B.A. Part-II ENGLISH LITERATURE (Elective) Semester-IV Literary Masterpieces : Study of Classics

LESSON NO. 3.1

P.B. SHELLEY : INTRODUCTION, LIFE AND WORKS

STRUCTURE 11.0 Objectives 11.1 P.B. Shelley : His life, Poetry and its General Characteristics 11.2 P.B. Shelley : Poems 11.2.1 To Wordsworth 11.2.2 When the Lamp is Shattered 11.2.3 Songs to the Men of England 11.2.4 Prometheus 11.2.5 Stanzas Written in Dejection 11.3 Unsolved Short questions 11.4 Suggested Reading 11.5 Let us Sum up 11.0 OBJECTIVE This lesson aims to acquaint you with The life, poetry of P.B. Shelley All the poems prescribed in your syllabus Unsolved short-answer questions 11.1 Percy Bysshe Shelley popularly known as Shelley occupies a controversial place amongst the romantic poets of the 19th century. Whereas Matthew Arnold calls him “a beautiful and ineffectual angel, beating in the void his luminous wings in vain,” T.S. Eliot repudiates him for attacking conventional marriage and defending free love in such passages as the following in “Epipsychidion”: I never was attached to the great sect. Whose doctrine is that each one should select Out of the world a mistress or a friend. As against the condemnation at the hands of traditionalists, George Bernard Shaw, more or less an iconoclast in this respect holds that he became a Socialist reading Shelley. A character in Aldous Huxley’s novel, Point Counter Point (incidentally the prototype of which is none other than D.H. Lawrence) calls him a slug, while Stephen Spender thinks of him as a highly spiritualized creature. As against the alleged lack of earthiness, sensuality and concreteness, he finds Shelley very sensitive and endowed with profound awareness of life.

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The above controversy has three strains intertwined in itself, i.e. it relates to his defiant and disturbed personality, his revolutionary and philanthropic vision, lyrical and ethereal poetry. His personality developed as an amalgam of his rejection of his aristocratic family, his acceptance of marriage as spiritual union of man and woman and his involvement in the financial problems of his friends. He was the eldest son of Timothy Shelley, a wealthy landowner, who subsequently became a baronet. Though heir to considerable wealth and property, Shelley did not feel at home in the aristocratic surroundings of his family. In fact, he seemed to be an exact converse of what a gentleman should be in such surroundings. He particularly looked down upon his father who had the hard-headed and practical- minded mentality of a country squire. To all intents and purposes then, his obdurate father became the very prototype of the persecutor and his obduracy generated in him a life long persecution mania. Shelley could not get rid of this persecution mania in spite of the deep affection his younger sister showed towards him and whom, in his childhood, he entertained with ghost-stories. Philosophic and hypersensitive as he was, he developed this psychic factor into one headstrong contempt for “the harsh and grating strife of tyrants and foes”. Alongwith he tried to develop an in-built resistance against tyranny being perpetuated by inhuman forces and agencies. The following passage from his early “Laon and Cythna” relates how he promised to exercise this inbuilt resistance: I will be wise, And just and free, and mild, if in me lies, Such power, for I grow weary to behold The selfish and the strong still tyrannies Without reproach of Check. The earliest occasion for the exercise of this right came when he tried to liberate his sisters from the forces of unreason represented by his father. For example, he tried for the marriage of his sister with Hogg in whom, according to Wilfred Scott, he tried to find his male-self, as Hogg tried to find his female self in Shelley. The most significant occasion however, came with the publication of his pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism (1811). The publication of this pamphlet caused his expulsion from the University of Oxford. Thus, his University career ended in a fiasco which, due to extraneous reasons, though has acquired the status of a literary event and has become part and parcel of literary history. This expulsion made him persona non granta so far as his home went and all the more antagonized his father. Extravagant and catastrophic through his behaviour, he did not feel discouraged at all. Under the impact of his uncontrollable and undisciplined impulses, he was driven into his first marriage,

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the motive in all its pristine form being the liberation of a woman from tyrannical circumstances. Shelley in this way, married his sister’s school-friend, Harriet Westbrook whom he considered to have been persecuted at school which he explicitly regarded as her prison house. It does not appear that Shelley cared deeply for Harriet but when she implored him to save her from suffering at home and tyrannous cruelty at school, he could not resist such an appeal. After marriage, Shelley tried to drag Harriet through such complicated experiences as she could ill afford to live through. For example, he provided ample opportunity to Hogg to seduce her. As Newman Ivey White has observed in his book, Life of Shelley, “It was obviously Shelley’s pleasure in beholding her union with Hogg”. If this seduction did not take place, it was entirely on account of virtue being on the side of Harriet rather than of Hogg or Shelley. All the same, it was not viciousness or perversion that justified this seduction in the eyes of Shelley. Instead, it was the excess of spirituality that led him to justify it in all respects. Consequently, it was this excess of spirituality that led Shelley to inculcate the influence of William Godwin, regarded at the time an inspired prophet of free thought, and enter into marriage with his daughter, Mary Godwin. William Godwin’s book, Political Justice greatly influenced his early writings like Queen Mab and Revolt of Islam in which he has expressed his fascination for free love, his contempt for the bigotry of political and religious systems upon his belief in the efficacy of reason and intellect, etc. More than this influence upon his early writing, was Godwin’s influence on his conduct. As Stephen Spender has observed, The subsequent relationship between Godwin and Shelley was a tragicomic nemesis which overtook them both.” Elaborating his observation further he remarks, “They met in empyrean or Utopian idealism, and were equally matched with exalted weapons, which there aloft, each turned against the other. Shelley applied the philosopher’s message of free love to the person of his own daughter whom he bore away from her home; Godwin used the philosophy of the redistribution of wealth for the purpose of entangling the poet in the shares of his own debts.” However, his elopement with Mary Godwin was not meant to punish her father, with whom he had relationship of what in The Revolt of Islam, ‘he called “As Eagle and a Serpent wreathed in fight.” No doubt pleasure was involved in showing the Eagle: Hung with lingering wings over the flood And started with its yells the wide air’s solitude Yet he was infatuated with Mary Godwin because she had intellectual acumen which Harriet had lacked inherently. “The partner of my life”, Shelley told his friend Peacock “should be one who can feel poetry and understand philosophy”.

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Mary Godwin seemed to respond to his needs. Carried away by the feeling of understanding her and being understood by her, Shelley lived with Mary in a world of idealistic unrealism accentuated by his sojourn in Europea. During these days, he wrote his first excellent poem “Alastor or the Spirit of Solitude” meant to be a vaguely autobiographical account of a young poet’s unsuccessful attempt to recapture his envisioned ideal. Nevertheless this world of idealistic unrealism was to change into that of idealistic ruthlessness because Mary had her own ménage, a trios in her sister, Claire Clairemont, the jilted and rejected beloved of Lord Byron. Shelley felt attracted to her as previously he had been to Harriet and with all his utopian magnanimity caused her to become the bane of his married life. Thus, under a baneful influence from the very beginning Shelley’s marriage with Mary froze into a guilt-ridden and burdensome union. Contribution in no small measure was made to it by the death of his two children, Clare and William which occurred almost simultaneously and strongly estranged Mary from Shelley and all his friends. At the same time, Shelley was not interminably involved in the debts of William Godwin, who, metaphorically speaking was the dead-bird of Coleridge tied tightly around the neck of the poet. Inexorably driven thus into the worked of his own mind, Shelley not only felt solitary, but accepted the bitter fact of his solitude as well. Paradoxically, this solitude afforded joy as well as sorrow because now if a woman could enter into his worlds at all, it was only as an intellectual idea or Platonic ideal. Wrapped in intellectual idea came Emilia Viviani about whom he wrote ‘Epipsychidion’ celebrating her as the ‘Being whom my spirit often met on its visioned wanderings’ upon the land “beautiful as a wreck of Paradise”. Another such woman was Jane Williams, the wife of his close friend Edward Williams. She came into his life with all the aura of a Platonic ideal, addressed as the most beautiful song written by him at the fag end of his life. Nevertheless, Emilia Viviani and Jane Williams respectively an intellectual ideal and Platonic ideal failed to preoccupy him completely. As vouchsafed by his biographer, Newman Ivey White, Shelley preferred sailing with Edward Williams to celebrate the purity and beauty of Jane and Viviani. It was ultimately during a sailing of this type that he was drowned in the ocean of the coast of Italy. He had not yet passed the 30th year of his life. During the period, Shelley not only wrote prodigiously, but also formulated assiduously what may be termed as his theory of poetry. The profoundest expression of his theory of poetry is contained in the following lines: Poetry enlarges the circumstances of the imagination by replenishing it with the thoughts of every new delight, which have the power of attracting and assimilating to their own nature, all the thoughts, and which form new intervals and interstices, whose void forever craves

