The Pastoral Elegy 4jx26

The pastoral elegy The pastoral elegy is a poem about both death and idyllic rural life. Often, the pastoral elegy features shepherds. The genre is actually a subgroup of pastoral poetry, as the elegy takes the pastoral elements and relates them to expressing the poet’s grief at a loss. This form of poetry has several key features, including the invocation of the Muse, expression of the shepherd’s, or poet’s, grief, praise of the deceased, a tirade against death, a detailing of the effects of this specific death upon nature, and eventually, the poet’s simultaneous acceptance of death’s inevitability and hope for immortality. 'Adonais' is a pastoral elegy which Shelley wrote on the death of his contemporary poet John Keats.

Shelley wrote this long poem as an elegy for John Keats, who died in Rome of tuberculosis at the age of 26. The mood of the poem begins in dejection, but ends in optimism—hoping Keats’ spark of brilliance reverberates through the generations of future poets and inspires revolutionary change throughout Europe. Adonis is the stand-in for Keats, for Adonis also died at a young age after being mauled by a wild boar. In Shelley’s version, the “beast” responsible for Keats’s death is the literary critic, specifically one from London’s Quarterly who gave a severe review of Keats’ poem “Endymi on”. Urania, who is Adonis’ lover in the myth, is rewritten here as the young man’s mother, possibly because Keats had no lover at the time of his death. Shelley chose the Pastoral convention for his elegy, for he had such noble examples as his precedents as Milton’s ‘Lycidas and Spenser’s ‘Astrephel’. He used the classical form , so that he may connect his theme with the great poetic tradition of the world, and so that may represent Keats as one of a long series of poets. 'Adonais' is written mainly in the classical pattern, though Shelley has adapted and added some of the elements. It may be divided into two parts. The first running up to the 38 th stanza, is

cast in the pastoral mould; there is the traditional of invocation to weep, sympathetic mourning in nature, procession of mourner consisting of the flocks of dead Shepherd, and his follow shepherd, personal digression and invective/criticism. In the second part (17 stanza), Shelley strikes a modern note. There is change in mood, and final consolation. Adonais begins with the announcement of Keats death and the mourning that followed: "I weep for Adonais—he is dead!"Shelley is mourning the death of the young English poet John Keats. The persona has entered a state of dejection, calling everyone to mourn with him, and announcing that Keats should be ed forever. a series of mourners lament the death of Adonais. Mourners

are implored to "weep for Adonis. the "flocks" of the deceased appear, representing his dreams and inspirations. The personifications of the thoughts, emotions, attitudes, and skills of the deceased appear. Then, He calls on Urania to mourn for Keats who died in Rome. his mother, Urania, holds the corpse of her young poet son and realizes that some “dream has loosened from his brain.” That is, something about his mind is not dead although his body may be dead. The mother of Adonais,

Urania, is invoked to arise to conduct the ceremony at his bier. Urania is awakened by the grief of Misery and the poet. The lament is invoked:"He will awake no more, oh, never more!" Urania pleads in vain for Adonais to awake and to arise. . Urania rises, goes to Keats' death chamber and laments that she cannot him in death. The poet summons the subject matter of Keats' poetry to weep for him. It comes and mourns at his bidding. Nature, celebrated by Keats in his poetry, mourns him. Spring, which brings nature to new life, cannot restore him. Fellow poets mourn the death of Keats: Byron, Thomas Moore, Shelley, and Leigh Hunt . The body is visited by a series of Greek Goddesses, who prepare the corpse for the afterlife. Even nature is mourning the loss, where things like the ocean, winds, and echoes are stopping to pay their respects. As the seasons come and go, the persona is feeling no better.

The anonymous Quarterly Review critic is blamed for Keats' death and chastised . The poet then describes the death of Keats with scorn for those whom he thinks are responsible. Keats visits his mother as a ghost whom she does not recognize. The persona calls for Keats to be ed for his work and not the age of his death, and Shelley takes an unusual religious tone as he places Keats as a soul in the heavens, looking down upon earth. Shelley contends that Keats, in death, is more “alive” than the common man will ever be, and he can now exist peacefully, safe from the evils of men and their criticisms.

