Dramatic Strategy in Shelley's Poems to Jane Williams

Home , A Dirge, Epipsychidion, Jane Williams, To a Skylark

(Received December 3, 1999)

KyushuInstituteofTechnology KeiNIJIBAYASHI

Argument

When we discuss the Romantic lyrics which are privately composed, we tend to compare them with the poets' masterpieces and to regard them as less important. In fact, this should not be the case. A poet often composes a piece of poetry with the larger poetic scheme in mind. Some lyrics are intended to represent a certain aspect of his poetics. So it is important to interpret such poems as clues to understanding his poetics. Sometimes the study of these poems offers us a new point of view in helping us to reevaluate the poet. This paper will focus on Shelley's neglected final poems and will demonstrate that they form a certain thematic group, have distinctive dramatic characteristics and have much in common with his later works in the way of representing Shelley's philosophy of time and morality.

My guiding wish was, that the small pieces of which these volumes consist, thus discriminated, might be regarded under a two-fold view; as composing an entire work within themselves, and as adjuncts to the philosophical Poem, `The Recluse.' ')

When William Wordsworth published Poems in 1815, he clearly shows his intention of positioning his small lyrics in the preface. They are not only self-complete, but also satellite poems which would explain or enrich the universe of his supposed life work, The Recluse, ofwhich The Prelude and The Excursion remain as parts. This seems to disclose a Romantic poet's thoughts about small poems in'relation to long masterpieces. The Romantic poets are often evaluated by their major works: Wordsworth's The Prelude, Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Byron's Don Juan, Shelley's Prometheus Unbound and Keats's Endymion. But, as Wordsworth states, it is undeniable that many of the shorter Romantic 1yrics represent some aspect of an individual poet's thought. Blake's songs, Coleridge's early poems, Keats's odes notably form their central poetics. Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience, for example, summarizes his philosophical, ethical, 20 Kei NIJIBAYASHI religious, aesthetical thought to some extent. Wordsworth's shorter poems have always been regarded as important as The Prelude. In looking at Shelley's work, some poems have been closely studied and accepted as poems to show ideas central to his poetics: "Ode to the West Wind," "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty," "To a Skylark," "Ode to Liberty" and so on. On the other hand, some lyrics have been neglected or undeservedly treated, Among Shelley's shorter poems, the poems to Jane Williams (hereafter, the Jane Poems) are outstanding as a largest group. In fact, a few of them are individually studied and some poetic techniques are discussed by William Keach in Shelleor 's Style or by Donald Davie in "Shelley's Urbanity." What has not been fuIly explored is how Shelley's other works relate to the Jane poems. More precisely, it has not been clarified how characteristic they are as a group in relation to his later poems like Hellas and The 7Yiumph of Life. The Jane Poems are generally considered to be apart from the main stream of Shelley's great works.

The Jane Poems are considered to be love poems. But it is difficult for us to define the nature of Shelley's love for Jane Williams.2) It seems certain, however, that his last days when he was in love with this woman were among the happiest and calmest in his life. A mood of calm can be noted in the Jane Poems; especially in the poems to be discussed: "The Invitation," "The Recollection," "With a Guitar, to Jane" and "The Keen Stars Were Twinkling." As Judith Chernaik observes, the theme of these poems seems to be "the happy union oflove, music, poetry, nature." 3) Indeed, this peacefu1 mood creates a lyrical world different from that of his earlier works. Among the Jane Poems, "The Invitation" and "The Recollection" are probably the best known and most discussed.4) Although Shelley originally wrote these as one longer poem, he intended to divide it into two separate sequences from the very first. His intention can be conjectured by differences in metre, form and tone between two poems.5) "The Invitation" seems to preserve its calm and happy mood throughout; it describes Shelley's growing love for Jane. However, when we look at it into detail, a darker mood can be observed. For example, the "halcyon"day, which "seems" to him the birth of "The brightest hour of unborn spring," in fact lasts briefly.6) He compares Jane with this unsure and transient day:

Best and brightest, come away -- Fairer far than this fair day Which like thee to those in sorrow Comes to bidasweet good-morrow. . . . (443) Dramatic Strategy in Shelley's Poems to Jane Williams 21

In spite of the generally pleasant import of these lines, he makes the rhyme scheme unpleasant: "away / day" and "sorrow / morrow." To add to this implied sadness, he deliberately provides ominous elements which incessantly undermine the ephemeral paradise of the poem: personification of sad concepts and some disharmonious images in the last stanza. In "The Invitation," personified concepts appear as if they were actors on the stage, and the poet, a supposed director, directs each to keep away from him for the sake of his happiness.

