V6 Alquin Romanticism 28-31 Shelley

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 6

• Radical, idealistic, emotional, optimistic, had faith in humanity
  
• Wealthy background
  
• Educated at Eton and Oxford, but was expelled after having written a controverial pamphlet.
  
• First wife eventually committed suicide (drowning herself in the Serpentine)
  
• His second wife was Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein and the daughter of William Godwin, his rolemodel.
  
• Close friend of Lord Byron, and Keats
  
• Turbulent life, spending part of it in Switzerland and Italy, where he drowned.
  

Percy Bysshe Shelley

England in 1819

An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying King;

Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow

Through public scorn,—mud from a muddy spring;

Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know,

But leechlike to their fainting country cling

Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow.

A people starved and stabbed in th' untilled field;

An army, whom liberticide and prey

Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield;

Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;

Religion Christless, Godless—a book sealed;

A senate, Time’s worst statute, unrepealed—

Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may

Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.

www.litcharts.com

Sonnet/Ballad

A sonnet is lyrical, i.e. emotions play a very large role. 

A ballad always tells a story. 

1a This poem is written as a sonnet. Why is this form of poetry far more suitable for this subject than a ballad?

1. This poem a story about the Peterloo Massacre.
2. This poem is not a story: it is a list of outraged emotions.

1B What characteristics of a sonnet does this poem have?

1. The poem comprises 14 lines
2. There is ‘a break of thought’ after line 12
3. The rhyme scheme is ABAB / CDCD / EFEF / GG
4. Every line encompasses 10 syllables

1C Is the form of this poem that of an English or an Italian sonnet?

1. English
2. Italian
3. combination of English and Italian

Rhyme scheme explained: 

Shelley's choice of rhyme scheme in this sonnet is highly unusual, a kind of inverted mishmash of the schemes associated with the Italian (or Petrarchan) and English (or Shakespearean) sonnets. 

The Italian sonnet: ABBAABBA CDCDCD /  ABBAABBA CDECDE

The English sonnet:  ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

"England in 1819": ABABAB CDCDCCDD

The rhymes mark a sestet followed by an octave—and at the end of this octave is a couplet. The poem thus combines and plays with both the Italian and English sonnet schemes.  from Italy.

This inverted, unexpected structure seems to fit Shelley's depiction of a world gone topsy-turvy. The mashup of rhyme schemes may also be a sly joke, reflecting his status as an Englishman writing about England from Italy.

2.What double insult do you find in line 2?

3. Explain the double insult in line 3

1. The English royal family is muddy, i.e. murky, of dubious origin. Yet even in this company the princes are still the most dubious figures.
2. The English royal family is muddy, i.e. not very hygienic. This also applies to the princes.
3. He doesn't only call them muddy but also compares them to Spring.

4. Explain the metaphor in line 5.

5a. What figure of speech do you see in line 6

5b. Explain why this figure of speech is so functional here.

6. What does Shelley say about the peasants in line 7?

7. What does Shelley accuse the army of?

8. What is meant by ‘a book sealed’?

9. What is Shelley's opinion of the English Church?

10. What does Shelley think of the Senate in line 12

11. Is the ending of this poem optimistic or pessimistic? Explain your answer

12. If you analyse the poem in terms of sentence structure, what striking conclusion do
you reach?

1. The entire poem consists of 1 sentence, interspersed with subordinate and appositional clauses.
2. The sentences are all teh same length.
3. The sentences are very different from eachother.

Question 12 explained:

A very remarkable sentence structure! The entire poem consists of 1 sentence. The effect is that the reader

becomes breathless when reading the poem out loud, which gives an extra dimension to Shelley's outburst of anger. He throws his words out as if he is almost choking!