The poet urges the mourners not to weep any longer. Keats has become a portion of the eternal and is free from the attacks of reviewers. He is not dead; it is the living who are dead. He has gone where "envy and calumny and hate and pain" cannot reach him. He is "made one with Nature." His being has been withdrawn into the one Spirit which is responsible for all beauty. In eternity, other poets, among them Thomas Chatterton, Sir Philip Sidney, and the Roman poet Lucan, come to greet him .Let anyone who still mourns Keats send his "spirit's light" beyond space and be filled with hope, or let him go to Rome where Keats is buried. Let him "Seek shelter in the shadow of the tomb. / What Adonais is, why fear we to become?" He is with the unchanging Spirit, Intellectual Beauty, or Love in heaven. By comparison with the clear light of eternity, life is a stain Completely turning on his original position, the speaker now calls upon anyone who mourns for Adonis as a “wretch,” arguing that his spirit is immortal, making him as permanent as the great city of Rome. Shelley ends the poem wondering about his own fate, when he will die, and if he will be mourned and ed with such respect as he is giving Keats. Finally, the poet almost dares the reader, if he is still mourning, to him in his newfound vision of immortality in mutated form (lines 415-23). He alludes to the city of Rome as “the grave, the city, and the wilderness,” where mourning is “dull time.” That is, if you do not quit this mourning, you risk finding yourself in your own tomb (lines 455-59). Ultimately, Shelley concedes the ing of his friend because he accepts the idea that Keats’ “light” will continue to “kindle” the inspiration of the universe. So long as we never forget the

power of Adonis’ spiritual resurrection, he will forever remain. The poet’s “breath,” in the “light” that shall guide Shelley throughout the rest of his life (Shelley died not long afterward, in 1822). The poet tells himself he should now depart from life, which has nothing left to offer. The One, which is Light, Beauty, Benediction, and Love, now shines on him. He feels carried "darkly, fearfully, afar" to where the soul of Keats glows like a star, in the dwelling where those who will live forever are.

The mood gradually shifts form grief to comfort as the poem approaches its end. Shelley makes Keats spirit one with the Eternal; after viewing the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, Shelley presents his philosophic concept related to Plato’s doctrine of the ideal: Life, like a dome of many colored glass. Shelley claims, with reference to his Neo-Platonic ideals, that Keats death in glory is far better than the inglorious and shameful life of his murderer, the savage critic. He also feels that he is being called by the spirit of John Keats in the immortal world. Shelley adheres to all the traditional formal pastoral constraints in producing his elegy. In keeping with the tradition, he does not identify the characters by their actual names, but by their shepherd names or by characteristics typical of natural such as Keats poetic efforts, as his flocks. The elegiac pastoral is compelled to render the experience positive by the end of the poem. the pastoral’s very idealizations require one to imagine a transcendent reality as the true locus of all human hopes and aspirationsThe greatness ‘Adonais” are due primarily to that part of it, which

steers clear of Pastoral convention.” It is so because in the first part Shelley’s fancy was chained down by the shackles of convention and in the second part he, ‘Soars aloft mighty wings”. Conclution: Indeed, it may seem strange that Shelley should choose to lament Keats death in such an artificial and constrained format as the pastoral requires. If his feelings of grief were genuine, one might ask, why not have expressed them in plain, or at least far less contrived . The pastoral allows the poet to exercise, nevertheless, the option of poeticizing the event. From that perspective, Shelley, who was quite capable of using a wide range of poetic styles and expression, was first of all doing his fellow poet a high honor by eulogizing him in a structure unique to poetic discourse.Shelley never claimed it to

be not an expression of personal sorrow rather It is a lament on the loss of a valuable life as ‘Lycidas’.

Romantic element

The Realization of the Romantic in "Adonais"