Reflexion, you may come tomorrow, Sit by the fireside with Sorrow -- You, with the unpaid bill, Despair, You, tiresome verse-reciter Care, I will pay you in the grave, Death will listen to your stave -- Expectation too, be off. To-day is for itselfenough -- (444)

Even in the midst of happiness with Jane, he is conscious of and tries to expel these unhappy and discouraging thoughts. In fact, ironically, they will come back to him in the sequential poem, "The Recollection." For example, the personified "Reflexion" appears again as "Memory." This ironical relation between the cause (the poet's dismissal of unhappy concepts) and the result (their formidable recurrence) dramatically links"The Invitation" and "The Recollection"like two acts. In addition, the image of the poet -- like that of a conjurer trying to control uncontrollable thoughts which continue to disturb --serves to accentuate this dramatic consequence. The rhyme also forebodes the tragedy of his love in the near future: "tomorrow/Sorrow," "Despair/Care" and " grave/stave." The discussion of images in the last stanza of "The Invitation" eventually leads us to conclude that the poem's peacefu1 mood is superficial. There are two significant images: the recess of pine trees and the night which is imagined at noon. The recess is described as discording with the poem's harmonious world.

Where the pine its garland weaves Of sapless green and ivy dun Round stems that never hiss the Sun -- [Italic mine] (444)

The nook is strangely excluded from the sunny ideal world, for "all things seem only one 1 In the universal Sun" (444) .7) Quite contrary to the lively outer world, the nook 22 Kei NIJIBAYASHI is hidden and confined by "sapless green and ivy dun" as if it were an embodiment of the unpleasant concepts which he tried to dispel. If we can interpret this nook as the dark side of the poet's mind, it indicates that he recognizes the ephemeral nature and the sad consequence of his love. The coiling plants too are possibly symbolic of the psychological troubles he experiences in love. 8) The poet strangely imagines night in the middle of day, and this also anticipates the unfortunate turn of the poet's love.

When the night is left behind In the deep east dun and blind And the blue noon is over us, And the multitudinous Billows murmur at our feet Where the earth and ocean meet, And all things seem only one In the universal Sun. -- (444) [Italic mine]

Why does he emphasize the noon by contrast with the night? The answer can be deduced from the transient peace in his mind. The day described is a "halcyon" day; it is so rare and momentary that it only promises him a brief "unborn spring." This happiness is only possible in daytime and night will come soon. Potential winter lurks behind the superficial sunny day. Contrary to "Ode to the West Wind," the poet's view involves despair. Though he thought he had dismissed unhappy ideas, he can never dispel the dark winter which comes from within. Even though the poet believes that he is in a harmonious world, the only word he can use for confirming it is "seem:" "all things seem only one" (444) . This imperfect unity of the paradise will disintegrate in the subsequent poem: "The Recollection." Ifwe assume "The Invitation" as a question about Shelley's love, "The Recollection" is the answer. We move from the state ofhappiness to that oftragic climax and end. Surprisingly, the introductory stanza of "The Recollection" begins with the image of death. The halcyon day described in "The Invitation"has now been lost and dead; the blue noon has been replaced by the severe countenance of Winter.

Now the last day of many days, All beautifu1 and bright as thou, The loveliest and the last, is dead. Rise, Memory, and write its praise! Up to thy wonted work! come, trace The epitaph of glory fled; Dramatic Strategy in Shelley's Poems to Jane Williams 23

For now the Earth has changed its face, A frown is on the Heaven's brow. (444-5)

The poet retrospectively views the lost paradise, and he commands the personified "Memory" (which, as we have seen, is"Reflexion"transformed) to reproduce the past. We are informed by this introduction that the poet's anxiety has been materialized and his love has been broken. The rest of"The Recollection" is a reproduction of the halcyon day or the paradise in "The Invitation." Naturally, the presence ofJane is much more emphasized in "The Recollection" than in "The Invitation." The focus of the former poem is on Jane, whereas that of the latter is on the outer harmonious world.

