Percy Bysshe Shelley
Class Texts and Readings
by [BF, CP, AH, JH, TC; commentary by TC]
■by students in the Fall, 2024 Romanticism course at Texas A&M.
- The Necessity for Atheism (the pamphlet
that got him expelled from school)
- Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude
(composed 1815, published 1816), with Mary Shelley's and Percy's
introductions.
- "Ozymandias" (1818)
- "Ode to the West Wind" (1819)
"Ode to the
West Wind" is separated into five sections that display the power behind
the West Wind. It contains the force of change, and the spread of the
poet's wisdom across the world. Although seeming destructive, the wind
has a political and social structure that changes as the seasons do and
leads to renewal or rebirth.
- "Adonais" (1821)
"Adonais" is
an elegiac poem that mourns Percy Shelley's close friend, John Keats. It
has themes such as grief, immortality, and mythology to convey the
strong emotions of losing someone close. Adonis is a mythological figure
who was tragically killed by a boar. Shelley uses this analogy to
express the deep desires to find relief for the soul as guilt and
depression take hold of.
-
"The Triumph of Life" (1822)
The Triumph
of Life" was the last poem that Shelley had created before his death in
1822. He was not able to publish it before he tragically drowned but it
was still included in Posthumous Poems two years later. Ironically, the
poem explores the idea of how to overcome life when going against love,
death, time, and the force of purpose. It demonstrates how nature and
humanity interlock to challenge and create experiences that could
ultimately revive oneself.
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