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for new blood. Poetry strengthens that faculty which is the organ of the moral nature of man, in the same manner as exercise strengthens a limb. A poet, therefore, would do ill to embody his own conception of right and wrong, which are usually those of the place and time, in his poetical creation, which participate in neither. Reduced to essential aspects, his theory of poetry holds that: (a) Poetry translates ever-expansive horizontal knowledge into ever deepening vertical experience. (b) This translative role of poetry is instinct with regenerating power which is re-creative at the same time. (c) Poetry thus partakes of place and time when it is being created but transcends them when it has been created. Being creators of the poetry of this sort, the poets according to Shelley’s celebrated statements are “the unacknowledged legislators of mankind”. The statement is famous because of the fact that it points out self-determination which great poets from Homer to Wordsworth had been assuming for themselves. All the same, this statement is suspect as well because false self-determination of this sort is liable to lead only to the writing of didactic and palpable poetry. It is on account of the promiscuous character of Shelley’s theory of poetry that M.H. Abrams is led to aver, “he never quite escapes the disadvantages of one who responds to raillery with a solemn appeal to the eternal varieties.” Such a promiscuous character is integral to his prodigious poetic output which can broadly he classified into six compartments, i.e. (i) Didactic Poems: “Queen Mab, “The Revolt of Islam”, “Prometheus Unbound” and “The Triumph of Life”, etc. (ii) Spiritual Autobiographies : “Prince Athanase”, Alastor or The Spirit of Solitude, “Epipsychidion”, etc. (iii) Pure Lyrics : “Lines written among Euganean Hill’s”, Ode to the West-Wind”, “Love’s Philosophy”, “The Cloud, “To a Skylark”, “Arethusa”, “Hymn of Pan”, “The Question”, Music and “When Soft voices Die”, etc. (iv) Confessinal Poems : “Constantia Singing”, “Fragment to one Singing”, “To Willaim Shelley”, “One Fanny Godwin”, “To Jane” : The Invitation’ and “To Jane The Recollection”. (v) Satiric and Fanatastic Poems : “Swellfoot the Tyrant”, “Peter Bell the Third”, “The Mark of Anarchy”, and the “The Witch of Atlas”. (vi) The Elegy : “Adonais”.

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The didactic poems mark the beginning of the poetic career of Shelley. The earliest and most proselytizing of them is “Queen Mab” which tries to enclose his social, political and philosophical point of view within a fantastic fairy tale. An adolescent attempt as it is, the extrapolation of ideas gets the better of the framework of the story of the poem. After a brilliant beginning, the poem declines into Godwinian lectures upon the different facts of life. If ‘Queen mab’ has too much of proselytism, “The Revolt of Islam’, on the other hand, has too little of it. Written in twelve cantos of Spenserian stanza, it is meant to expose all the oppression of pictures in which allegorical figures (the eagle and the snake) measure themselves to the symbolic stature of the hero and the heroine. The imbalance that characterizes ‘Queen mab’ and “The Revolt of Islam’ is not to be found in ‘Prometheus Unbound’ which most successfully attempts to celebrate the triumph of reason and liberty. Based upon ‘Prometheus Bound’ by Aeschylus, Shelley’s writing diverges from its original in the sense that the Greek original reconciles the oppressed with the oppressor, but wherein the oppressed triumphs over the oppressor of mankind. According to what Peter Butter holds in Shelley’s Idols of the Cave, this divergence no doubt entails difficulties, but it makes it a far greater poem than it would have been if the poet had merely tried to reconstruct the Aeschylean trilogy. Instead of becoming a poetic drama as the original tends to be it ends up a dramatic poem, a tapestry of depersonalized characters. Symbols of cosmic forces as these depersonalized character are, the poem seems to be a cosmic painting in which the juxtaposition of the white and the black may stand for the confrontation of the Good and the Evil. “The Triumph of Life’, upon which Shelley was working at the time of his death, gives evidence of the human vision deepend by knowledge of human experience. The characters here are no longer divisible as good and evil. Instead they are intermixture of both. Though a cosmic painting, the poem is not a juxtaposition of the black and the white. It not only intermixes them but also accommodates intermediate colours. Naturally, the poem does not hold forth his earlier point of view that evil is an exterior change for its removal. Instead, with vision deepended by Plato, he now believes that evil is instrinsic to the human heart itself. Written appropriately in the terza rima of Dante, the poem shows Shelley’s technical virtuosity as well, no matter though it is marred by visual blurredness and auditory audacity. Parallel to his proselytizing poems of the didactic sort are his spiritual autobiographies in which he is in dialogue with his innermost self, as in the previous poems he had been encountering the world and the cosmos. As Stephen Spender has perspicaciously pointed out, “In these poems he mediates with himself in conscious isolation and seems to be seeking the companionship of a woman or a

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man with whom he can completely identify himself.” These poems most vividly express his vision of love which is explained in his essay ‘On Love’: We dimly see within our intellectual nature a miniature as it were of our entire self, yet deprived of all that we condemn or despise, the ideal or prototype of everything excellent or lovely that we are capable of conceiving as belonging to the natures of man, to this we eagerly refer all sensations, thirsting that should resemble or correspond with it. The discovery of its anti-type; the meeting with an understanding capable or clearly estimating our own, an imagination which should enter into and seize upon the subtle and defecate peculiarities which we have delighted to cherish and unfold in secret……….this is invisible and unattainable point to which love tends, and to attain which it urges forth the powers of man to arrest the faintest shadow of that, without the possession of which there is no rest nor respite to the heart over which it rules. It is on account of this that in Shelley’s vision of ideal love, the lover feels that he should to be one with the shadow of this beloved. In other words, the ideal experience of love, according to Shelley, is epipsychidionic wherein, to put in the words of Peter Butter “The Shelleyan Lover’s search is for someone who will mirror only the best within himself, and so enable him to achieve full self-realisation.” To attain this self-realisation the lover has to embark upon a mental journey which takes him into the enchanting and changed world of dreams wherein he can recover his vision of life through the incidence of death. Though overwhelmed with it at first, he then begins to regard it as a false obsession with self-centered seclusion. “Experiencing perplexity to the innermost core of his self, he, then projects his vision on to an object. And he remarks in ‘A Defence of Poetry’: Neither the eye nor the mind can see itself, Unless reflected upon that which it resembles So long as this search is in progress, the beloved seems to the lover as the moon is to the sun. The moon, though cold, reflects the light of the sun. All the same both are distinct from each other. It is metaphorically speaking a veil distinctness that keeps them apart. When the search however, consummates itself into a union, the lovers form like two flames uniting into one harmonious conflagration or two streams of water flowing into a singular expanse of water. Love’s resplendence then transmigrates at the same time. As he writes in “Prince Athanase”; Thou (Love) art the radiance which where ocean rolls Inversteth it, when the heavens are blue, Though fillest them; and when the earth is fair The shadow of the moving imbue.

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Its deserts and its mountains, till they wear. Beauty like some light robe. Studied as extrapolation of his vision of love, ‘Prince Athanase’ definitely seems to be a fragmentary writing. Its noteworthy feature is its opening line, the personality of the innocent and gentle youth of which probably he himself is the prototype and the idealized image of the understanding and kind-hearted father, the like of which he did not get in his own hard-hearted father. Though dealing with the same psychological situation, ‘Alastor or The Spirit of Solitude’ delves deeper into the narcissus-type aspect of the poet’s personality. It is the tragedy of an idealist who vainly seeks in reality the conterpart of his ideal. The whole texture of the poem ends to create a condition of merging, fainting and swooning, contribution to which is in no small measure made by its evanescent imagery. Interestingly enough, the poem prophesizes the poet’s own death by drowing in a tumultuous ocean. Culmination of auto biological-cum-confessional technique is reached in ‘Epipsychidion’. The theme of the poem is that participation into the experience of the other leads inevitably to identification with it. It is in fact the acme of the Dialogue which according to Marting Buber’s observation in 'I' and 'thou' means that “he who loves a woman, and brings her life to present realization to him, is able to look in the Thou of her eyes, into a beam of the internal thou,” To put it in the less conceptual language of Stephen Spender, “It is a love beyond question by human institution and which inevitably sets aside the claims of all other people.” Dilating upon it further he observes, “For if you are another and she is you, the relationship of each with the other is simply a form of being himself or herself. The question of physical relationship becomes trivial because all forms of knowing one another are only self-awareness.” While extrapolating this theme the poem tries to express into words what is inexpressible to all intents and purpose. No wonder, the language of the poem tends to vanish into a vision which is not only supra- linguistic but cut in mystical and mysterious at the same time. Shelley’s confessional lyrics addressed to Mary, Jane, Fanny and Williams, etc. are foil to the autobiographical-cum-confessional poems discussed above. These purely personal lyrics are not like paintings but are like pencil drawings projecting a truthful picture of the poet enmeshed in unresolvable conflict and contradictions. Distinguishing a painting from a pencil drawing, John Berger, the art critic, remarks, “In front of a painting or the statue the spectator tends to identify himself with the subject, to interpret the images for their own sake; in front of a drawing he identifies himself with the artist, using the images to gain the conscious experiences of seeing as though through the artists’s own eyes. This is exactly what the reader experiences with respect to these confessional lyrics of