Romanticism is an attempt to answer this question, and is shaped by the belief that there is indeed a more perfect plane which humans yearn to reach. Few works embody the spirit of this movement as well as Percy Bysshe Shelley’s elegy for John Keats, “Adonais.” By alluding to a Platonic world, idealizing nature, and expressing an attraction to death, “Adonais” unequivocally characterizes itself as a Romantic work. Shelley’s frequent references to another plane, which is truer than the temporal world, most prominently mark the poem as Romantic. When speaking of Keats, he explains that contrary to appearances, “He is not dead, he doth not sleep – / He has awakened from the dream of life.” His declarations suggest that the mortal world is not real; rather, it is only after death that one es to true existence. This idea fits neatly with Plato’s concept of a plane, which can only be briefly glimpsed during life, where everything exists in its perfect form. As the Platonic world is a cornerstone of Romantic thought, “Adonais” begins to reveal itself as part of that movement even in the beginning of the four stanzas. Shelley continues to expound upon this motif by comparing Keats with those who still live, writing that “Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep / With phantoms an unprofitable strife.” Through the imagery of a foggy, ethereal world, he conveys the sense that what occurs in life is not real; humans are “lost”, their vision Cao 2 clouded, and thus rendered unable to pierce the veil behind which pure reality lies. As a result, though man wars against his troubles, he does so futilely, for that which he sees and fights is but a shadow of the truth. Due to the contrast between Keats’s awakening after death and the blind, pointless struggles of the living, the poem confirms the idea of a separate Platonic world where reality lies. Another Romantic aspect of “Adonais” can be seen in the idealization of nature. Shelley perceives the natural world to be not a frightening and fickle force, but a beautiful and powerful one. Accordingly, when he describes it, he focuses on its positive aspects, on how “there is heard / [Keats’s] voice in all her music, from the moan / Of thunder, to the song of night’s sweet bird.” Although he respects nature’s power, it is its beauty which he highlights, as a symphony untainted by the imperfections of man. Furthermore, by evoking the sounds of sweet birdsong, Shelley creates a contrast to previous images of death and decay conjured by lines like “the contagion of the world’s slow stain”; he thereby makes Keats’s union with nature, and by extension nature itself, a positive occurrence. Nature is also portrayed as a benevolent force, one “which wields that world with never-wearied love, / Sustains it from beneath, and kindles it from above.” The choice of “love” causes the reader to see the natural world as a nurturing force which tries to life, not crush it. This life-giving role is then emphasized as allencoming, reinforcing the earlier praise. To Shelley and the Romantics, nature is lovely, powerful, and benign, the ideal from which man should learn. Shelley also articulates a fascination with death which distinguishes the poem as Romantic. At the end of “Adonais”, after reflecting on the ing of his friend, he wonders, “Why linger,

why turn back, why shrink, my Heart? / Thy hopes are gone before: From all things here, / They have departed; thou shouldst now depart!” His words show that he sees no intrinsic Cao 3 value in life; it is the presence of others which makes it worth living, and when they are gone, it is only logical for him to also wish for death. Alone, he is trapped in an unreal world, with no reason to remain, for death is the path to the ideal plane. As he ponders this idea, he at last comes to the conclusion that he should “Hasten thither, / No more let Life divide what Death can together.” This decision clearly illustrates his desire to die and gain all that death can provide, namely a reunion with all the lost loves and friends in his life. It is also a reflection, even judgment, on life, since his resolution rests heavily upon the realization that “what still is dear / Attracts to crush” – everything that matters in the world will only cause suffering in the end. Therefore, the poet expresses a Romantic interest in death, which he sees as the only place where he will be free from worldly struggles and pain. The description of a Platonic world, idealization of nature, and fascination with death all combine to make “Adonais” a quintessentially Romantic work. Shelley first introduces another, truer world, separate from our own living one, which is reached after death. He then glorifies one of the manifestations of that world, nature, before eventually concluding that he too should journey to the other plane through death. By exploring the idea that there is a true, desirable world which lies beyond our earthly lives, he and the Romantics give answer to the universal yearning to be reconciled with death, and find meaning in existence. The eighteenth century was a time of revolution; the French Revolution, especially, was supposed to usher in a new era of enlightenment, brotherhood, and individual freedom. The artistic movement that arose in Europe in reaction to the events of this time is called Romanticism, and it is characterized by a stressing of emotion and imagination, as opposed to the emphasis on classical forms that was important to previous artists. In England, the major Romantic poets were Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, William Wordsworth, and John Keats. These poets took up the revolutionary ideas of personal and spiritual emancipation through language that is often bold and simple, like the speech of the common people of England. Romantic poetry frequently focuses on images of nature, which is viewed as a force that expresses sympathy with human beings.. Romanticism also features supernatural events and includes melancholy settings, such as deserted castles or monasteries on lonely hillsides. A concern for human society also marks the early English Romantics. Blake describes a time when Albion (England) will be free from oppression and injustice, and all men will enter into a new age and a new heaven on earth. Wordsworth despises the ugliness of the expanding cities and urges a return to a spiritual home in nature. Later Romantic poets, though, especially Keats, focus more on the intense emotions and deep paradoxes of human existence. Despite the variety of opinion and style within English Romantic poetry, one idea remains central to the movement: Individual experience is the primary source of truth and knowledge. In

