Percy Bysshe Shelley

     Percy Shelley has made a name of  himself as an outstanding poet. He was indeed a romantic and had a knack for adding a dimension of  fantasy to ordinary things. He was no extraordinary visionary like William Blake, but his poetic works have been and still are  testimonies of  the beautiful artistic creations which can be crafted using the superior manipulation of language coupled with the mighty appliication of  wit.

    I intend to analyze many of  his works in a series of posts. I think that the first work I will deconstruct is  Shelley's dedicatory poem to his first wife, Harriet.

 

To Harriet -

   

Whose is the love that, gleaming through the world,

Wards off the poisinous arrow of  its scorn?

Whose is the warm and partial praise,

Virtue's most sweet reward?

 

Beneath whose looks did my reviving soul                               5

Riper in truth and virtuous daring grow?

Whose eyes have I gazed fondly on,

And loved mankind the more?

 

Harriet! on thine:- thou wert my purer mind;

Thou wert the inspiration of  my song;                                       10

Thine are these early wilding flowers,

Though garlanded by me.

 

Then press against thy breast this pledge of  love,

And know, though time may change and years may roll,

Each flow'ret gathered in my heart                                              15

It consecrrates to thine.                                                                   

 

An Analysis of  Shelley's "To Harriet -"









            The poetic composition, “To Harriet –“by Percy Shelley explores immutable love and adoration which are characteristic of  ideal love. In this dedicatory poem, Shelley constructs a speaking voice to express the intense affection that he has for his wife, Harriet.

            To powerfully render the intense love of the persona, Shelley crafts a metaphorical contrast between “the poisonous arrow” (2) of  society and the “sweet reward” (4) which is a fruition of  love. Ideal love is so strong that it protects the persona from society’s fatal eyes and tongues which destroy the narrator’s spirit, while, ensconcing the speaker in a “warm” (3) embrace with words of  “partial praise” (3) which builds confidence and self-esteem. Therefore, like in war, the persona has braved out the battle of  existing within a critical society and has succeeded in securing the spoils of  the war, the warmth of  love. Hence, the speaker justifies why he loves intensely and superbly imposes the beauty of  love by contrasting it with the dread of  battle.

            Through the vehicle of  metaphorical comparasion with abstract concepts such as “purer mind” (9) and “inspiration” (10), the poet masterfully delivers the intense love of  the speaking voice by exploring the  profound transformative effect of  ideal love which enables the persona to persevere. The requited love of  a significant other has purified the narrator’s mind which both contrasts with and protects the speaker from the “scorn” (2) of  “the world” (1). Further, to mightily impose the contradistinctive delineation of  the narrator’s  refined mind with society’s  destructive manner of  thinking, Shelley metaphorically submits a newly awakened need to create and build, in the phrase, “inspiration of  my song” (10). Therefore, Shelley’s superb metaphors comparing abstract concepts skilfully depict the intensity of  the narrator’s love for Harriet.

            In the second stanza, the causal relationship between Harriet’s love and the speaker’s mighty transformation is concretized with the use of  rhetorical questions.   This concretization implicitly but powerfully imposes the intense love of  Shelley’s persona. According to the narrator, Harriet’s “looks” (5) and “eyes” (7) were imperative and essential in producing a revival of  the” soul” (6) and love for “mankind” (8), respectively. The poet rationalizes and confidently implies the unquenchable passion of  his love by asking rhetorical questions.

            The uniform physical form and structure of  the poetic work expertly reinforces and aesthetically enhances Shelley’s poetic examination of  the issue of intense love and adoration. The four quatrains represent the stages of  love by illustrating the past events which planted the seed of  love, the vigorous growth of  the speaker’s love and the promise of  an everlasting and immutable love. Therefore, the eternally vigorous love of Shelley’s persona is masterfully rendered by displaying the chronological development of  mutual love and its powerful effects on the enamoured speaker.

            Shelley’s “To Harriet –“has the perfect balance between logically investigating issues through rationalization and romanticized aesthetic beauty. Despite the fact that the two contrary investigative methods are interweaved within the work there is a manifestation of  coherency because of  the unifying threads of  literary devices. Though differing poetic techniques are used by Shelley, he successfully provides a powerful deliver of  the effervescent love and adoration for Harriet.

Work Cited

Shelley, Percy. “To Harriet –“. The Selected Poetry and Prose of Shelley. Ed. Bruce Woodcock.

            Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 2002. 3. Print.