A magic circle traced, A spirit interfused around A thrilling silent life, To momentary peace it bound Our mortal nature's strife; -- And still I felt the centre of The magic circle there Was one fair form that fi11ed with love The lifeless atmosphere. (445)

'Ilypically for Shelley's Platonic love, Jane is not only a lover but also a special medium through which he is able to communicate with the ideal or "Intellectual Beauty." In other words, Jane helps him to change his perception and he can briefly see the ideal world as it might appear on earth. In "The Invitation," Shelley seems to have finally attained an earthly paradise through an ideal companion.

Where the soul need not repress Its mtisic lest it should not find An echo in another's mind, While the touch of Nature's art Harmonizes heart to heart. (443)

But this spiritually consummated situation is sustained by the poet's inner contentment by love and joy, and it fades transiently like poetic inspiration as we can see in A Defence ofPoetr y.

It [poetry] is as it were the interpenetration of a diviner nature through our 24 Kei NIJIBAYASHI

own; but its footsteps are like those ofa wind over a sea, which the coming calm erases, and whose traces remain only as on the wrinkled sand which paves it, (504)

Shelley has often imagined his ideal lovers in poetry like Emily in Epipsychidion. In his real life too, he kept seeking a woman through whom he could imaginatively feel the ideal world. His life could become peacefu1 when he gains such a companion. But, unfortunately, his imagination, which is necessary for this unearthly love, is inconstant, and his love becomes unsustainable. Jane's case is comparatively successfu1, but he still fails in maintaining the supreme bliss. His Platonic love depends on his own perception, and when he fails to see the ideal through the woman, the imaginative paradise disintegrates. The image of the pools in the last stanzas explains this self-disintegrating process. The pools reflect the beautifu1 scenery, and the poet's attention is drawn to this unreal world of reflection because, to his eye, it represents a diviner world created by love. However, it is here that the import of all bad omens in "The Invitation" symbolically beeomes apparent. The reflection represents the poet's own love for the ideal. It can stay as long as the water is still; his love too remains supreme as long as his imaginative perception is not hindered and his mind is tranquil.

Sweet views, which in our world above Can never well be seen, Were imaged in the water's love Ofthat fair forest green; And all was interfused beneath With an Elysian glow, An atmosphere without a breath, A softer day below -- (446)

The pools physically and mentally mirror the poet's ephemeral paradise. The surface of the water is disturbed and mirrors the poet's psychological disturbance. The pools function as a device which indirectly tells the dramatic plots of his mind like a play within a play. Because of his imperfect imagination, the outer harmonious world regains its ordinary insignificance. This typically reflects the Romantic correspondence between the outer and the inner worlds. The reflected world on the pools concentrates this dynamic movement between the outer and the inner, the mental and the physical. Shelley dramatically embodies this interaction of the pools rippled by wind which probably implies innuendo of Mary Shelley's jealousy.9) Dramatic Strategy in Shelley's Poems to Jane Williams 25

Until an envious wind crept by, Like an unwelcome thought Which from the mind's too faithfu1 eye Blots one dear image out. -- Though thou art ever fair and kind The forests ever green, Less oft is peace in S[helley]'s mind Than calm in water seen. (446)

