Adonais

Percy Bysshe ShelleyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.5

Word count: 288K words
Chapters: 29

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Adonais by Percy Bysshe ShelleyAuthor: Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Nov 1, 2003

Editor's review

Adonais is a long elegy Shelley wrote in mourning for Keats, and a key text in English Romantic poetry on death, fame, and the immortality of poetic art. The poem unfolds within a pastoral mourning framework, with feeling shifting from grief toward contemplation of eternal beauty; its imagery is dense, its allusions numerous, and its language carefully attuned to sound. Its value lies in transforming personal loss into a question about the fate of poetry itself, so that reading it carries both the weight of sorrow and an upward consolation. This electronic edition is an English public-domain text, suited to close reading with explanatory notes and to selection as a text in a course on Romantic poetry. First-time readers may be held back by the classical allusions and long periodic sentences; it is advisable to learn something of the relationship between Keats and Shelley and of the pastoral elegy tradition first, then read slowly section by section. It is better suited to close reading and repeated savoring than to fast reading for plot.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature students studying English Romantic poetry who need to close-read representative works
Poetry readers who admire Shelley and wish to understand his craft and thought in greater depth
Teachers and researchers preparing courses or paper topics on English poetry appreciation
Advanced readers willing to read a long English poem slowly and to accept dense allusions and imagery

Not a good fit for

General readers who only want a Chinese translation and do not wish to engage with the English original
Readers who prefer strong narrative and fast-moving plots
Beginners entirely unfamiliar with classical allusions and the pastoral tradition who have no annotated edition at hand

Reading tips

Begin with a brief introduction covering the circumstances of Keats's death and the pastoral elegy tradition, then move into the text.
Read slowly section by section, and after each section summarize in one or two sentences the movement of feeling and the core imagery.
Use an annotated edition to clarify myths and allusions, so that unfamiliar words do not break the overall experience.
Finally, read several passages aloud to appreciate Shelley's handling of sound and rhythm.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Do I need to know about Keats before reading this poem?

It helps. The poem is Shelley's mourning for Keats, and knowing Keats, his poetry, and the relationship between the two men makes the direction of the poem's mourning clearer. Even without that, one can start from the pastoral elegy tradition and grasp its broader meditation on death and poetic immortality.

How difficult is the English, and what background is needed?

It is a long English poem with long periodic sentences and dense allusions and imagery, requiring good English reading ability and some knowledge of classical myth. An annotated edition is recommended, together with introductions and background material, working through it section by section rather than reading it all at once.

Is the poem better read straight through or in selections?

It is better suited to slow, section-by-section reading and repeated savoring. The feeling and imagery have a developing thread, so reading it through helps grasp the overall structure, but each section is information-dense; summarizing section by section and close reading against notes will reveal its craft and thought more than chasing speed.

Comments

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About the author

Percy Bysshe Shelley Author · British · 1792–1822

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) was a leading poet of English Romanticism. Expelled from Oxford University for circulating The Necessity of Atheism, he later lived in Italy and drowned in a boating accident in 1822 at the age of twenty-nine. His work spans lyric poetry, verse drama and critical prose, with representative pieces including Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, Ozymandias, Prometheus Unbound, Adonais, The Witch of Atlas and A Defence of Poetry and Other Essays. He used natural imagery and mythological allusion to explore freedom, rebellion and ideals, in language impassioned and musical; the verse drama Prometheus Unbound especially shows the sharpness of his thought. This library holds thirteen of his works, mostly volumes of his complete poetical works and individual long poems.