Literary Analysis: Shelley, Blake, Keats, and Wordsworth
The Necessity of Atheism – Percy Shelley
Shelley writes about his own life:
“A love of truth is the only motive.” He attended a lecture on science which piqued his interest in the properties of electricity, magnetism, etc., and it was here that he started to believe in science and not in religion. He also invites the readers “who discover any deficiency in his reasoning” to write and give their own opinions.
He also expressed his political and religious views in a struggle against social injustice, saying, “The editor and publishers could die printing that pamphlet.”
The Chimney Sweeper – William Blake
He had a vision or a dream. He sees a tree full of angels and people working; these people were angels. He thinks that angels were the personification of children because they are pure souls.
Songs of Innocence
The story is recounted by a boy who was sold into chimney-sweeping. He recounts the story of a fellow chimney sweeper, Tom, who had a dream or vision of several chimney sweepers all locked in black coffins. An angel appears with a key, freeing the children, and the angel said to Tom if he is a good boy, he will have this paradise. When Tom awakens, he needs to work but thinks that their lives will one day improve.
Tom is comforted by the promise of a future outside “the coffin” that is his life’s lot.
Blake critiques the deplorable conditions of the children and the society and its religious aspect (the boys as a help to the people).
Songs of Experience
It is the same boy, Tom, saying that his parents have gone to pray to God and the King, which are part of his misery.
The entire system, God included, colludes to build its own vision of paradise upon the labors of children, who are unlikely to live to see adulthood. Blake castigates the king and religious leaders because he is decrying the use of innocent children to prop up the moral consciences of adults, either rich or poor.
The Human Seasons – John Keats
He compares the four seasons of a natural year with the several stages of human life, also a natural process.
- Spring: very short and happy. The first period of our life = childhood.
- Summer: best time in our lives. We have had some experience, and we are able to think about what we did in our childhood.
- Autumn: spiritual experience. Human beings are mature. Their tiredness is reflected in their acts. Calm and relaxing. We are getting old.
- Winter: death just happens once. It is everybody’s destiny, and nobody can run away from it.
Ode to a Nightingale – John Keats
Describes the oppressive nature of melancholy and depression.
Perception of the conflicted nature of human life.
Mixture between: life/death, pain/joy.
Keats focuses on immediate concrete sensations and emotions.
In the beginning, the bird is presented as a real bird, but as the poem progresses, the bird becomes a symbol. The bird may symbolize: music (beauties) of nature, ideal, freedom, pure joy. Keats wants to escape from life by the imagination.
Daffodils – William Wordsworth
Themes:
- Happiness: Daffodils give the author a little boost of joy whenever he needs it.
- Celebrate happiness of nature: Joys and happiness of life (daffodils).
- Poet “floating in the sky.”
- Memory and the past: memory of beautiful things serves as a comfort to the speaker even after the experience of viewing them has ended.