The poet's mental peace, his "Intellectual Beauty," the idealized figure ofJane, the Elysian world, all of them are swept away by one breath of wind at once. Wind represents one of "unwelcome thoughts" he tried to dispel in "The Invitation" and possibly represents the poet's personal cares. Though Jane is"ever fair and kind,"he can never regain the lost love for Jane; the troubles of life hindered his imagination. Ironically, this crisis of imagination and love motivates him towards poetic creation. It is typical of the Romantics that lost love becomes the most powerfu1 inspiration as we can see in Coleridge's DeJ'ection: An Ode. They record their loss of imagination in poetry, and, by doing so, they regain it. This paradox is the underlying dynamism of Shelley's tragic love poems, and to represent it, he needed to adapt dramatic techniques.'O) It is now clear that Shelley cut the original long poem into "The Invitation" and "The Recollection" partly intending to produce a tragic effect of contrast: the happy present and the regretfu1 past. "The Invitation" and "The Recollection" can be considered as act 1 and 2 of his tragic love drama. There is some evidence that he was particularly interested in the mode of drama in 1822. First of all, he wrote Hellas, his second and last lyrical drama in 1821. The year I822 was unproductive for Shelley. He could not complete "Charles the First" and with his death his last great poem, The 7Viumph ofLife, was left unfinished. He could not concentrate on his work because of his difficult and awkward relationships with Claire Clairmont and his wife, Mary Shelley. The poetic talent of Lord Byron also baffled him; admiring Don Juan, Shelley felt his inability to rival him.") Struggling with his major works, his attention was turned to reading, playing and writing plays. He translated some parts of Goethe's Faust and of Calderon's Magico Prodigioso in 1822. He tried to play Oth.ello with family members and Byron.'2) He planned to write some plays none ofwhich, except some fragments, materialized.i3) From these historical facts, it is certain that he was greatly interested in dramatic form before and during the composition of the Jane Poems. This is also demonstrated in "With a Guitar, to Jane" and "The Keen Stars Were Twinkling." 26 Kei NIJIBAYASHI

iii

"With a Guitar, to Jane" borrows its poetic setting from Shakespeare's The Tempest, but the role-play in the poem is equivocal. He casts Edward Williams as Ferdinand, Jane as Miranda, and himself as Ariel. When we think of their relationships, the cast seems logical since Jane and Edward were husband and wife. However, these roles are skillfu11y changed from the original. Not only does Ferdinand love Miranda, but so does Ariel, and, naturally, Ariel or Shelley is the loser. When Ariel (Shelley) confesses his love for Miranda (Jane) , it is accompanied by extraordinary images of death.

When you [Jane] die, the silent Moon In her interlunar swoon Is not sadder in her cell Than deserted Ariel; When you live again on Earth Like an unseen Star of birth Ariel guides you o'er the sea Oflife from your nativity . . . . (449)

Here it seems that Ariel has resigned his love for Jane in this world and imagines it in a reincarnated world. The poet explains that Ariel has been serving Miranda for many generations through reincarnation; however, she does not remember it. The poet regards Jane as a reincarnated Miranda and Ariel tries to make her recall the memories, identify herself and accept his everlasting love.

Many changes have been run Since Ferdinand and you begun Your course of love, and Ariel still Has tracked your steps and served your will; Now, in humbler, happier lot This is not remembered not; And now, alas! the poor sprite is Imprisoned for some fault of his In a body like a grave: -- From you, he only dares to crave For his service and his sorrow A smile today, a song tomorrow. (449-50) Dramatic Strategy in Shelley's Poems to Jane Williams 27

He cannot win Jane's love because his imagination is always hampered by the burdens oflife. He recognizes this problem as a "fault ofhis," and he has to leave his "body like a grave" in order to escape from this situation and to accomplish his ideal spiritual love. As we can see in poems like Adonais, Shelley believed in reincarnation and considered death as a kind of door to the better world: "--- Die, 1 If thou wouldst be with that thou dost seek" (405). There, he can be really an "aeriel" companion for Jane. His death-wish is apparent in the rhyme scheme too: "grave" and "crave," "sorrow" and "morrow." We can find his death-wish also in the analogy between Ariel and the guitar. Ariel is compared to a guitar which is taught to convey a harmonious melody by Jane. He, too, is a being who can compose poetry only by inspiration from Jane; this devotion enslaves them both.

Ariel to Miranda; -- Take This slave of music for the sake Of him who is the slave of thee; And teach it all the harmony, In which thou can'st, and only thou, Make the delighted spirit glow . . . . (449)

The guitar is made out ofa tree which has slept for a long time. It is"liberated"from the tree and is reincarnated in the form of an instrument. The tree is a metaphor of bodily death; and the guitar is the metaphor of the freed spirit, which now can be always with Jane as her instrument.i4)

. . . -- and so this tree -- O that such our death may be -- Died in sleep, and felt no pain, To live in happier form again . . . . (450)

