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Questions tagged [percy-bysshe-shelley]

Questions related to the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822) and his work.

5 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is it an error to identify the narrator of "Ozymandias" with the author?

When the poem begins, "I met a traveler...," is the reader being invited to identify that "I" with P. Shelley himself? Would that have been the prevailing reading? Did Shelley ...
Tom's user avatar
  • 782
1 vote
1 answer
246 views

Meaning of “All spirits are enslaved that serve things evil” in "Prometheus Unbound"

The line “all spirits are enslaved that serve things evil” can be found in the play Prometheus Unbound by Percy Bysshe Shelley. My initial interpretation is, spirits that serve evil are enslaved by ...
BinaryPatrick's user avatar
22 votes
6 answers
9k views

In Ozymandias, who is the "ye" in the line "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" meant to be addressing?

Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ozymandias is a well-known and oft-referenced English-language poem from the early 19th century, and purports to quote — presumably in translation from Egyptian hieroglyphs — a ...
Mark S's user avatar
  • 345
0 votes
1 answer
171 views

Is this line from Shelley’s A Lament an allusion to his Skylark?

The poem A Lament by P.B. Shelley goes like this O world! O Life! O Time! On whose last steps I climb, Trembling at that where I stood before; When will return the glory of your prime? No more, —O ...
Knight wants Loong back's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
2k views

Who and for what called Shelley “beautiful and ineffectual angel”?

I was reading a blog, which was shared to me on a virtual platform, where it was written that “XYZ called Shelley as ‘beautiful and ineffectual angel’”. I don’t remember who was that XYZ but that blog ...
Knight wants Loong back's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
87 views

Is "Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought" a deliberate contradiction by Shelley?

Shelley was admiring the “profuse strains” of the “blithe spirit” and when he compares human songs with the skylark’s Waking or asleep, Thou of death must deem Things more true and deep Than we ...
Knight wants Loong back's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
192 views

What does Shelley mean by "if we could scorn fear" in "To a Skylark"?

Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “To a Skylark” discusses human nature as compared to the “blithe spirit”. Shelley all throughout the poem is sure that Skylark was in joy, he was not in dilemma as Wordsworth ...
Knight wants Loong back's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
437 views

How do we know that Shelley's "Adonais" refers to Byron and Moore?

In every site I've seen that analyzes Shelley's Adonais, they all agree that in the following stanza the "Pilgrim of Eternity" refers to Byron. Here is one example: From stanza 30 to 35, ...
bobsmith76's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
497 views

Who is the 'one who had lifted it' in Shelley's sonnet about 'the painted veil'?

In Shelley's famous sonnet, which begins 'Lift not the painted veil', the "turn" is placed - unusually - in the seventh line. Lift not the painted veil which those who live Call Life: ...
Tom Hosker's user avatar
  • 1,120
6 votes
2 answers
766 views

Could Ozymandias be interpreted as referring to the power of the Church/pope?

The poem's central line that establishes the theme of power: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Does the "king of kings" part happen to be a subtle reference to the English papacy ...
Soha Farhin Pine's user avatar
19 votes
1 answer
5k views

Meaning of "The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed" in "Ozymandias"

From "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley:                                   Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold ...
Soha Farhin Pine's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
142 views

Stories From the Year Without a Summer

I have seen the story many times: Percy and Mary Shelley (not yet wed) paid an a visit to Lord Byron in 1816. Attributed now to the eruption at Mount Tambora, this year was unseasonably cool. Spending ...
user2458076's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
2k views

On what occasion did Shelley say "Keats was a Greek"?

Once Shelley said, "Keats was a Greek." What was the context? Whom did he say this to?
Akshat Shukla's user avatar