fact, some recent scholars have attributed the modern ideas of personality to the Romantic poets, whose focus on personal, emotional, and subjective experience may have given rise to our notions of individuality. - See more at: http://www.enotes.com/topics/adonais/etext#sthash.H86frFBJ.dpuf The Power of Nature Shelley discusses the power of both seen and unseen nature throughout his entire canon. This is primarily how critics have come to classify the bard as a "Romantic." Due to Shelley's fervid defense of a godless universe, he often turned to the sheer majestic power of the natural world. In the place of religious doctrine he wanted substantiated evidence of reality. The Power of Nature

Like many of the romantic poets, especially William Wordsworth, Shelley demonstrates a great reverence for the beauty of nature, and he feels closely connected to nature’s power. In his early poetry, Shelley shares the romantic interest in pantheism—the belief that God, or a divine, unifying spirit, runs through everything in the universe. He refers to this unifying natural force in many poems, describing it as the “spirit of beauty” in “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” and identifying it with Mont Blanc and the Arve River in “Mont Blanc.” This force is the cause of all human joy, faith, goodness, and pleasure, and it is also the source of poetic inspiration and divine truth. Shelley asserts several times that this force can influence people to change the world for the better. However, Shelley simultaneously recognizes that nature’s power is not wholly positive. Nature destroys as often as it inspires or creates, and it destroys cruelly and indiscriminately. For this reason, Shelley’s delight in nature is mitigated by an awareness of its dark side.

Love for Nature is one of the prerequisites of all the Romantics and Shelley is no exception. Love for Nature is one of the key-notes of his poetry. His poetry abounds in Nature imagery. ‘On Love’ reflects colourful Nature imagery and glorification of Nature. He shows fruition and fulfillment in his poems. His poems are remarkable poems of Nature in which we find a profusion of Nature. Like Wordsworth, Shelley believes that Nature exercises a healing influence on man’s personality. He finds solace and comfort in Nature and feels its soothing influence on his heart. Shelley, in his poetry, appears as a pantheist too. In fact, his attitude towards Nature is analogous to that of Wordsworth, who, greatly influenced Shelly. However, as against Wordsworth, who linked the spirit in Nature with God, Shelley, on the other hand, linked it and identified it with love, for he was an atheist and a skeptic. He believes that this spirit ‘wields the world with never wearied love’. “Adonais” reflects the most striking examples of Shelley’s pantheism. At an occasion, he thinks that Keats ‘is made one with Nature’ for the power, moving in Nature. Nature’s spirit is eternal. ‘The one

remains, many change and ’. He agrees that there is some intelligence controlling Nature. In fact, he fuses the platonic philosophy of love with pantheism. He finds Nature alive, capable of feeling and thinking like a human organism. Wordsworth equates it with God, Shelley with love. Shelley loved the indefinite and the changeful in Nature. He presents the changing and indefinite moods of Nature e.g. clouds, wind, lightening etc streams and awakened by Westwind is virtually remarkable and substantial. Despite his pantheistic attitude, Shelley conceives every object of Nature as possessing a distinct individuality of its own, too, though he believes that the spirit of love unites the whole universe, including Nature, yet he treats all the natural objects as distinguishable entities. The sun, the moon, the stars, the rainbow – all have been treated as separate beings. The ancient Greek gave human attributes to the natural objects whom they personified. Shelley, too, personifies them, but he retains their true characteristics. He personifies the West wind ad the Mediterranean, but both remains wind and ocean. They have not been endowed with human qualities. He has almost scientific attitude towards the objects of Nature. Whatever he says is scientifically true. The Westwind virtually drives the dead leaves and scatters the seeds to be grown in this wind; the sea plants undoubtedly feel the destructive effects of the strong Westwind. Likewise, clouds do bring rain, dew-drops, snow, lightening, thunder etc. He observes the natural phenomenon with a scientific eye, though the description remains highly imaginative. Time and again, Shelley’s Nature description has a touch of optimism having all the sufferings, tortures, miseries of the world. In “Ode to the Westwind”, he hopes for the best and is confident that “If Winter comes, can spring be far behind?” His nature treatment is multidimensional; scientific, philosophic, intellectual, mythical and of course human. He is a marvelous poet of Nature.