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Shelley. Written in a language having the stark simplicity of Blake’s Songs of Innocence, these confessional lyrics articulate all the dilemmas faced by the poet. Most of all, in lines as under they express the state of mind of Shelley himself: Though thou art ever fair and kind, The forests ever green. Less oft is peace in Shelley’s mind, Than calm in waters seen. No doubt, these confessional lyrics are like pencil drawings, but in comparison with them his pure lyrics are paintings and indeed oil-colour paintings. They have concreteness of expression as their most distinguishing characteristic. Though concrete like paintings, Shelley seems to have written them with Beethoven’s musical sense as well. As Stephen Spender has penetratingly observed. “Like Beethoven, Shelley is an artist who seems to care more for the general outline and development of his theme than for the instrument he is using. He masters words rather than tame them and shows little sense of their limitations. He invents juxtapositions of images which are almost unthinkable just as Beethoven sometimes produces combinations of notes which suggest intellectual without ever being satisfactory within the limits of what one can pleasantly hear.” It is due to this fusion of painting and music that “Ode to the West Wind” is a symbolic poem invoking simultaneously the spatial aspects of nature as well. Similarly, “Lines Written among the Euganean Hill’s”, is a visual poem animated at the same time by the temporal duration of mariner’s journey. Similarity of this type prevails between “The Cloud’ and ‘The Skylark’. While the former is nature-tapes try in motion, the latter embodies quivering pulsations of the verse in contrast with the superb pacing measure of “The Cloud’. Alongwith technical virtuosity, he shows in his pure lyrics an awareness of human life and destiny, shown only at places in his proselytizing poems. His satiric poems are, of course noticeable for the sake of variety but nowhere in them does he show his technical virtuosity and deepened awareness of life. They are at the most successful writings reflecting mock-loonish simplicity. In contrast to them is ‘Adonais’ written as elegy on the death of John Keats. It is sculpturesque poem, impressive as a frize, in its development and execution. An elaborate critique will, however, be presented in another lesson. The following list of books will give a good understanding of Shelley as a man and poet.

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B.A. Part-II ENGLISH LITERATURE (Elective) Semester-IV Literary Masterpieces : Study of Classics

LESSON NO. 3.2

P.B. SHELLEY : POEMS

3.2.1 To Wordsworth ‘To Wordsworth’ is a sonnet, perfect in thought, rhythm and diction. The poem is best understood in two parts. In the first part from lines 1 to 5, the poet establishes an identity-relationship with Wordsworth. In that they are one in experiencing the loss of beauty, youth and innocence. In the second part he praises Wordsworth for having been a lone star whose light did shine some frail bark in winter’s midnight roar, for having been a spiritual leader who could stand like a rock against the ignorance and the conscience of the masses or the multitudes, for having been the bard of truth and liberty.’ The transference bond, to speak psychologically, does not last because while Shelley continues his championship of truth, liberty and higher spiritual and Gnostic values, Wordsworth recanted or changed, became conservative and conformist: In honoured poverty thy voice did weave Songs consecrate to truth and liberty, Deserting these, thou leave me to grieve, Thus having been, that thou shouldst cease to be. Though Wordsworth-the hero to the poet-has ceased espousing the values dear to Shelley, the latter does not give vent to anger and disappointment as often happens in the transference relationship in the wake of dissolution. The poet grieves or deplores. One loss is mine Which thou too feel’st yet I alone deplore. But even the deploring is not heavy or recriminatory. So what stays with the reader is the poet’s experience of the transience of things. Wordsworth being a guide to Shelley in a turbulent period when his frail bark was tossing in darkness and storm: Thou wert as a lone star, whose light did shine On some frail bark in winters midnight roar: Of course, the problem posed in the poem is universal – the problem of transference. Students are advised to read Freud and Jung on the subject, especially where the transference involves archetypal factors, (not just familial

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factors, in relationship) Obviously, in this poem, Wordsworth is experienced as a kindered spirit in that his experience tallies with that of Shelley so that his similarity prepares the way for a deeper relationship. Wordworth is also experienced archetypally as a star, as a rock, which has Christian connotations for a Christian reader and also as the consummate, artistic voice. Considering what Shelley got from Wordsworth, perhaps it is a little churlish to grieve and deplore because one’s friend and guide, inspirer and poet does not stay exactly as one would like him to be. That does smack of immaturity. However in addition to this reservation which some readers may legitimately have, To Wordsworth is a finished sonnet with strong sculptured images which take hold of one’s consciousness because of their archetypal character (star, rock, bark etc.) and reverberates deep within. 3.2.2. When the Lamp is shattered. When one compares this poem to the preceding poems, one cannot but note that it does not have the depth and the resonance, nor the atmosphere and the finished grain or quality. There is piling of image-statements as in the first stanza and an ampliciation of the idea therein the second stanza which leads into the subject which is the death of love and how it makes the weak partner in the lover relationship suffer more, which makes Shelley pose a question: O Love ! Who bewailest The frailty of all things here, Why choose you the frailest For your cradle, your home, and your bier? In the last stanza, the poet puts on the prophetic mantle and ejaculates how the lovers expose themselves to the storms and sweeps of passion, are mocked by reason so that love which seduced them, destroys their identity and turns them over to sadness, desolation, and cold or numbness: Despite the brilliance of the imagery and richness of texture especially around the statement: The heart’s echoes render No song when the spirit is mute: No song but sad dirges Like the wind through a ruined cell, Or the mournful surges That ring the dead seaman’s knell. ‘When the Lamp is Shattered’ is an idea-poem. It surely has tremendous rhetorical energy, a strong beat and fast speed, but it does not have that mantric or revelatory quality of ‘Stanzas-April 1814’ with which it affiliates considerably with

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its thematic burden. If one were to put one’s finger on the problem which afflicts this poem, one would perhaps hazard the guess that the poet is trying to put a closure to a love and its residues. He is sealing-something he does not in ‘Stanzas- April 1814’ in which he chooses to stay vulnerable to the very end of his life. 3.2.3 Song to the Men of England In the poem ‘Song to the Men of England’ to call to man’s sensuousness of exploitation is essentially legitimate, though somewhat heavy, Of course, the action that Shelley proposes is anarchic: Sow seed, - but let no tyrant reap; Find wealth, - let not impostor heap; Weave robes ; - let not the idle wear; Forge arms, - In your defence to bear. The best stanzas in the poem ‘Song to the Men of England’ are the last stanzas because in them his consciousness is touched with compassion for the poor. Shelley has been hailed as a revolutionary, which of course he is, though without programme, without strategy, without any understanding of social dynamics. He is a revolutionary of impulse and emotion. Of course, he became attractive because of the visionary content. But as a poet of revolutionary sentiment, he may be called a not-so-good poet because his hate and anger are crude, unprocessed, hysterical in tone, to say the least, and his visions are vaporous. He is best when he sings from the sky downwards and descends beautifully because he is touched with the acumen of a pure archtype, be it is West Wind, the Cloud or the Skylark. Shelley the revolutionary as evidenced in the poems in this lesson, is either a naïve, vaporous visionary, who does not know the dynamic of the interaction of ascent and decent, push and pull; the spiral of rise and fall, motion and gravitation between vision and fact, apocalypse and reality, or an adolescent caught in the unpurged, unsublimated vital who spews forth globs of anger and hate without discrimination and differentiation. The poems ‘Prometheus’, ‘On a Poet’s Lips I Slept’, ‘Life of Life’ and ‘Prometheus’ (Spirit of the Hour Loquitur)’ are all taken from Shelley’s lyrical drama, Prometheus Unbound (1820). With Shelley’s love of liberty, scorn of oppression and oppressor; with his compassion for the suffering of mankind and his belief that poetry is a powerful instrument for reaching the people, it was natural for Shelley to gravitate to a myth like that of Prometheus for poetic and ideological exploitation. Prometheus in Greek mythology was a Titan who worked in ‘Zeus’ kitchen; he was in charge of cooking and serving arrangements. As the headman, he noticed that the best portions of meat were given to Zeus and the worst portions were given to Titans. He disliked this. At one time he served Zeus