Used by Jane, the guitar produces sounds which are not of this sublunar world:"it knew / That seldom heard mysterious sound" (450) . But it "will not tell / [Ib those who cannot question well" (450) and "It keeps its highest holiest tone / For our beloved Jane alone"(451). Like this guitar, the poet wishes to serve and gain inspiration from Jane in his fancifu1 reincarnation. Contrary to the reincarnation in "The Sensitive Plant," for example, this is clearly escapism from dreary reality.i5) He has completely lost hope for an ideal love in his lifetime and he seems to indulge himself in his unsatisfied dream. He imaginatively tries to accomplish his love either retrospectively or prospectively. This kind of escapism appears even in his 28 Kei NIJIBAYASHI small and rather trivial song, "The Keen Stars Were TWinkling." "The Keen Stars Were Twinkling" was called "an ariette" (449) by Shelley himself, and it can be read as ifit were a song inserted in a play. It seems to be superficially a trivial light song; but it is rendered a dirge of his lost love. There is a unique use of tenses in the poem; Shelley deliberately excludes the present tense except in the fourth stanza. The first stanza is written in past tense; the second in past perfect; the third in future tense. And even in the fourth stanza, he uses imperative.

Though the sound overpowers Sing again, with your dear voice revealing A tone Of some world far from ours, Where music and moonlight and feeling Are one. (451)

He either remembers her past voice, expects it in the future or requests her to sing now. The poet's view is either retrospective or prospective; he does not describe her singing by present or present progressive tense. In using tenses skillfu11y, he seems to be trying to create a moment of eternity by the poem. The last lines of the poem again emphasize his impossible love for Jane in this world. The condition in which "music and moonlight and feeling / Are one" is indispensable for him to realize his love. "With a Guitar"and"The Keen Stars"express the poet's sadness through dramatic settings and techniques (i.e. the settings ofShakespeare's The Tempest and the form of ariette) and they can be thought of as songs to be inserted in the plots of "The Invitation" and "The Recollection." Although the light tone of these poems superficially conceals his tragedy, his bitter feelings are certainly augmented in them.i6) These feelings are going to conclude with his dark hopeless view of life in the poems written after Jane Williams departed from him: "Lines Written in the Bay ofLerici" and "Lines: `We Meet not as We Parted' ."

iv As suggested, the Jane Poems have a dramatic quality. The poems indeed compose "an entire work within themselves" as a dramatic sequence.i7) But they are not just dramatic; they contain a very important idea about Shelley's poetics. In "The Invitation," the poet's blissfu1 moment on the halcyon day is inversely emphasized by negative images and sounds. He praises the moment again in "The Recollection" but as a "memory" or a lost ideal moment, and he tries to access it through imagination. The past love still remains in his mind frozen at its very Dramatic Strategy in Shelley's Poems to Jane Williams 29 tragic denouement. "With a Guitar" tries to recapture the moment adapting a fancifu1 role-playing and justifying his unhappy situation. By denying the negative result of his love, he tries to re-evaluate it as eternally potential through creative imagination. The past has become the present; the present could be rendered a more fortunate future. In "The Keen Stars," the poet intentionally avoids depicting Jane singing in order to make her song an eternally potential inspiration for him; the particular moment always remains preserved on his mental stage. This is his wish rather than his belief; he hopes to be able to recreate her song or her inspiring presence itself by imagination. As we can see, what is common about these dramatic poems is a preoccupation with time: more precisely, consistent emphasis on "the present." In the Jane Poems, Shelley is obsessed with "the present" in fear oflosing it; that actually means the loss ofinspiration or his epiphany. After losing it, he incessantly needs to recreate it as the " present" in poetry because it has revealed the ideal even though briefiy. This is epitomized by Shelley's own words in "The Invitation:" "To- day is for itself enough" (444) . This is a translated citation from Goethe's Faust.

Williams is captain, and we drive along this beautifu1 bay in the evening wind, under the summer moon, until earth appears another world. Jane brings her guitar, and if the past and the future could be obliterated, the present would content me so well that I could say with Faust to the passing moment, `Remain, thou, thou art so beautifu1.' i8)

