Show Shelleys Shelley's Adonais THIS poem was written as an elegy on the death of John Keats whose sensitive sensitive sensitive tive nature had been so keenly and deeply wounded by criticisms on his poems published in the Quarterly R Review Re view That according to Shelley caused his death It seems that Shelley to express his love and friendship friend friend- ship for Keats wrote this beautiful poem Taking the expressions found in Adonais as reflecting the true mental mental mental men men- tal state of its author he must have been an individual of of exceedingly strong feelings which were easily aroused but rarely controlled When aroused he fires heavy shots and often at random His feelings sometimes remind me of ofa a pendulum which swings until one extreme extreme extreme ex ex- is reached then unable to go farther and incapable of rest of necessity necessity necessity sity swings back to the other For example example ex ex- ex example ample in this poem at the beginning he weeps and calls upon everybody and everything to weep in the latter part ha having ving expended this emotion he ceases to mourn and shows that there is no need for anyone to weep His extreme extreme extreme ex ex- and violent changes of opinion about people shows this this- to be one of h he e characteristics of his nature At one time he writes concerning Eliza Westbrook She is a diamond not so large as her sister Harriet Harritt but more highly polished and nd a little later I certainly hate her with all my heart and soul I sometimes feel faint with the fatigue of checking the of my unbounded abhorrence for this miserable wretch At one time he is so mild sweet tuneful and melodious at another r harsh angry and vindictive He expresses whatever he feels with such in intensity ty that one cannot mistake the strength or nature of his feelings The stimulus which arouses him however however however how how- ever does not always alwa's appear to be commensurate commensurate commensurate com com- to the expressions aroused For example in the notes accompanying accompany accompany- ing this poem reference is made to Keats which shows that he and Shelley were never on such terms of intimacy as the reader of this poem would infer There seems to have been slight occasion occasion occasion occa occa- sion for Shelley to pour forth such torrents torrents torrents tor tor- rents of love and grief on the death of one who was comparatively a stranger to him and I am led to suspect that at least one motive h he had in writing Adonais was to give the critics who perhaps had commented unfavorably upon his own wr writings tings a few severe lashes for his own satisfaction though ostensibly in behalf of Keats As a literary production Adonais Adonai is worthy our study In it we find such melodious strains of tender love and friendship for the the- lamented such torrents of blame and resentment for forthe forthe forthe the cruel critics and such deep expressions expressions of grief and regret for the e early death of one so promising His figures too always appearing in such rich profusion profusion profusion pro pro- fusion are remarkable in this poem for having been drawn from the common things around us Nor are they homely on this account At the touch of his genius they assume such rare and beautiful beautiful beautiful beau beau- tints and combinations that we are equally surprised and delighted The power thus to make the commonest things appear like Cinderella-like in the most beautiful garbs is to me one of the most excellent features of the poem With his characteristic freedom he crowds together such a profusion of metaphors that occasionally they seem to be somewhat mixed What seems to me to be such an example exam exam- pIe is found in the lines While one with soft soft enamored breath Rekindled all the fading melodies With which like flowers that mock the corpse beneath He had adorned and hid the coming bulk of death The italicised words mark the transitions transitions transi trans through which the figure passes before its work is done Horatio Horatto A I c. c |