1. Percy Bysshe Shelley The Romantic Period Percy Bysshe Shelley
pg. 730
Percy Bysshe Shelley
(August 4, 1792 – July 8, 1822)
Major English Romantic poet
Considered to be among the finest lyrical poets of the English language

2. Percy Bysshe Shelley The Romantic Period Unconventional life
Uncompromising
idealism
Strong skeptical voice
Notorious figure during his life

3. Percy Bysshe Shelley The Romantic Period He is perhaps most famous
for the following:
“Ozymandias”
“Ode to the West Wind”
“To a Skylark”

4. Percy Bysshe Shelley
Shelley became the idol of the next two or three generations of poets including the major Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite poets:
Robert Browning
Alfred Tennyson
William Butler Yeats

5. Percy Bysshe Shelley
He is famous for his association with contemporaries John Keats and Lord Byron.
He was married to the famous novelist Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein.
Shelley wrote the introduction to the 1818 edition of his wife’s novel.

6. Percy Bysshe Shelley 1814 – Shelley fell in love
and eloped with Mary, the
16 year-old daughter of
William Godwin and
Mary Wollstonecraft.
For the next few years, the couple travelled in Europe.

7. Percy Bysshe Shelley 1822 – Shelley moved to Italy and
published the journal The Liberal
with Leigh Hunt and Lord Byron.
By publishing it in Italy, the three
men remained free from prosecution
by the British authorities.
The first edition of The Liberal sold 4,000
copies.
Soon after its publication, Percy Bysshe
Shelley was lost at sea on July 8, 1822, while
sailing to meet Leigh Hunt.

8. Read pgs
Percy Bysshe Shelley – pg. 730
Preview Info – pg. 731
Literary terms:
imagery – descriptive language –
appeals to the senses
Romantic philosophy – link nature
and spirit

9. Read “Ozymandias” – pg. 733
“Ode to the West Wind” – pg
“To a Skylark” – pg

10. "Ozymandias"
pg. 733

11. The feet of the colossus of Rameses II on which Shelley's poem Ozymandias is based. 

12. Logical Structure
*Ozymandias, or Ramese II, was pharaoh of Egypt in the thirteenth century B.C. 
The poem, as an Italian sonnet, can be divided into two parts:
the first eight lines (octave)
the next six lines (sestet)

13. Logical Structure
The octave part describes the fragments of a sculpture the traveler sees on an ancient ruin.
The sestet goes further to record the words on the pedestal and then describe the surrounding emptiness.

14. Logical Structure
The words on the pedestal are in contrast to both the octave and the last three lines of the poem.
The reader must ask:
“What does Ozymandias want to achieve, as opposed to what is left behind him?

15. Irony
The most obvious kind of opposition exists (between what Ozymandias said and what is left behind him). 
This opposition has the effect of dramatic irony.   

16. Structure of Narration
Frame story
The poem contains a story (told by Ozymandias) within a story (told by the traveler) within a story (told by the speaker of the poem).
In the core of this multiple story, the Ozymandias we know is only a sculpture and the words on it.

17. NOTES
Message: power is fleeting – humans cannot escape effects of time
Message is relevant – accomplishments, pride, power
Lines 1-8: description of statue
Lines 9-14: irony – wrecked condition
Heart – longing desire
Hand – creative aspect

18. NOTES Ironic comment on human pride & ambition
Inscription: “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Remnants of statue
Empty desert
Ozymandias’s works – crumbled b/c of time and nature

19. NOTES
Contrast: King’s pride/passion vs. image of devastation & emptiness
Most important idea: meaninglessness of earthly power
Ozymandias was an actual king of Egypt thousands of years before Shelley wrote
Political message: No dictator can ever truly rule absolutely

20. NOTES
A traveler describes crumbling remains of statue commemorating Egyptian pharaoh
Statue’s expression: obscured but includes frown, wrinkled lip, sneer
Condescending, proud ruler

21. NOTES
Lines 10-11:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Words on pedestal convey attitude of pride & arrogance

22. NOTES
Lines 12-14: “Round the decay / Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, / The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Idea expressed: Nature = more powerful than any human king
Irony of inscription: Ozymandias expected his works to last forever.
The statue and his entire civilization have been destroyed.

23. NOTES
Although Shelley described only what the traveler saw, the reader should understand the traveler had other senses as well.
For example, the traveler very likely felt the heat from the sun, etc.