Faust makes a contract to give his soul to Mephistopheles when he has tasted the most blissfu1 moment and when he says to the moment, "Linger you now, you are so fair!" '9) Faust did not content himselfwith any thing but with the reclamation for social welfare. In speaking about its practical procedures, he feels contentment and utters the fatal words. Shelley has chosen the precise quotation to describe his own transient love; Faust relishes the most delicious bliss at the moment which actually destroys him. Indeed, Shelley captures the blissfu1 peak ofhis love which is only to be lost. The importance of "the present" seems to be attributed to inretrievable nature of a briefly attained ideal moment both in poetry and in real life for Shelley. But he would never "obliterate" the past and the future, indulging with the present bliss. The Jane Poems are not just a self-satisfied product of composition, and his interest in dramas was prompted not just by Goethe but from his own time concept.20) Shelley's poetry often treats different states oflife as inseparably related: life and death, past and future. For example, Shelley both adores the past glory and dreams ofthe future development: for example, ancient democratic society in Greece and the 30 Kei NIJIBAYASHI imagined spiritual harmony of society in Prometheus Unbound. Shelley always tries to locate the present as something directly influencing the future or influenced by the past. He treats this problem of time both in Prometheus Unbound and Hellas. As the Greek tragedies show, dramatic form has been used as a method to represent the linear or cyclical concept of time. The present can be dynamically depicted in a drama by presenting sequential plots and acts in cause and effect relations, always contrasting the present action with the past origin and the looming future. In the Oresteia trilogy of Aeschylus, for example, protagonists retaliate to violence with more violence, bound and directed by the spell of the past. The present is fatally a sequence of the past in cyclical time. In contrast, Shelley suggests a different concept oftime in his own dramas. As we can see in Prometheus Unbound, the curse from the past can be dispelled and the future can be much more improved through human intellect and morality. He positively interprets the present as something to be developed with a view towards the future.

v The Jane Poems seem to exemplify Shelley's idea of time concept, especially when we compare them with his preceding drama, Hellas. He wrote the drama stimulated by the Greek revolt for independence in 1821. It describes the psychological changes of Mahmud, a Turkish sultan and the enemy of the Greeks, through a prophesying chorus of the Greek women slaves and by the mysterious suggestion of Ahasuerus, a Jewish hermit. In spite of temporary victory, Mahmud admits his defeat, knowing that the present is just another version of the past disastrous fate of his ancestor, Mahomet II: "The Future must become the Past" (435). On the other hand, the Greek chorus emphasizes the importance of the present action of revolt: "Let Freedom leave, where'er she flies, / A Desart [sic] or a Paradise: / Let the beautifu1 and the brave / Share her glory, or a grave" (413). Mahmud's renunciation in appreciating "the present" sharply contrasts with the chorus's positive interpreting it' However, the chorus sometimes reminds us of pessimistic aspects of the present. Disappointed by the temporary defeat of the Greek army, the Greek women suggest their anxieties about the future of Greece in the last stanza: "Cease! drain not to its dregs the urn / Of bitter prophecy. / The world is weary of the past, / O might it die or rest at last!" (440) Or confronting the irrefutable fact that the Greeks have been defeated and massacred, the Greek women imagine an ideal island where the sprit of freedom can exist without any pressure: "Let Freedom and Peace flee far / To a sunnier strand, / And follow Love's folding star / To the Evening-land!" (438) These comments can be almost interpreted as pessimistic defeatism or escapism. Still the import of their chorus overall remains on the positive evaluation of the present Dramatic Strategy in Shelley's Poems to Jane Williams 31 courageous struggle. It almost glorifies the action only because it embodies the spirit of freedom and liberation. The chorus seems to claim that a moment when human beings do something for their own dignity can be eternalized in memory. As the revived Greek soldier says, they believe that their present rebellion will continue to be remembered in people's minds and to be the dynamism for independence in the future: "the more glorious yet to come!" (422) In other words, to turn the future into something better, the present moment is irretrievably important. Hellas contemplates the present in a political sense, for Shelley always sensed the crisis of degradation in morality and intellect. The drama appealed to the contemporary intellectual by proposing the Greek independence war as a key to establish a possible better society in future. Quite differently from Prometheus Unbound, Hellas emphasizes the real world of the present and tells us that how to act in the present directly moves the course and cycle of time. The drama indicates that Shelley politically and historically regarded the early nineteenth century as the crucial turning point for human progress: "Good and Evil stake 1 Their empire o'er the unborn world of men / On this one cast" (422) . The Jane Poems have much in common with the drama in their treatment of time concept. Since they form dramatic " present" in a mental world, the moment is celebrated in a different dimension from that of Hellas. However, it is true that Shelley's interest in drama contributes in creating a picture of dynamic impetus in both political and private histories. Both Hellas and the Jane Poems represent the Shelleyan idea of a revolving and progressing time. Even though the poet is disappointed and betrayed by the present, he needs to appreciate and evaluate it for his own idealistic poetics. In the Jane Poems, he praises, commemorates and puts into eternal spiritual cycle the "momentary peace" (445) of love and tries to make it something reproducible by progressive performance of music in his little "ariette." Shelley's technique of eternalizing love seems to be traditional to some extent. But he does not only eternalize "the present" traditionally but also he locates it in relation to the past and the future. As a goal, he tries to create a poetic quality which certainly "enlarges the circumference"(488) of sensibility by dramatic representation of his original time concept. At the same time he makes the poems more powerful and expansive, linking them with his other works through philosophical references. Shelley emphasizes spiritual consistency both in the fight with Turkey in Hellas and in his love for Jane. When such a spirit exists within, human beings are, he believes,"to be greatly good" (487) someday. It is important, then, to concentrate on the present as crucial both in public and private lives. This is not irrelevant to his reincamating Platonic love. As "With a Guitar" suggests, love continues through 32 Kei NIJIBAYASHI different states of life. Shelley clearly defines the poet's love for Jane in the poem as perfectly spiritual: he loves her soul for generations. According to Plato's Phaedrus, a soul which failed in entering the gods' world keeps on craving for the shadow of Eros in this world, and it continues the journey for Eros through different lives. As Adonais clearly indicates, Shelley seems to have believed in a soul existing after death. If death awakes us "from the dream of life" (401), his Platonic love must continue after death.2i) Seeing the ideal world beyond death, Shelley praises and commemorates the happy present moment for the ideal love in the future. The Jane Poems develop the central concept of the transient ideal love as private history; they depict the coming of"Intellectual Beauty" which influences one's whole life. This is parallel to the fact that the temporary enthusiasm of the Greek war of independence is so important for human history and progress as a whole. The ephiphanic instant can be an invaluable eternity in human experiences. Shelley seems to claim this "eternity" in his last lyrics.