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tripes and hones for which he was punished. Prometheus who was chaffing at his hands, finally revolted, stole fire and gave it to mankind. Of course, Zeus didn’t know what he had stolen and had him chained to a rock in the mountains of Caucuses in the hope that he would break down under this torture and squeal what he had stolen. But Prometheus, even though his vitals are pecked at during day by Zeus eagles, does not reveal his plans. For this reason, Prometheus has become symbol of revolt, defiance of the gods, and of unflinching courage and endurance; he is also regarded as a benefactor of mankind to whom he has passed on the knowledge of fire which is symbol of knowledge, progress and aspiration. Fire symolises knowledge and progress because no civilization would have been possible without fire. The fire burns, purges and also goes up. So fire also becomes the symbol of purification and aspiration. So a whole range and complex of ideas and emotions are associated with Prometheus freedom, revolt, suffering endurance, purification and aspiration. The reader may find all those ideas and emotions in the first extract of ‘Prometheus’. 3.2.4 Prometheus In stanza one, addressing Zeus, who is the monarch of gods, demons and all spirits, Prometheus accuses Zeus of peopling the world with slaves, forcing these slaves to worship him with demeaning rituals (“knee-worship, prayer and praise heacatombs of broken hearts”). In so doing Zeus strips men of all dignity and gives them a bad self-image. Since Prometheus refused to accept this dispensation, this ill tyranny’. Zeus has been punishing him for the last three thousand years. The description of the pain and of the setting is powerfully done in this stanza: Three thousand years of sleep-unsheltered hours, And moments are divided by keen pangs Till they seemed years, torture and solitude, …………………………………………………. Nailde to this wall of eagle baffing mountain Black, wintry, dead unmeasured, without herb, Insect, or beast, or shape, or sound of life, Ah me ! Alas, pain, pain ever, for ever ! Despite this pain, Prometheus is psychologically free, for he says: Scorn and despair-these are mine empire:- More glorious far than that which thou surveyest From thine unenvied throne, O Mighty God! In stanza two, Prometheus, even though he is unbroken, but from the depth and intensity of pain he is asking as to why the Earth, Heaven, Sun, Sea have not cared to see, feel, hear his agony.

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In stanza three, the torture that Prometheus is subjected to is on a scale, which defies imagination. Zeus’s eagle rips his heart with poisoned talons: earthquake-fiends wrench the rivets from his quivering wound; he is also afflicted by storms and whirlwind with keen hail. And even as he is being dismembered physically, his mind is being disordered by visions and hallucinations: And shapeless sights come wandering by, The ghastly people of the realm of dream, Mocking me. In giving a mythic, supernatural, occult dimension to the torture and suffering which is being visited upon Prometheus by these agencies (glaciers, earthquakes, whirlwind, storm), obviously at the behest of Zeus. Shelley has made Prometheus a great hero. In the concluding stanza which is the longest stnaza of the extract, the poet unravels a much more complex profile of Prometheus than unfolded in the preceding three stanzas. Prometheus remains unbroken, he does not succumb to despair inspite of the physical and psychological dismemberment. He is hoping that one of the twenty-four hours will spring as some dark priest, hale and drag thee, Cruel King, to kiss the blood from these pale feet. It is an interesting personification, not fanciful at all, it exemplifies Shelley’s dramatic imagination. Parenthetically speaking one may as well mention here that when one is subjected to extreme of stress, usually from the unconscious a saving image comes to give direction to the psyche. In the event of such a thing coming to pass, Zeus prostrating at Prometheus’s feet for forgiveness he has undergone a change, a sort of a psychological transformation. He experiences pity. And while Zeus is running through Heaven, afraid, hunted, his soul shaking, hell gaping from within, he, Prometheus, would not like revenge, he would recall his curse which was heard by mountain and by springs. Prometheus says: I speak in grief; Not exultation, for I have no more, As then era misery made me wise. A little later he says that he can recall the curse because he is a transformed man: If then my words had power, Though I am changed so that aught evil with Is dead within; although no memory be Of what is hate’ let them not lose it now! What was that curse ? For ye all heard me speak. Indeed the last stanza is pure shock of revelation. It appears that Prometheus has off-set his ego; he breaks the chain-reaching down. Because he

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has suffered and been tortured, he does not want to subject Zeus to the same. One can always count on Shelley for such transformations. One may dare to say that among all the romantic poets including Wordsworth who had near-samadhi or trance experiences, as evidenced in “Tintern Abbey”, and “Intimations Ode”. Shelley is unique in giving us glimpses into higher psychology as he has done in the concluding stanza referred to earlier. Naturally anyone who escapes from or breaks the nether circle of ego, shadow, revenge and hate strengthens the forces of Light and Power. 3.2.5 Stanzas Written in Dejection This poem was composed during Shelley’s sojourn in Italy. After he had been driven into a voluntary exile due to the events attending upon his disastrous marriage and his liaison with Mary Godwin whom he subsequently married in Europe. Shelley used to suffer from periodic fits of depression in which he contemplated suicide. On such occasions, he used to take long, solitary walks on the sea-shore. The high-tones and temperate Mediterranean climate and the beautiful landscape and seascape used to cheer him up a bit and he felt inspired to compose some of his best lyrics. Had Shelley been living in the twentieth century Europe and America, he would have consulted a psychiatrist and undergone a course in psychotherapy. His analyst would have told him to take note of the visions of his own death by drowning followed by his friends leaning over his decayed and dead body washed ashore. Shelley would not have, in that case, undertaken the fatal sea voyage on the yacht Ariel accompanied by his friend! This poem follows in the tradition of Shelley’s ‘nearest mate’ Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In the poem ‘Dejection : An Ode’, Coleridge gives an almost perfect description of the sight of the new Moon gathered in its arms by the old Moon forecasting a storm. But Coleridge says; I see them all so excellently fair, I see, not feel how beautiful they are ! (Fifteen Poets, p. 285) Shelley gives almost the same range of poetic properties except that he is standing at noon near the Bay of Naples, whereas Coleridge is in England living close to Wordworth and composing the poem in the dead of the night: promontory of the Bay of Naples, the Mediterranean sun, the sky, the waves, the snowy mountains in the background, the ‘moist’ earth, the ‘blue’ islands, the City (Naples), the ‘chorus’ of ‘winds’, ‘birds’ and ‘ocean floods’, the ‘green’ and ‘purple’ seaweeds growing at the bottom of the Medierranean and the ‘lighting of the noon tide ocean. Shelley shares Coleridge’s emotion when he exclaims: How sweet! Did any heart now share in my emotion.

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If Wordsworth were to describe the same scene, these poetic properties would have possessed a life of their own (pantheism), and would have been a source of human and moral instruction. For Shelley, however, they are projections of this own entranced self-absorption. His obsession with his own self is further accentuated in the third stanza when he bemoans that he has neither ‘hope’ to fall back upon nor does he possess ‘health’. He is devoid of instrinsic and extrinsic calmness. He is farthest from the psychic wholeness achieved by sages through concentration, contemplation and meditation. Shelley is envious of those who are surrounded by these virtues and live ‘smilingly’ and call life a ‘pleasure’. Following in the tradition of the poets of the Romantic Revival, Shelley says in the next stanza how external Nature can generate poetic feelings and uplift the mood of depression, from which he had been suffering before his arrival in the promontory, he says: Yet now despair itself is mild Shelley now describes vision of his own untimely death by drowning which he has described in a few poems earlier. The poet’s narcissism is evident when he exclaims: I could lie down like a tired child This is a strongly marked repressive yearning for an infantile bliss in union with the archetype of Great Mother ! Symbolically, the poet wants to keep unconscious contents repressed by killing them off for ever. Shelley, however, redeems himself to some extent in the concluding stanza by showing a capacity for effective reasoning and some degree of intellectual control of his emotional outpourings. He refers to his ‘lost heart’, ‘too soon-grown old’, insulting the scene and occasion by an untimely moan.’ Parenthetically, he repeats his narcissistic charge: For I am one Whom men love not And yet he regrets that he has not responded with a participation mystique to the day which will be enshrined in his memory when the sun will set ‘on its stainless glory’. Thus shelley’s death wish precedes the beginning of a new awakening in him. To come back to the poem by Coleridge, the poet seeks refuge in his ‘Sharping Spirit of Imagination’, which he inherited since his birth and which helps him turn from his “viper thoughts” to listen to the winds and other external sights and sounds. Coleridge wishes his ‘Dear Lady’ to be blessed with deep sleep and enjoy perpetual happiness. In contrast, Shelley can only outline situations and ideas. He is too young to initiate and complete the individuation process.

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To recapitulate, Shelley begins the poem by describing the landscape and seascape near Naples without relating to it. He then describes his entranced self. Absorption. He pities his own self vis-à-vis others who are luckier than he has been. He then shows that a new mood and emotion can arise from the contemplation of a natural scene. He prophetically describes the incident of his death by drowning. In the last stanza, he asks himself not to be morbid in such a beautiful scene. He is sure that this glorious day will be enshrined in his memory. 3.2.6 UNSOLVED SHORT QUESTIONS: Q.No.1 Explain the poem ‘To Wordsworth’ as a sonnet. Q.No.2 Justify the title of the poem ‘Song to the Men of England’. Q.No.3 Discuss the Theme of ‘Prometheus’ Q.No.4 Autobiographical element in ‘Stanzas written in Dejection.’ 3.2.7SUGGESTED READING Shelley : A Life Story, by Edmund Blunden. Shelley : Twentieth Century Views; A collection of Critical Essays, edited by George M. Ridenour. Shelley : Selected Poems and Prose, edited by G.M. Mathews (Introduction, pp 7 to 45) Shelley : Major Poetry, by Carlos Baker. Life of Shelley, by Newmen Ivey White. Romantic Poetry by Graham Hough (pp.120-150) 3.2.8 LET US SUM UP In this lesson, you have read about the life and poetry of P.B. Shelley. You have also read the explanation of the poems prescribed in your syllabus. We hope you have understood them easily.

