What is Romanticism?
Popularized in the late 1700s by many young, ambitious individuals Romanticism was arguably, the most influential and widespread literary movement to that date. Though there is no set point of origin, the movement swept through almost all of Europe and the Americas in just a few year encapsulating every country and encouraging individualism, spontaneity, and expression of passion. They challenged Classical writers in the sense that they wrote openly about human rights, revolution and freedom, which translated directly into political avenues. Many Romantic politicians took part in the American and European revolutions that caught fire during this time.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
A son from a wealthy English family, Shelley attended Oxford University and was later kicked out for voicing radical, atheist opinions in his writings. His writings were about the necessity of Atheism and this led to him being disowned and then meeting his first wife, Harriet his later entered into a marriage with a woman named Mary, now famously known as the author of the famous horror story Frankenstein for which Shelley was present for the writing of. He wrote up until his death, with his most famous publications being written in the last 4 years of his life.
A DialogueDEATH:
For my dagger is bathed in the blood of the brave, I come, care-worn tenant of life, from the grave, Where Innocence sleeps 'neath the peace-giving sod, And the good cease to tremble at Tyranny's nod; I offer a calm habitation to thee,-- Say, victim of grief, wilt thou slumber with me? My mansion is damp, cold silence is there, But it lulls in oblivion the fiends of despair; Not a groan of regret, not a sigh, not a breath, Dares dispute with grim Silence the empire of Death. I offer a calm habitation to thee,-- Say, victim of grief, wilt thou slumber with me? MORTAL: Mine eyelids are heavy; my soul seeks repose, It longs in thy cells to embosom its woes, It longs in thy cells to deposit its load, Where no longer the scorpions of Perfidy goad,-- Where the phantoms of Prejudice vanish away, And Bigotry's bloodhounds lose scent of their prey. Yet tell me, dark Death, when thine empire is o'er, What awaits on Futurity's mist-covered shore? DEATH: Cease, cease, wayward Mortal! I dare not unveil The shadows that float o'er Eternity's vale; Nought waits for the good but a spirit of Love, That will hail their blest advent to regions above. For Love, Mortal, gleams through the gloom of my sway, And the shades which surround me fly fast at its ray. Hast thou loved?--Then depart from these regions of hate, And in slumber with me blunt the arrows of fate. I offer a calm habitation to thee.-- Say, victim of grief, wilt thou slumber with me? MORTAL: Oh! sweet is thy slumber! oh! sweet is the ray Which after thy night introduces the day; How concealed, how persuasive, self-interest’s breath, Though it floats to mine ear from the bosom of Death! I hoped that I quite was forgotten by all, Yet a lingering friend might be grieved at my fall, And duty forbids, though I languish to die, When departure might heave Virtue’s breast with a sigh. O Death! O my friend! snatch this form to thy shrine, And I fear, dear destroyer, I shall not repine. |
Literary Devices + AnalysisThis poem highlights the inevitable relationship between death and life/mortality without including a sense of religion, which Shelley's works made sure to do. The conversation details Death's attempt at persuading Mortality to submit and Mortality's unwillingness to, or the idea that one can live forever. Eventually Death is able to persuade Mortality to follow it without regrets. This poem uses Anthropomorphism in the sense that two inhuman things, or rather states of being, Death and Mortality, are speaking and given human emotions such as grief and weariness. The work also uses Consonance or the repetition of sounds in a single phrase. "Not a groan of regret, not a sigh, not a breath," the constant repetition of the soft "G".
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