I ask you Heaven, the all-beholding Sun,

Has it not seen?

Deaf waves, the rage of whirlwind, the genii of the storm, the fiends of Earthquake — all are different forms of presenting natural phenomena like living beings, who all take sides, either for or against the Titan, placed in their midst.

The vocabulary of the monologue harmonizes perfectly with the imaginary time, place, with the personality of the speaker and his awful fate. There are hardly any words that belong to everyday speech. The rare exceptions are elevated by their context. The simple word "rolling" acquires a metaphorical meaning when applied to worlds; "hung" becomes dignified because Prometheus hangs over a precipice and is nailed to an "eagle-baffling mountain". "Un­measured" is meaningful as the climax of despair in the gradation that has been discussed above. "Crawling" makes part of a metaphor ("crawling glaciers") and loses its prosaic associations.

Elevated as the vocabulary is, abstract nouns are very few and they are not personified in the way they often were in classical verse. In Shelley's case they are just states of mind and become almost concrete (fear, hope, scorn, despair, solitude, etc.). However lofty, the words all carry concrete meaning and as often as not develop a figurative and symbolic meaning of their own. The vo­cabulary is very rich. For see Shelley uses behold, regard and sur­vey, for suffering — pangs, agony, pain, torture, misery, despair.

Prometheus is a Man-God. His power, such as it is, is moral power, the power of self-sacrifice for a noble end. He regards every­thing on a high moral plane. He aggrandizes even his enemy, Zeus, by placing him on his own level: the two of them alone in this great world are sleepless and watchful. When he thinks of tortured hu­manity, he concentrates on their moral tragedy — "fear and self-contempt and barren hope". Everything is transfigured by his own greatness. A monologue coming from the lips of a majestic and noble figure must needs be couched in the most stately and solemn poetic language.

Though Shelley never knew Blake, his grand romantic visions, his uncontrollable imagination, his metaphorical language are akin to those of his predecessor.

LINES

(1822)

I

When the lamp is shattered

The light in the dust lies dead —

When the cloud is scattered

The rainbow's glory is shed.

When the lute is broken,

Sweet tones are remembered not;

When the lips have spoken,

Loved accents are soon forgot.

II

As music and splendour

Survive not the lamp and the lute,

The heart's echoes render

No song when the spirit is mute: —

No song but sad dirges,

Like the wind through a ruined cell,

Or the mournful surges

That ring the dead seaman's knell.

III

When hearts have once mingled

Love first leaves the well-built nest;

The weak one is singled

To endure what it once possessed.

О Love! who bewailest

The frailty of all things here,

Why choose you the frailest

For your cradle, your home, and your bier?

IV

Its passions will rock thee

As the storms rock the ravens on high;

Bright reason will mock thee,

Like the sun from a wintry sky.

From thy nest every rafter

Will rot, and thine eagle home

Leave thee naked to laughter,

When leaves fall and cold winds come.

COMMENTS

This is one of Shelley's most tragic lyrics voicing his reflections on the mutability and evanescence of love. According to the poet, it is the weaker natures that are more constant in their affections and therefore suffer more. The pain and heartache of love no longer requited sharpen all other sensations — among them perception of outward things — and make poetically inclined minds project them­selves on their surroundings tinging these with their own emotions.

This process of pain-sharpened perception is here rendered with an amazing concreteness of poetic vision. The very first lines are a bold blend of direct and indirect meaning. A common phenomenon is observed, but it is peculiarly worded: instead of the commonplace word "broken" used in connection with ordinary things, such as lamps, Shelley puts "shattered", with its connotations of catastro­phic events, frequently applied to the sphere of emotions (as, for instance, "shattered life"):

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 813