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B.A. Part-II ENGLISH LITERATURE (Elective) Semester-IV Literary Masterpieces : Study of Classics

LESSON NO. 3.3

P.B. Shelley: Main Aspects of His Poetry. STRUCTURE:

12.0 Objectives 12.1 Shelley as a lyric Poet. 12.2 Shelley as a Poet of Revolt 12.3 Shelley : A General Estimate 12.4 Unsolved Short questions 12.5 References 12.6 Let us sum up 12.0 OBJECTIVES This lesson aims to acquaint you with : Shelley as a lyric Poet Shelley as a Poet of Revolt Shelley : A General Estimate Short Questions 12.1 SHELLEY AS A LYRIC POET Shelley is regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets in English. But it is not enough to say that Shelley is a great lyric poet. It is important to understand where Shelley’s lyricism comes from. Lyricism is the direct spontaneous expression of emotions, effects and feelings and nothing is more ruinous to it than the meddlesome distortions of the clever, devising intellect. In Wordsworth’s language it is the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions. This direct expression of emotion is very well illustrated in the following stanza: O World, O life, O time ! On whose last steps I climb, Trembling at that where I had stood before: When will return the glory of your prime ? No more – oh, never more ! Out of the day and night A joy has taken flight Fresh spring, and summer and winter hoar,

Move my faint heart with grief, and with delight?

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No more-oh, never more! Note that in the ‘lament’ reproduced above, there is no interference of thought. Perhaps, it is the type of lyricism of Shelley which makes Arthur Compton-Ricket write: “Shelley exhaled verse as a flower exhales fragrance, and just as the fragrance of a blossom varies in quality and power so did Shelley’s verse vary in poetic merit. “The essential point is that there was not effort or laborious artistry about it at any time. He may not always have been a poet. Rhythm came as naturally to him as breathing. This distinguished him at once from his contemporaries, several of whom served a laborious apprenticeship to the poetic Art. Keats especially, whom one always thinks of in connection with Shelley, for personal reason, strove long and arduously before he arrived at that consummate art that conceals art in such flawless gems as ‘Ode to Autumn’ (A History of English Literature. Universal, Book Stall, Delhi, reprint, 1978) p.337 When Shelley is not expressing emotions directly, he is doing so through his identifications with certain objects of nature such as ‘The Cloud’, “The West Wind’, and ‘Skylark’. And his identifications are mediumistic and mystical, and not Eliotic and cerebral. This type of mediumistic identification with things, objects, mythic personages, etc. is the source of powerful lyricism, not only in his small poems, but also in his long poems such as the ‘Prometheus Unbound’. What is to be understood about Shelley’s lyricism is that is not concerned with expressing physical aches and pains as is the case with lyric love-poetry; it is also not concerned with instincts of the vital and emotions tied up there, such as anger, jealousy, passion, infatuation hatred etc. His lyricism is of the heart, the seat of the psychic, this psychic is further open cosmic feelings of purity and breadth and aptitude, sorrow and sufferings for mankind and there is furthermore, a spiritual and transcendental upward offering of the psychic lyricism. This psychic lyricism and not vital lyricism which is the hallmark of a Shakespeare, of a Kalidas, of a Chandidas, of a Vidyapati, of Punjabi folk romances, permeates all of Shelley’s poetry, be it ‘Ode to the West Wind’, ‘To a Skylark’, ‘Queen Mab’, ‘Revolt of Islam’, ‘Hellas’ or ‘Prometheus Unbound’. It is mendacious mistake to characterize Shelley with Mathew Arnold as ‘an ineffectual angel beating his wings in the void’. His lyricism, whose soul in song reminds one of his skylark who pours his heart in profuse strains of not only unpremediate art from Heaven or near it, but also soars higher in profuse strains and in so doing brings down supernal strings and energies to impact upon the world. One may say that in his lyricism Shelley sings from the sky earthwards on the one hand and from the inner heart-consciousness on the other hand. And if his emotions and feelings appear obscure, ethereal, elusive, it is not so much his problems as ours, as we live mostly in the physical, vital and mental and not at the psychic, cosmic and spiritual level. Dear student,

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Shelley’s Lyricism can best be understood by viewing his creativity as characterisiced by dream, contemplation and vision.

12.2 SHELLEY AS A POET OF REVOLT William J. Long in English Literature (Lyall Book Depot, 2nd Indian Edition 1968 p. 412) writes that there are three types of visionaries in English Literature. The first type sees visions, they are content with them and stumble through life without worrying. Blake is an example of this type as marked by Long. The second type is a seer and a prophet who endeavours to convert his visions into the stuff of reality. The examples are Langland and Wycliff. The third type is a visionary who sets about everything impatiently and anarchically whatever he deems to be in the way of the actualization of his vision Shelley according to Long, belongs to this third category. To quote Long on the subject, to get the details of his criticism of Shelley. The third who appears in many forms-as visionary, enthusiast, radical, anarchist revolutionary, call him what you will-sees a vision and straight away begins to tear down all human institutions which have been built up by the slow toil of centuries, simply because they seem to stand in the way of his dream. To the latter class belongs Shelley, a man perpetually at war with the present world, a martyr and exile simply because of his inability to sympathize with men and society as they are and because of his own mistaken judgements as to the value and purpose of a vision. What Long writes is certainly true of Shelley at the age of twenty. It is true that in “Queen Mab” Shelley is giving expression to the Rousseauistic belief that people are essentially and inwardly incorruptible and they have been warped by kings, priests and statement. Even in Shelley’s mature poetry, the rebellion against the church and the state continues so that shallow and superficial critics and there are some fine critics as A Clutton Brock and W.E. Peck among them, tend, to dismiss Shelley as a poet of revolt as being hysterical and adolescent. But as Shelley grew, his revolt against certain institutions, secular and religious was not doctrinaire. He was concerned with higher consciousness, with Sat Chit Anand and was interested in the truth coming down into life. Naturally, social forms which thrived on privileges and inequality drew his ire and legitimately so. Considered thus, the tribute that Compton-Rickett pays to Shelley is just right: Liberty for down-trodden, hope for the oppressed, peace for the storm tossed, these are things that fire his songs and stir his imagination to its depth. For this reason. The Mosque of Anarchy, “Prometheus

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Unbound”, ‘Hellas’, the ‘Ode to the West Wind’ move us in a way that none of his love poetry does. (Compton-Rickett, op.cit.p.341) It seems to me that Shelley as a visionary and a rebel needs re-evaluation and it is time to go to clichés of his being young and immature and anti- authoritarian to boot because of his traumatic school experience and running full stream against the conservative, reactionary British society. The poet had first- hand visions of Truth, Beauty, Delight from the vantage ground of spirit, Of course, the Western critic sees them as coming from his readings of Plato and Spinoza. But Shelley was a born mystic and the greatest among the romantics, including Wordsworth whose mysticism was sporadic as it was channlled to him through nature only. Shelley was directly in the spirit, but unlike a traditional Yogi who discards life, he had no need to infuse the stress and the breath of the spirit into life, he was for the decent of the spirit on the earth plane. He was for transforming the masses. His transformation programme therefore included throwing off the yoke of all that was moribund and putrescent, preparing the present man, sunk in ignorance and fear and superstition, for a bright future. He realized that the better task was then more difficult, for he writes For love and beauty and delight, There is not death nor change: there might Exceeds our organs, which endure No light, being themselves obscure The lines, “these might exceeds our organs, which endure no light, being themselves obscure” remind one Sri Aurobindo who reiterates in practically all his writings that the present consciousness with the ego controlling the physical, vital and mental must be changed through psychic work in order for man to go to the next stages of the Overman and the Superman. Shelley indeed as a rebel is a pioneering visionary, not an escape type dreamer. Even with regard to changing social system, and forms he was not an anarchist. In 1821 he wrote in his ‘A Philosophical View of Reform’: Any sudden attempt at universal sufferage would produce an immature attempt at the Republic. It is better than an object so inexpressibly great should never have been attempted then that it should be attempted and fail. Shelley’s posture of revolt should be seen in the ultimate analysis as being derivative from his prophetic consciousness which was committed archetypally to mutating the world so that it could become a better place for all to live. In the ‘Ode to the west wind’ he invokes the West Wind to make him an instrument: Drive my dead thoughts over the universe