24. “Ode to the West Wind” Apostrophe: Poem addresses the West Windpg
Apostrophe: Poem addresses the West Wind
Poem describes force of West Wind
West Wind:
drives dead leaves
stirs up the ocean
destroys plants
announces winter’s arrival

25. “Ode to the West Wind” Shelley: in awe of wind’s natural strength
disillusioned with his own spiritual emptiness
calls on West Wind to lift him up, destroy him, and then purify him (similar to changing of seasons)
understands that decay will lead ultimately to the renewal of spring

26. “Ode to the West Wind” First two sections (I and II):
NOTES
First two sections (I and II):
Images of violence, death, decay, and burial
Lines 16-17: Heaven and the Ocean are like trees.
Lines 24-25: (Metaphor) Night is a tomb.
Lines 46-48: Emphasis on driving force of wind’s strength

27. “Ode to the West Wind” Wind associated with autumn
NOTES
Wind associated with autumn
Leaves & seeds scatter – will bring new life
Movement of clouds – initiates new weather
Speaker asks wind to lift him as it would “a wave, a leaf, a cloud.”
The “heavy weight of hours” (line 55) prompts speaker to ask wind to lift him up.

28. “Ode to the West Wind”
NOTES
Line 57: “Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is”
Best expresses speaker’s hopes for West Wind
Lines 57-63: Speaker sees himself in the autumn wind. Asks the wind to enable his spirit to be one with that of the wind.

29. “Ode to the West Wind”
NOTES
Shelley is not only examining the wind literally, he is also examining the wind figuratively speaking as well.
The West Wind is an appropriate force to call on for new birth b/c it marks the changing of seasons: fall spring.
Old is destroyed and replaced by new in the spring.

30. “Ode to the West Wind”
NOTES
Line 70: “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”
Even the bleakest situations are followed by times of renewal and hope.
Line 70 ties together the poem b/c it sums up the theme: hope and a new beginning
Summary: The West Wind’s destructiveness makes new life possible.

31. “To a Skylark”
NOTES pg
This poem is similar to “Ode to the West Wind” b/c both the wind and the skylark are constantly in motion.
Define blithe: cheerful
Stanza 1: The speaker claims the skylark is not a bird.
The point? The bird’s song is something not of this world b/c the song is so beautiful.

32. “To a Skylark”
NOTES
Lines 6-35: images of light – suggest bird is celestial or other worldly
Speaker says skylark’s song is heard everywhere, even in heaven
Lines 16-20: appeal to sight, sound, and touch
Overall image presented of skylark: bird is often invisible – speaker perceives skylark, at times, only through sense of hearing.

33. “To a Skylark”
NOTES
Line 35: image suggests skylark’s music is everywhere at once
Lines – speaker compares bird to the following:
Poet
Highborn maiden
Glowworm
Rose

34. “To a Skylark”
NOTES
Lines 36-40: the skylark, like a poet’s hymns, creates sympathies and fears
Lines 41-45: the skylark, like a sad maiden, sings songs to soothe the soul
Lines 46-50: the skylark, like a glowworm's light, sings a song that fill the air
Lines 51-55: the skylark, like the scent of fallen roses, sings a song that intoxicates the senses
Each comparison suggests the skylark’s song can transform the world or even a soul.

35. “To a Skylark”
NOTES
Poet believes skylark’s songs are sweeter than songs of humans
Skylark does not know annoyance and pain
Skylark understands death more deeply than humans, though
Lines 86-87: “We look before and after, / And pine for what is not”
Unlike the bird, humans sulk and feel sorry for what is not and what will not be.

36. “To a Skylark”
NOTES
Lines 88-90: “Our sincerest laughter / With some pain is fraught: / Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.”
Even human laughter has grief.
Human happiness is different from the skylark’s happiness b/c human happiness is always tinged with sorrow.

37. “To a Skylark” Line 103: “harmonious madness”
NOTES
Line 103: “harmonious madness”
The gladness of the skylark is too pure to be understood by humans.
If the skylark’s gladness/happiness were translated into poetry, the verses would be startlingly beautiful, but impossible to understand.

38. “To a Skylark” Shelley focuses on:
NOTES
Shelley focuses on:
Limitations of human condition
Poet’s struggle with limitations
Quality Shelley perceives & praises above all in the skylark’s existence:
Purity & simplicity of skylark’s joy
Shelley’s description of nature in all three poems:
Nature has much to teach us.