Conclusion The Jane Poems are usually considered to have the happiest tone among Shelley's poems. This, as we have discussed, turns out to be just an appearance through a close examination of the poems. The poet has gained and lost the blissfu1 moment, but he reproduced and eternalized it by the poetic imagination: "The essence of Romantic poetry is that in catching the fleeting moment ofjoy it opens the door to an eternal world." 22) Shelley skillfu11y adapts the dramatic mode for describing the moment, aiming not only at poetic perfection but also at linking the poems to his dramatic works. The dramatic mode can most effectively represent Shelley's idea of time and human relationship especially in the description of emotional aspect. Shelley not only follows traditions in composing lyrics but also creates a new type of "sequence" which composes "an entire work within themselves" 23) as a drama and which functions "as adjuncts" 24) to his great masterpieces.

NOTES 1) Stephen Gill,ed., William Wordsworth (Oxford University Press, 1990) 628. Hereafter abbreviated as Wordsworth. 2) See William Keach, Shelleor's Style (New York and London: Methuen, 1984) 203-4. Keach summarizes discussions of critics about Shelley's love for Jane. 3 ) Judith Chernaik, "The Magic Circle: Poems to Jane Williams" in Shelleor: Shorter Poems and Lorrics, ed., Patrick Swinden (London: Macmillan, 1976) 202. 4) Donald Davie, for example, estimates "The Invitation" as "a nonpareil," but hardly appreciates "The Recollection." Donald Davie, "Shelley's Urbanity" in English Romantic Poets: Modern Essays in Criticism, ed., M.H. Abrams (Oxford University Press, 1960) 314-5. Dramatic Strategy in Shelley's Poems to Jane Williams 33