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Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth And, by the incantations of his verse, Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! Be through my lips to unawakened earth If Winter comes The trumpet of a prophecy ! O Wind Can spring be far behind. Dear students, in reading this section of Shelley as a revolutionary, you’ll find that it contradicts the last paragraph. On the face of it, it does. Shelley at his best as he in 'Prometheus Unbound' is free from hate and malice. I speak in grief, Not exulation, for I hate no more. As then are misery made me wise. But the young Shelley as a poet of revolt did suffer from the symptoms as described above. But if Shelley a poet of revolt seems contradictory, it is worthwhile to remember that any poet worth the salt is necessarily large and speaks from several psychic states and personalities and that some status are purer, and some are cruder and shadow-laden. So as an astute reader, you will have to develop a discriminatioin and clarity and see for yourself, when Shelley is speaking from the inner depths and with anguish and sorrow and when he is mad and hysterical and sad in the face. 12.3 SHELLEY : A GENERAL ESTIMATE Shelley is not regarded as a great poet today. This reaction against Shelley consolidated itself between 1920-30 with the emergence of modern poetry with its stresses on impersonality by Eliot, because of attitude of despair and alienation in the wake of two world wars and collapse of idealistic values, and in terms of style preference for hard images by T.E. Hulme, Amy Lowell, Ezra, Pound, etc. As a result of these changes in taste, Shelley is considered as an immature poet given to expressing the personal emotion in poetry. It is said that he escapes from reality into the rarefied domain of transcendental philosophy and vision and into Utopianism instead of dealing with the complexities, of existence and the problems of society. So poor Shelley has been made into an Icarus who flies high and falls down and cries out his hurt and wounds. But the fact remains that Shelley is a great poet, unique in his contribution. He is a lyricist, par excellence and the fact is that how-so-ever intellectual or metaphysical a poet may become, lyricism is the heart of poetry, nay, it is the soul of poetry. And Shelley can express emotions and feelings, so purely, so directly and so passionately in a language throbbing with beauty and melody. When Hegel says that poetry expresses or renders the inner landscape of the mind or the passions,

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feelings, agitations and ecstasies of the heart and the soul, he may as well be talking of Shelley as it is especially applicable to him, “And Shelley’s lyricism takes on an archetypal sweep and range, intensity and an amplitude in his poems such as ‘Ode to the West Wind’, “The Cloud’ etc. In addition to his uncanny gift that Shelley had in singing his emotions and feelings in seraphic strain he had a creative imagination which could see visions, the phantasmagoria of inner consciousness beyond the mind and express them through ancient mythologems. Changes to suit his new, fresh visioning or through new forms not dreamt before. Shakespeare’s characterization of the poet: The poet’s eye in fine freezy rolling Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven As imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing. A local habitation and a name is applicable to Shelley. However, what is important is not to say that Shelley was inspired and was extraordinarily imaginative, but to see where inspiration came from and at which level it operated. Inspiration can be physical, vital, mental, psychic and spiritual. A more precise way of putting it would be that inspiration which, when genuine, is always poetic, divine, can, have a, impact upon any of the five planes or two or three yielding thereby pure, or mixed results. Now, when Shelley’s inspiration would hit the psychic plane or the emotional-vital or what is called the heart-centre which made him give us lyrics without the complication or contamination of thought and reflection. In his longer poems such as ‘Prometheus Unbound’, ‘Revolt of Islam’, his inspiration impacted upon the spiritual, resulting in epic and dramatic visions of a new age, a new dispensation new modes of consciousness. According to Sri Aurobindo, Shelley is the most psychic and spiritual poet among the romantics. His inspiration takes him to lofty heights and to a unique visionary world. And when Shelley is not soaring on the wings of Pegasus, bringing rains from the clouds like the Vedic Dadhi-Kraman, he is singing from the sky earthwards like his skylark. And there are solid contents to his dreams and visions. He envisaged a world order free from tyranny and oppression. Unlike Wordsworth who hailed French Revolution but recanted seeing it lead to havoc and violence, Shelley remained consistent in his revolutionary espousal because intuitively he realized that new order could not come about without destruction and holocaust. Paul Eluars, a great French poet known for his poems of French Resistance says that one needs Love and Discrimination to understand the world, but struggle to change it. This is certainly true of the epic thrust of Shelley’s poetry

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at a content level. To-day it may be customary to look askance at Shelley’s revolutionary zeal as being ideological, but the hard fact is that he conceived his millennial vision in archetypal terms and gave it a mythopoeiac content which will reverberate with awe resonances even when the world of his seeking has come into being. Shelley gave a new sense of the potential of man-woman relationship. This relationship has come to be called Psyche-Epipsyche Paradigm. It is concretized in depth and detail in the relationship between the seeker and the woman who appears in his dreams in the vale of Kashmir in ‘Alastor’, in Laon and Cythia in ‘The Revolt of Islam’, in Asia and Panthea in 'Prometheus Unbound'. In its ultimate thrust, it postulates a relationship of merger and identity. D.H. Lawrence may baulk at such relationships (like the proverbial cat who wants to eat fish without getting its feet wet) as violating the film of separation which must operate even in the best of relationships to ensure that the partners are 'themselves' and have their separate identities. But it is easier for the Indian reader to respond to Shelley’s mythopoetic formulations because for our cultural connections as exemplified in Radha-Krishana, Shiva-Parbati, Heer-Ranjha, etc. Shelley alone, among the romantics, is a prophet-poet. He unveils hitherto- unknown unresponded truths of inner consciousness on the one hand and new poises and prospective vistas in society on the other. He brings into our view new constellations. It is a cliché in criticism to speak highly of Shelley as a poet and disparagingly as prophet; it is not realized by critics who love to dichotomize him that as a prophet, he did not express his occult, subtle truths directly in any moralist, didactic, evangelical fashion but through poetry rich in beauty. And throbbing with delight, If Shelley had not died premature he would not have petered out like Wordsworth; he would not have gone dry like Coleridge because he did genuine poetry, had rare spirituality, sublime passion and had a mediumistic capacity to rejoice and grieve; and he was getting his feet on the ground as evidenced in his play 'Cenci'. According to Sri Aurobindo, great creativity is predicated on five principles, tattvas; Spirit, Truth, Beauty, Delight, Life. Now Shelley had four things on his side, he was getting into the fifth. The source of his inspiration was rich spiritual and psychic, not mental or intellectual as it was with Browning, not vital and physical as it was with Keats. And he had an innate rhythm to convert his inspiration into beauty and delight, and he had a sense of craft in which he was growing rapidly to serve his tranmythic ends. What Shelley writes about Keats in “Adonais” is true of Shelley himself: He is made one with Nature: there is heard His voice in all her music, from the moan

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Of thunder to the song of night’s sweet bird; He is a presence to be felt and known In darkness and in light, from herb and stone Spreading itself where’re that power may move Which has withdrawn his being to its own; Which wields the world with never-wearied love, Sustains it from beneath, and kindles it above. 12.4 UNSOLVED SHORT QUESTIONS: Q.No.1 Shelley’s love for Nature. Q.No.2 Shelley as a lyric Poet Q.No.3 Write a few lines on Shelley as a Poet of Revolt. Q.No.4 Write a few lines on Shelley a great poet. 12.5 REFERENCES Edmund Blunden, Shelley: A Life Story, Viking press, 1947 James Bieri, Percy Bysshe Shelley: A Biography, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, ISBN 0-8018-8861-1 Altick, Richard D., The English Common Reader. Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1998. Holmes, Richard. Shelley: The pursuit. New York; E.P. Dutton, 1975 Maurois, Andre, Ariel ou la vie de Shelley, Paris, Bernard Grasset, 1923 St Clair, William. The Godwins and the Shelleys: A Biography of A Family, London: Faber and Faber, 1990 St Clair, William. The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 Hay, Daisy. Young Romantics : the Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives, Bloomsbury, 2010. 12.6 LET US SUM UP In this lesson, you have read about Shelley as a lyric Poet, as a Poet of Revolt. You have also read Shelley’s general estimate as a poet. We hope you shall understand the contents easily.

