Systemic Thought and Subjectivity in Percy Bysshe Shelley‟s Poetry Sabrina Palan Systemic Thought and Subjectivity in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Poetry Diplomarbeit zur Erlangung eines akademischen Grades einer Magistra der Philosophie an der Karl- Franzens Universität Graz vorgelegt von Sabrina PALAN am Institut für Anglistik Begutachter: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr.phil. Martin Löschnigg Graz, 2017 1 Systemic Thought and Subjectivity in Percy Bysshe Shelley‟s Poetry Sabrina Palan Eidesstattliche Erklärung Ich erkläre an Eides statt, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbstständig und ohne fremde Hilfe verfasst, andere als die angegebenen Quellen nicht benutzt und die den benutzen Quellen wörtlich oder inhaltlich entnommenen Stellen als solche kenntlich gemacht habe. Überdies erkläre ich, dass dieses Diplomarbeitsthema bisher weder im In- noch im Ausland in irgendeiner Form als Prüfungsarbeit vorgelegt wurde und dass die Diplomarbeit mit der vom Begutachter beurteilten Arbeit übereinstimmt. Sabrina Palan Graz, am 27.02.2017 2 Systemic Thought and Subjectivity in Percy Bysshe Shelley‟s Poetry Sabrina Palan Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 5 2. Romanticism – A Shift in Sensibilities .................................................................................. 8 2.1 Etymology of the Term “Romantic” ............................................................................. 9 2.2 A Portrait of a Cultural Period ...................................................................................... 9 2.3 The First and Second Generation of Romanticists in England ................................... 14 2.4 The Concept of Poetry in the Romantic Age .............................................................. 15 2.5 Characteristic Features of Romanticism ..................................................................... 18 2.6 Main Themes in Romantic Poetry ............................................................................... 20 2.6.1 Nature ............................................................................................................. 20 2.6.2 The Sublime .................................................................................................... 22 2.6.3 The Supernatural ............................................................................................. 23 2.6.4 Childhood Innocence ...................................................................................... 24 2.7 Subjectivity in Romantic Poetry ................................................................................. 25 3. Percy Bysshe Shelley as Poet of the Second Generation of Romanticists ........................... 30 3.1 Shelley‟s Life and Major Works ................................................................................. 32 3.2 Main Themes in Percy Bysshe Shelley‟s Poetry ......................................................... 35 3.2.1 Presence of a Sublime Spirit in Nature ........................................................... 36 3.2.2 Change and Transience of Life ....................................................................... 37 3.2.3 Freedom, Revolutionary Prophecy and Politics ............................................. 37 3.2.4 Power of the Imagination and Poetic Inspiration ........................................... 38 3.2.5 Interconnectedness of Present, Past and Future .............................................. 38 3.3 Shelley‟s Philosophical Position ................................................................................. 39 3.4 The Significance of Poetry and the Role of the Poet in Shelley‟s Literary Works ..... 42 3.5 Systemic Thought in Percy Bysshe Shelley‟s Poetry .................................................. 48 4. Analysis of Selected Works by Percy Bysshe Shelley ......................................................... 52 4.1 The Presence of a Sublime Spirit as a Core Element of Systemic Thought ................ 52 3 Systemic Thought and Subjectivity in Percy Bysshe Shelley‟s Poetry Sabrina Palan 4.1.1 “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” ....................................................................... 53 4.1.2 “Mont Blanc” .................................................................................................. 58 4.1.3 “To Constantia” .............................................................................................. 64 4.2 Continuous Change as the Key Moment for the Development of Systemic Thought . 68 4.2.1 “Mutability” .................................................................................................... 69 4.2.2 “Ozymandias” ................................................................................................. 71 4.3 The Belief in an Interdependence between Present, Past and Future as a Constituent Element of Systemic Thought ............................................................................................ 74 4.3.1 “Chorus from Hellas” ..................................................................................... 75 4.3.2 “Ode to Heaven” ............................................................................................. 79 4.4 Prophecy of (Political) Change and the Belief in an Interdependence between Growth and Decay as Constituent Elements of Systemic Thought ................................................ 84 4.4.1 “Ode to the West Wind” ................................................................................. 85 4.4.2 “Ode to Liberty” ............................................................................................. 92 4.4.3 “Ode to Naples” ............................................................................................ 106 4.5 Identification with a Sublime Spirit and Unity of Poet and Nature as Final Steps towards a Philosophy of Systemic Thought ..................................................................... 117 4.5.1 “To a Skylark” .............................................................................................. 118 4.5.2 “The Cloud” .................................................................................................. 125 5. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 131 6. Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 134 4 Systemic Thought and Subjectivity in Percy Bysshe Shelley‟s Poetry Sabrina Palan 1. Introduction I am the daughter of Earth and Water And the nursling of the Sky I pass through the pores, of the ocean and shores, I change but I cannot die – […] Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, I arise, and unbuild it again. (“The Cloud” Shelley: 1820) Percy Bysshe Shelley belonged to the second generation of English Romanticists. In contrast to the poets of the first generation, Shelley sharply felt the gap between the noble ideals of his age and factual reality surrounding him. Nevertheless, his poetry is infused with a boundless optimism and genuine reverence for the sublime and divine in nature. The lines above, taken from one of his most famous odes - “The Cloud” - epitomise what lies at the core of the poet‟s literary works and lyric poetry: the presence of a sublime spirit or power in nature, the poet`s solitude which is the prerequisite for his creativity, a sense of change and an awareness of the transience of life. All these elements combined with the profound notion that growth and decay, life and death, destruction and creation are intimately related with each other characterise Shelley‟s literary works. Filtered through the poet‟s subjective perspective, the environment seems to be suffused with a sublime power. This power is omnipresent and everlasting, and reminds the speaker of the interdependence between all elements in life.1 In this diploma thesis, I will demonstrate the pervasiveness of systemic thought in Percy Bysshe Shelley‟s literary works. Systemic Thought, a concept deriving from Systems Theory and Social Science, is defined as “Denken in Wirkungs- und Rückkoppelungszusammenhängen, das die Eigendynamik von Prozessen anerkennt und die kurzfristige sowie langfristige Wirkungen, direkte als auch indirekte Einflüsse berücksichtigt” (Breuer 2012: 17). In Shelley‟s understanding, systemic thought means interconnectedness and an awareness of a never-ending interplay between growth and decay in life. This belief in 1 Percy Bysshe Shelley was not the first Romantic poet to express such ideas. Similar tendencies were already noticeable in the cultural climate of the late 18th century and were partly taken up by the poets of the first generation of Romanticists. The English poet William Blake for instance, who historically belongs to the pre- romantic era, published two complementing poem cycles - Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience - in which he acknowledges the interconnectedness of good and evil. These tendencies eventually culminate in Percy Bysshe Shelley‟s poetry. 5 Systemic Thought and Subjectivity in Percy Bysshe Shelley‟s Poetry Sabrina Palan the interconnectedness of all entities in the universe is manifested in the idea that a divine spirit runs through everything and everyone, thereby creating an interdependence between all parts of the system: old and new, rise and decay, destruction and creation. Yet, systemic thought in Shelley‟s poetry is