One need not assent to the unqualified absolute of this declaration to recognize the poem as one worthy of serious study, yet during the last half century of intensive Shelley scholarship and criticism there has appeared little to advance our understanding of “Lines written among the Euganean Hills” beyond Professor Elton's own perceptive, but necessarily brief appreciation. An examination of Shelleyana will suggest a number of reasons for this neglect by scholars of a poem that is often anthologized and frequently taught. First, Shelley criticism is a literature filled with polemicism, and “Lines written among the Euganean Hills” has never been controversial: critics and admirers of Shelley alike have conceded or declared, when they mentioned it at all, that it is a good poem. Second, its tetrameter couplets appear “uncharacteristic” of Shelley under the generalizations which govern most discussions of his poetry, thus making the poem “peripheral” to both attackers and defenders of Shelley's poetic achievement. Closely related to the problem of metrics are those of the poem's length and its date of composition: it is too long to be discussed with the lyrics, too short to qualify as a major effort, and written too early for intensive study with Shelley's late poetry. Finally, biographers have been less successful than usual in casting light on those passages—especially lines 45–65—that seem to require additional illumination before a critic can integrate the whole composition.

Shelley's Later Poetry. A Study of His Prophetic Imagination

Shelley's Later Poetry. A Study of His Prophetic Imagination

The Wit in Shelley's Poetry

The Wit in Shelley's Poetry

Shelley's Later Poetry

Shelley's Later Poetry

Shelley's Major Poetry: The Fabric of a Vision

Shelley's Major Poetry: The Fabric of a Vision

Shelley's Major Poetry: The Fabric of a Vision

Shelley's Major Poetry: The Fabric of a Vision

Shelley's Major Poetry: The Fabric of a Vision.

Shelley's Major Poetry: The Fabric of a Vision.

Shelley's Major Poetry: The Fabric of a Vision, by Carlos Baker. 296 pp. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1948. $5.00

Shelley's Major Poetry: The Fabric of a Vision, by Carlos Baker. 296 pp. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1948. $5.00

The Relation of Theology to Literary Criticism

judge a work of art without at some point bringing in his own convictions. Can the critic of Shelley, for example, discuss adequately the greatness of Shelley's poetry without involving himself in an estimate of Shelley's faith? Can the critic of Dante, to use another example, gain a full appreciation of The Divine Comedy if he comes to its reading as one who does not share Dante's faith? Does the having of a faith hamper or help an author? Specifically, will a holding of the Christian faith make one a better or a poorer writer or critic than one might otherwise be? These are important questions; and I shall be able in this paper to do no more than tentatively set forth some preliminary lines of reasoning on a few of the issues involved.

The Pursuit of Death: A Study of Shelley's Poetry

The Pursuit of Death: A Study of Shelley's Poetry

Shelley Works out the Rhythm Of ‘A Lament’

To Shelley poetry came hard. Some of his lyrics, most quick and intense, did not rise through easy inspiration. The pages of his Note Books are full of pitchings forward, startings back, travail, and keen uncertainty. Poems like The Masque of Anarchy which one might think of as being plucked in full petal out of the inspired wrath of the poet's heart grew rather against the edge of a painful gardener's knife. The “Down down” lyric of Prometheus, although fastening itself within the poet's imagination, for a long time defied creativity. The inability of Shelley at once to apprehend the artistic relationship existing between those images and rhythms which visited his mind, haunted his thoughts and hung in his memory, is with him a vital characteristic.