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B.A. Part-II ENGLISH LITERATURE (Elective) Semester-IV Literary Masterpieces : Study of Classics

LESSON NO. 3.4

ALFRED TENNYSON : POEMS STRUCTURE 13.0 Objectives 13.1 Alfred Tennyson : The Lady of Shalott 13.1.1 The Poet 13.1.2 The Summary of poem 13.1.3 Study Notes 13.2 Alfred Tennyson : The Lotos-Eaters 13.2.1 The Summary of the Poem 13.2.2 Some Comments 13.2.3 Study Notes 13.3 Alfred Tennyson : Crossing The Bar 13.4 Unsolved Short Questions 13.5 Bibliography of Tennyson 13.6 Let us Sum up 13.0 OBJECTIVES This lesson will acquaint you with : Alfred Tennyson as a poet and his poems ‘The Lady of Shalott’, ‘The Lotos Eaters’ and ‘Crossing the Bar’ The short questions Study Notes 13.1 ALFRED TENNYSON : THE LADY OF SHALOTT 13.1.1 The Poet: Tennyson (1809-1892) is regarded as one of the greatest English poets. He was very popular in his days because he beautifully represented his own age (time period). He dealt with its problems and emphasized its ideals. He is, in fact, considered to be the most representative poet of the Victorian age. Essentially, Tennyson was lyrical poet, a poet of emotion. His ideal was wedded love and domestic virtues. 13.1.1.1 Summary of the Poem: ‘The Lady of Shalott’ is a beautiful narrative poem by Alfred Tennyson. It relates the story of a luckless woman ‘who was doomed to exist without hope or fear’ or human interest under the influence of some over-powering fate. The lady of Shalott lived on a small island called Shalott. Barges and boats moved by that island, but nobody had ever seen the Lady of Shalott. Only the reapers who reaped early in the morning had heard a song coming from the island.

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They would then whisper what was being sung by the Lady of Shalott. The lady devoted her entire time to weaving a web and had no other interest. She had heard that if she left the work to look out of the window in the direction of the city of Camelot, where King Arthur held his Court, some unknown but dreadful fate would befall on her. She could see the landscape and the people who passed along the road or the river by looking into a large mirror in which their images were reflected. She could see in the mirror young cheerful damsels and ill-tempered village- rustics going down to Camelot. She was busy weaving all these sights into her magic web. Once she saw the sight of the young newly-wed lovers, caressing each other. This created discontent in her mind. She felt that she could no longer put up with the life where she could see only shadows. She wanted to come face to face with the realities of life. And then appeared on the scene Sir Lancelot, that bold Knight of King Arthur’s Court. The Knight was an impressive personality. He was wearing brass amour on his legs, and the gem-studded bridle of his horse sparkled brightly as it rang merrily. From his shoulder belt he was hanging ‘a mighty silver bugle’……….As he moved down to Camelot, he looked like a ‘Comet’ trailing light behind it as it moved. The lady had been looking at this flashing image of the Knight as it was reflected in the mirror. She now turned from his image in the mirror to look through the window directly at him. Forthwith the curse fell upon her. The magic web and the mirror were broken and she felt death drawing near. She came down from her tower and lay down in a boat that was floating on the water. The boat now started moving down to Camelot. By the time it reached ‘Camelot’, the lady was already dead. As she was discovered dead by the people of Camelot, They stood in fear and made the sign of the holy cross. All royal merry-making came to a sudden end. Sir Lancelot looked at her and praised her for her lovely face. He prayed that God might be merciful to the departed spirit. It was thus that the lady of Shalott chose rather to die than live as a dreamer perpetually in the midst of shadows. The poem illustrates a moral lesson also: “The God-like life is with man and for man.” Explanation with Reference to the Context: Or When the moon was overhead. Came two young lovers lately wed: “I am half sick of shadows”, said The Lady of Shalott.

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These lines have been taken from Tennyson’s well-known poem, “The Lady of Shalott’. It relates the story of a lady who is doomed to live on an island in solitude without any hope or interest. She could look at the world only as it was reflected in a mirror. If she did otherwise, some unknown but dreadful fate would befall on her. These lines mark a turning point in the life of The Lady of Shalott. So far she had been content with looking at the world as it was reflected through the mirror. She could see in the mirror the uncivil rustics, churlish shepherd-boys as also pages dressed up in crimson. The images of the Knights passing in pairs could also be seen. Her only interest so far was to weave all these sights into her magic web. But what brought the matters to a climax was the sight of two newly wed lov in moonlight. She felt that she had been so far leading an unreal life. She felt that life confined to shadows was not worth-living. She wanted to come face to face with the realities regardless of the dangers it involved. She was now convinced that it was better to die than live as a dreamer in the midst of shadows. 13.1.2 Study Notes (please look up the notes of your text-book also.) Barley : a cereal grass; its grain is used for food. Rye : a kind of grain-like wheat. Wold : plain, open country. Meet the sky : stretch (spread) to the horizon. Many-towered Camelot : The legendary city where King Arthur held his court, known for its many towers. Gazing : looking carefully Lilies : a kind of flower Blow : blossom Willows whiten : When moved by the wind the leaves of the willow-trees show their undersurface which is white Dusk and shiver : run over the surface of the water so as to darken and move it Isle : island Impowers : contains and shelters amidst its bowers Willows-veiled : over-shadowed by willow trees Barge : a flat bottomed boat for carrying loads Trailed : drew along Unhailed : Without being called to by any body in the island

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Fliteeth : goes forward Skimming : touching lightly i.e. moving gently Casement : window Reapers : farmers who cut down the harvest Echoes : resounds Cheerly : happily Winding : leading to or moving in a zig-zag manner Weary : tired Piling : gathering at one place Sheaves : bundles or stalks of corn In uplands airy : in the atmosphere of a village situated on a small hill PART II Gay : Happy, bright Steadily : slowly, gradually Shadows of the world : reflections or images of the busy life of the world outside Eddy : whirlpool Whirls : water moves in circles Surly : uncivil Village-churls : peasants, boors Market girls : girls of the city Troop : a group Damsels : young unmarried women Abbot : head priest, head of monks Ambling : moving by lifting two feet on one side together, having easy paces Pad : a horse with easy paces Page : servant; personal attendant Crimson clad : dressed in red clothes Knights : soldiers Delights : feel happy A funeral with plumes : a procession of a dead person decorated And light a music : with feather, lights and music PART III Bower eave : the projecting edge of the roof of her room Dazzling : shining, penetrating Brazen : made of brass Greaves : armour for the lower part of the legs

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Sir Lancelot : the most famous knight of King Arthur’s Round Table Kneel’d : bowed down To a lady in his shield : the figure of a knight kneeling to a lady was carved on his shield Sparkled : was shining Remote : secluded, backward Galaxy : an infinite number of stars shining close together when the sky is clear Helmet : armour for the head Burn’d like one : Sir Lancelot was decorated from head to Burning flame together : feet. He was therefore, shining like a flame of fire and was very attractive. Starry clusters bright : groups of stars which were shining in the sky Bearded meteor : a comet i.e. a heavenly body which flash along the sky like star leaving a trial behind it. Trailing light : leaving light behind it Brow : forehead Glowed : was shining Burnished house : shining house Curls : hair Flashed into the crystal : his reflection fell into the clear mirror Mirror Tirra lira : words musical in sound, but meaningless, show the knight’s light heartedness Three paces : three steps Plume : showy feather floated : spread crack’d : broken into pieces PART IV straining : making violent effort woods : trees waning : declining the broad stream in his bank complaining : The stream was complaining against the rush of water in it Left afloot : ready to sail Prow : The front of a boat or ship Expanse : a wide stretch, extent, width

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Seer : one who sees into the future, a prophet In a trance seeing all his : in a state of rapture (when a seer can see into the future) Own mischance : who sees a vision of bad luck inevitably coming upon himself Glassy : transparent Countenance : appearance Wound along : moved along Carol : song Mournful : sad Chanted : sung A gleaming shape : like a shining body Wharft : landing places for the ships Dame : lady Royal cheer : the merry banquet of the king Cross’d themselves : made the sign of the holy cross on their bodies (done by Christians to avert danger from evil spirits etc.) God in his mercy lend Her grace : May God be merciful to her departed spirit 13.2 LOTUS-EATERS 13.2.1 The summary of the Poem: Lotus-Eaters describes one of the numerous difficulties that Ulysses and his companions had to face while returning home after the war of Troy. They landed on the island where they tasted a fruit called lotos which made them sick with lethargy and languor. Thereafter, they did not want to work or even go home to their wives and children. Tennyson has beautifully depicted that mood of indolence in the poem. In the first stanza, we find Ulysses sighting the land and encouraging his tired sailors to strive on to reach the shore. In the afternoon (a symbol of laziness and rest) they reach the land, the land of the lotos-eaters. Here they find everything lazy and languid such as the slow-moving air and slender streams flowing along the slopes as slowly as a downward smoke. In the second stanza, the poet emphasizes again the slow movement of the streams looking like delicate lines reflecting the setting sun. Then the poet goes on to describe the surrounding landscape that the sailors saw: the gleaming rivers flowing steadily towards the sea, the three snow-capped mountains flashed with the light of the setting sun and thick growth of the pines dripping with dewdrops. (Tennyson is a painter poet known for minute observation and accurate description.)