5) See Keach, 208 9. ' 6) Donald H. Reiman and Sharon B. Powers, eds, Shelley's Poetry and Prose (New Yo/ k and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1977) 443. Hereafter, all quotations from this book are shown by the page number in parentheses.' 7) Cf. Keach, 212. Keach points out that this nook in "The Invitation" effectively reappears in "The Recollection:" "But we will return to those pools in `The Recollection' and their figurative implications will be worked through to a very different conclusion." 8) Shelley's nickname was "snake." He unusually liked the snake and used it as an image of suffering human beings in the introductory part of The Revolt of Islam, in which a hawk represents despotic authority. There is a poem called "The Serpent is Shut out from the Paradise" which is often considered to belong to the Jane Poems. 9) See Keach, 215. Keach's interpretation seems to be mgre acceptable. , 10) See G.M. Matthews,"Shelley's lyrics"in Shelley 's Poetr y and Prose, Donald Reiman and Sharon B. Powers, eds (New York: Norton, 1977) 691. "The dramatic impulse was at least as strong in Shelley as the lyrical, and the two were often inseparable." 11) See Richard Holmes, Shelley: The Pursuit (London: Penguin, 1987) 665.

12)13) Some partSeeibid.,711. of"Charles the First"remains, and Shelley ' planned¥ to write another drama of which fragments are called "Fragments ofan Unfinished Drama." See ibid., 704-5. 14) See Richard Cronin, Shelleor 's Poetic Thoughts (London: Macmillan, 1981) 246-7. He interprets Ariel as the poet and the guitar as his poem. 15) Shelley used idea ofreincamation in a positive sense in "The Sensitive Plant." See (129). 16) See Chemaik, 202. Chernaik mistakingly interprets thiS casting as "the affectionate nicknaming and play-acting." 17) Wordsworth 628. 18) Frederick L. Jones, ed., The Letters ofPeray Bysshe Shelley, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964) 2:435-6. 19) Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Philip Wayne, trans., Faust: Part 7}vo (London: Penguin, 1959)

20) See Michael Henry Scrivener, Radical Shelley: The Philosophical Anarchism and Utopian Thought ofPercy Bysshe Shelley (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1982)285. We cannot agree with Scrivener's opinion: "The `Jane Williams' poems and other late lyrics have a constant theme of appreciating the present moment for what happiness it can offer, while forgetting the past and future. Accepting the temporal for what it is, impermanent but sometimes joyful, requires a suspension of utopian hope. Reconciling desire to the temporal and limited does not mean, however, that Shelley has rejected hope; rather, he has discovered that the rigors of hopefu1 idealism need to be balanced with ordinary pleasure, that visions of the Absolute must not eclipse the wonders of the sublunary world." The last part of his comment seems to be ignoring Shelley's failures in his constant identification of ideal and ordinary loves. 21) See C.E. Pulos, "The Importance of Shelley's Scepticism" in Shelley: Modern Judgements, ed. R.B. Woodings, (London: Macmillan, 1968) 55. He explains Shelley's ambiguous Platonism; "It is essentially an `unknown and awfu1' power, which man apprehends only as an ecstacy `within his heart' ( `Hymn to Intellectual Beauty' ). Sometimes Shelley expresses the faith that death will reveal to us this `unknown and awfu1 power' in all its splendor (Adonais) , but 34 Kei NIJIBAYASHI

this tendency of thought is counterbalanced by the opposite one of seeking Beauty in a concrete and mortal form (Epipsychidion). In brief, Shelley is not a pseudo-Platonist, but a consistent Platonist in the sceptical tradition." 22) Maurice Bowra, The Romantic Imagination (Oxford University Press, 1988) 290. 23) Wordsworth628. 24) ibid.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Jones, Frederick L., ed. The Letters ofPercy Borsshes Shelley. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964. Reiman, Donald H. and Sharon B. Powers, eds, Shelley 's Poetr y and Prose. New York: W.W. Norton, 1977.

Secondary Sources

Abrams, M.H. English Romantic Poets: Modern Essaors in Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960. Bowra, Maurice. The Romantic lmagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. Cronin, Richard. Shelley's Poetic Thoughts. London: Macmillan, 1981. Gill, Stephen, ed. William Wordsworth. The Oxford Authors. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. Holmes, Richard. Shelleor: The Pursuit. London: Penguin, 1987. Keach, William. Shellept's Storle. London: Methuen, 1984. Scrivener, Michael Henry. Radical Shellept. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1982. Swinden, Patrick, ed. Shelley: Shorter Poems and Lyrics. London: Macmillan, 1976. Wayne, Philip, trans. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Eaust: Part 71vo. London: Penguin, 1959. Woodings, R.B. Shelley: Modern Judgements. London: Macmillan, 1968.