Percy Bysshe Shelley ( )

If Byron exposed the evil of the world, Shelley showed the idealism of Romanticism.

In his Prometheus Unbound, Queen Mab and Revolt of Islam he depicts an ideal world without tyranny and cruelty. In his lyrics on nature and love, there is true spirit of freedom and an exquisite beauty ("Ode to the West Wind" "To a Skylark").

Ode to the West Wind Image of the west wind: forceful, constructive as well as destructive; image of progressive force, free spirit, inspiration Themes: A call for a revolution or the creation of a new world, love of nature, of freedom or independence

Ode to the West Wind: Formal features ode: a genre,a long lyric poem,serious and dignified in subject,tone and style,sometimes with elaborate stanzaic structure, often written to celebrate an event or in individual.

terza rima stanza: consists of 14 lines subdivided into 4 3-line units or tercets rhyming aba bcb cdc ded and a closing couplet rhyming ee. enjambment or run-on lines

Additional work: Ozymandias(optional ) 1 Themes This poem echoes Samuel Johnson’s poem “The Vanity of Human Wishes ” and Guiterman’s “On Vanity of Earthly Greatness”; folly of human efforts to conquer time The tusks which clashed in mighty brawls Of mastodons, are billiard balls. The sword of Charlemagne the Just Is Ferric Oxide ( 三氧化二铁 ), known as rust. The grizzly bear, whose potent hug, Was feared by all, is now a rug. Great Caesar's bust is on the shelf, And I don't feel so well myself. -- Arthur Guiterman

Ozymandias(2) 2 structure indirect narration emphasizes remoteness in time and space: Ozymandias’s words were dictated to the sculptor, then carved in stone, then read by a traveler, then told to the first person speaker, then related to us

Ozymandias(3) 3 use of ironies 1) verbal irony: saying the opposite of what is meant 2)dramatic irony: a device by which the audience is made aware of things that certain characters do not know. 3)situational irony: in which expectations contrast with the fulfilment. (other ironies: irony of fate, Socratic irony)

Ozymandias(4) 1 the juxtaposition of the inscription “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” with “Nothing beside remains” (verbal irony) 2 readers know the inscription to be false (situational irony) 3 disparity between expectation and reality: a) the sculptor the king chose to glorify him mocked him instead; b) the monument that was to endure as a symbol of his greatness lies crumbling in the desert; c) his works inspire neither the mighty nor the lowly with despair, the speaker has not seen it at all and he registers no emotions when he hears of it.