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In the third stanza, the description of the landscape continues. In the beautiful sun-set, the sailors could see the far-stretching valleys through the openings in the mountains and the palm trees on the pale sandy beaches. It appeared as if this land-scape had ever been the same; as if it had never been disturbed by a natural calamity. Then the sailors saw around their ship the pale sad faces of the lotos-eaters (the local inhabitants of the island) against the lingering light of the setting sun. In the fourth stanza, we find the lotus-eaters carrying branches laden with fruits and flowers. And they gave them to all the sailors and whosoever ate this fruit forgot all about the roaring waves and the toils on the sea. Their voice became thin and dim and they could hear the beating of their own heart in the calm and quiet which they felt after eating the fruit. In the last stanza, the poet tells us that the sailors then left their ships and lay themselves down on the sandy beach with the sun-setting and moon coming up near the shore. They thought of their homes, wives and children; but they were weary of wandering on the sea to search their fatherland. So they decided to ‘return no more’ and started singing in a chorus about the languorous mood that had engulfed them after eating the lotos-fruit. 13.2.2 Some Comments: ‘Lotus- Eaters’ is a poem of languor and melancholy born of exhaustion. For a whole year, Ulysses and his companions have been wandering on the sea, without any sign or hope of ever reaching home. They have been passing through various difficulties which sometimes brought them to the verge of death. In fact, many of them already died. After months they saw and set foot on a land where it is all peace and calm. There they develop a kind of philosophy which is the fusion of lethargy and Epicureanism. The flowers and the fruits ripen and fall in roof and crown of all things?” They give up all their views about reform and progress. This, coming from the brave and adventurous people who fought for ten years and ultimately won the war of Troy, is complete metamorphosis. It makes them forget the dearest things that they have been cherishing, their wives and children, their friends of childhood, even their native land for which they have been fighting. This is the situation that Ulysses had to face. He is brave and has all along been saving his companions from external dangers. How to save themselves-that is his problem now and Homer says that he had to apply the whip and force them back home. Now read the first stanza once again and second time slowly. Do you notice that you cannot help reading slowly. The long vowels, particularly at the end of the lines (land, soon, dream etc.) make you linger. Long vowels predominate in the whole stanza. Read the last line, for instance.

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“Along the cliff to fall and pause and fall did seem” The movement of the flow (called the rhythm of the lines) is lazy and slow corresponding to the languor of the place. Notice also that the nature depicted also corresponds to the mood of the lotos-eaters that the poet is going to describe in the subsequent stanza and accentuates that mood. That is characteristic of all nature poetry of Tennyson : it is always afternoon, the laziest part of the day. The air is heavy as if it would swoon, and the streams are moving lazily, pausing and falling. ‘Lotus-Eaters’ is one of Tennyson’s greatest poems. You will be well advised to read Ulysses’ along with it. Ulysses there enunciates the opposite philosophy of life-the philosophy of struggle and toil. There you will find a sharp contrast not only in the theme, but also in the description of nature and in the movement of the verse. There Ulysses inspires his companions: ‘Old age hath yet his honour and his toil’ He goads them on the utmost limit of knowledge and adventure, for, though old, they are: ‘Strong in will To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield. 13.2.3 STUDY NOTES (Also please consult notes given in your textbook at pages 128 to 130). L.1 Courage : Ulysses is encouraging his companions who are tired of wandering about on the sea. L. 9. It is one of the slowest lines in all literature. Stanza 2 – a part of stanza 2 presents an exquisite picture of the scene of nature. You can almost draw a painting of it. Tennyson is a painter-poet, known for minute observation and accurate description. L. 10-11. Mark the beauty of the two similes. The streams are compared to downward smoke. How slow it would be if at all it could go downward; Lawn is a kind of fine linen. L. 17. Marks the epithet sunset-flushed. It is Keatsian. Tennyson was very much under keats’ influence particularly in his younger days. Here are some of the other Keatsian touches; the languid air did swoon fullfaced, charmed sunset, dark face pale against that rosy flame. Pick out some more. L. 32. Another extremely slow line in which six out of ten syllables contain long vowels, five of them accented. L. 37. Why is the sand yellow ? Because of the colour of the sunset ? Or is it that yellow is the colour of sloth and lethargy? Explanation with reference to the context Branches they bore of that enchanted stem

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Laden with flower and fruit, whereof they gave To each, but whose did receive of them And taste to him the gushing of the wave Far far away did seem to mourn and rave On alien shores These lines have been taken from Tennyson’s poem The Lotos Eaters. During their wandering on the sea, Ulysses and his companions landed on a soil pervaded by an atmosphere of lethargy and languor. They noticed that everything around them was slow and calm. There they were greeted by the melancholy Lotos-eaters, the inhabitants of that land. The Lotos-eaters carried in their hand branches of the plant laden with fruit and flower. They offered the lotos fruit to the new comers. But whoever ate became forgetful of reality. Ulysses’s companions became so drowsy and sleepy that they forgot all about the rearing waves and toils on the sea. 13.3 CROSSING THE BAR This poem also deals with death. The poet visualizes his own end. He wants to die peacefully. The poet compares life after death to a voyage. When putting out to sea, one has to cross the harbour bar. After that the real voyage begins. The poet wants this to be a smooth charge-over. After the sun of life has set, the poet wants to ship away quietly. Let no noise disturb him, no obstruction come in his way. Like a strong sweep of the tide, carrying away all before it, let him be carried away deep into the ocean. That which came out of the sea is a part of it. In going back to the element of its origin, it should not experience any difficulty. Those who have lived fruitless lives are overtaken by a consciousness of it. Their hearts are filled with extreme regret. This, however, is not true of the poet. He is satisfied with what little he has done. He therefore, wants to die a contented and peaceful death. He has the added consolation and hope that after his death, he will be able to see, face to face, the Master Spirit who runs this universe. 13.4 UNSOLVED SHORT QUESTIONS Q.No.1 Justify the title of the poem ‘The lady of Shalott’. Q.No.2 The theme of the poem ‘The lotos-Eaters’ Q.No.3 What is ‘Bar’ in the poem ‘Crossing the Bar’. 13.5 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TENNYSON Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) Nationality : British Periods : British: 19th Century Writer of Idylls of the King, poet laureate in 1850 Criticism about Lord Alfred Tennyson

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Alfred Lord Tennyson : An Overview Contains a variety of information on Tennyson and his times, included are a biography, links to full text works, and themes, structure, and genre in his work. Contains : Pictures, Criticism, Bibliography, Webliography, Full Bio From : Victorian Web The Alien Vision of Victorian Poetry : Sources of the Poetic imagination in Tennyson, Browning, and Arnold http:www.victorrianweb.org/books/alienvision/contents.html Looks at the cultural influences on the imagery evoked in the poetry of Tennyson, Browning, and Arnold Contains : Criticism Author : E.D.H. Johnson From : The Victorian Web Princeton : Princeton University Press , 1952 Tennyson and Cholera http://vp.engl.wvu.edu/winter97/platizky.htm This analysis of Tennyson writings looks at how, “In examining, however, the surprisingly few references Tennyson makes to cholera in his collected writings, one discovers the poet’s reaction most often to be detached and defensive rather than empathetic or consolatory as if he were trying to ward off the disease by emphasizing its otherness instead of identifying with its universality. Contains : Criticism Author : Roger S. Platizky From : Victorian Poetry Volume 35, no. 4 Winter 1997 Tennyson’s Major Poems : The Comic and Ironic Patterns http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/kincaid/contents.htm... Book-length critical work that explores the use of comedy and irony in the poems of Tennyson. Contains : Criticism Author : James R. Kincaid From : The Victorian Web New Haven : Yale University Press, 1975 The Tennysons http://www.bartleby.com/223/index.html#2 This lengthy analysis of the authors’ lives and work includes sections on “Tennyson’s early poems”, “The Princess”, “Idylls of the King”, “Dramas and later poems and ballads”, “Charles Tennyson” and “Frederick Tennyson.” Contains: Extensive Bio, Criticism, Bibliography Author : Herbert J.C. Grierson From : The Cambridge History of English and American Literature Volume XIII : English, The Victorian Age, Part One, The Nineteenth Century, II

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Biographical sites about Lord Alfred Tennyson Alfred Lord Tennyson : A Brief Biography http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/lennybio.html This brief biography looks at Tennyson’s personal life as well as his literary achievements. Contains: Extensive Bio Author : Glenn Everett From : Victorian Web Tennyson’s Life : A Timeline http://CHARON.SFSU.EDU/TENNYSON/TENNCHRON.HTML This chronology focuses on Tennyson’s publishing history. Contains: pictures, Timeline Author: Arthur Chandler Other sites about Lord Alfred Tennyson Tennyson Bibliography http://charon.sfsu.edu/tennyson/bibliography.html This very brief bibliography covers general biography and criticism of Tennyson as well as a few critical books on The Idylls of the King. Contains : Bibliography Author : Carol-An de Naissance 13.6 LET US SUM UP Dear student, so far, in this lesson, you have read the prescribed poems by Tennyson. We hope you must have followed the contents easily.