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 poets grief at a loss. This form of poetry has several key features,
including the invocation of the Muse, expression of the shepherds, or poets, grief, praise of the
deceased, a tirade against death, a detailing of the effects of this specific death upon nature, and
eventually, the poets simultaneous acceptance of deaths 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 optimismhoping 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 Shelleys version, the beast responsible for Keatss death
is the literary critic, specifically one from Londons 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 mans 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
Miltons Lycidas and Spensers 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 Adonaishe 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 remembered 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 join 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 remembered 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 remembered with such respect as he is giving Keats.

Finally, the poet almost dares the reader, if he is still mourning, to join 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 passing 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 poets 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 Platos 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
pastorals 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 Shelleys 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 terms. 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 Shelleys 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.

Shelleys 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 passes to true existence. This idea fits neatly with Platos
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 Keatss
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 / [Keatss] voice in all her music, from the moan / Of thunder, to the
song of nights sweet bird. Although he respects natures 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 worlds slow stain; he
thereby makes Keatss 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 support life, not crush it. This life-giving role is then emphasized as
allencompassing, 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 passing 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 join 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.

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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 natures power. In his early
poetry, Shelley shares the romantic interest in pantheismthe 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 natures power is not wholly
positive. Nature destroys as often as it inspires or creates, and it destroys cruelly and
indiscriminately. For this reason, Shelleys 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 mans 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 Shelleys pantheism. At an occasion, he thinks that
Keats is made one with Nature for the power, moving in Nature. Natures spirit is eternal. The one
remains, many change and pass. 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, Shelleys 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.