Page 45 - DENG202_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_III

Elective English—III

Notes to Intellectual Beauty, the speaker look for ghosts and describes that ghosts are one of the means
men have experimented with to understand the world beyond. The speaker of Mont Blanc bumps
into ghosts and shadows of actual natural objects in the cave of “Poesy.” Ghosts are scarcely
described in both poems such as the speaker do not find any ghosts in Hymn to Intellectual Beauty,
and the ghosts of Poesy in Mont Blanc are not real, a discovery that emphasises the mystery and
elusiveness of supernatural forces.

Christ

From his days at Oxford, Shelley felt severely doubtful about organised religion, especially
Christianity. Nonetheless, in his poetry, he often denotes the poet as a Christ-like figure and so
sets the poet up as a profane substitute for Christ. Martyred by traditional values and society, the
Christ figure is resuscitated by the power of nature along with his own imagination to spread
his prophetic visions all over the earth. Shelley further splits his Christ figures from conventional
Christian values in Adonais, in which he equates the same character to Christ as well as Cain,
whom the Bible depicts as the first murderer in the world. For Shelley, Christ and Cain are both
rebels and outcasts, like him and other romantic poets.

4.2.3 Symbols

Mont Blanc

For Shelley, Mont Blanc, which is the highest mountain peak in the Alps, signifies the everlasting
power of nature. Mont Blanc has been in existence forever, and will last eternally, an idea that
the poet explores in Mont Blanc. The mountain fills the poet with motivation, but its coldness and
unreachability are frightening. Eventually, Shelley ponders if the mountain’s power might be
futile, an invention of the more dominant human imagination.

The West Wind

Shelley uses the West Wind to represent the power of nature and of the source of imagination.
Unlike Mont Blanc, the West Wind is depicted as dynamic and active in poems like Ode to the
West Wind. While Mont Blanc is immovable, the West Wind is an agent for change. Even as it
destroys, the wind supports new life on earth and social development among humanity.

The Statue of Ozymandias

In Shelley’s work, the statue of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, or Ozymandias, represents
political oppression. In Ozymandias, (1817) the statue is broken into pieces and abandoned in an
empty desert, which suggests that tyranny is temporary and that no political leader, especially
an unfair one, can expect to have lasting power. The broken monument also signifies the
deterioration of civilization and culture. The statue is, after all, a piece of art made by a creator,
which along with its creator have been destroyed, similar to all living things.

4.3 Analysis

The central thematic concerns of Shelley’s poetry are largely the same themes that defined
Romanticism, especially among the younger English poets of Shelley’s era: the sanctity of the
imagination, passions, political liberty, nature, creativity, and beauty. Shelley’s philosophical
relationship to his subject matter makes his treatment of these themes unique. These themes
were better developed and expressed than any other Romantic poet with the exception of
Wordsworth. Wordsworth’s temperament was extremely sensitive and receptive even for a

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