1. In Shelley’s “A Defence of Poetry,” he states that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the World.” What do you think he means by this?
2. Compare Shelley’s attitude toward nature with that of Wordsworth. What do these two Romantic poets seem to share and where do they differ in their relationships with the natural world?
3. “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?,” the concluding line of “Ode to the West Wind” is one of Shelley’s most frequently quoted lines. What do you think it means?
2. Compare Shelley’s attitude toward nature with that of Wordsworth. What do these two Romantic poets seem to share and where do they differ in their relationships with the natural world?
These two Romantic poets share their ideas of appreciating nature as they both describe the beauty of landscape surrounds them. Both of them depicts nature with full of details as well as their own feeling toward it. However, these two poets also differ in many aspects, such as their relationships with the natural world. the poems composed by William Wordsworth are seems to have the central idea of appreciating nature, and all the words are praising the beauty of landscape. Most significantly, Wordsworth was happy and optimistic as he composed his poems because his poem reveals how he thinks nature is a gift for human beings. On the contrary, Shelley is using the beauty of nature in order to contract the dreads of his life. Apparently, he was in depression as he composed “Stanza written in dejection December 1818, near Naples”. In addition, from the content of the poems composed by Shelley, it is obvious that his main focus is not only on nature, but also how his internal conflicts play the significant role of his poems.
Compare Shelley’s attitude toward nature with that of Wordsworth. What do these two Romantic poets seem to share and where do they differ in their relationships with the natural world?
William Wordworth looked at the natural world in awe and was inspired by every bit of it. He used his memory from his time there to get through hardships in life and he wanted to transfer those memories to his sister whenever she was upset. Percy Bysshe Shelley was also impressed by the beauty of nature. He described everything from the Sun to the ocean and nature’s longlasting impact on human beings. However unlike William Wordsworth, this view of nature does not inspire Shelley or lift his spirits. On the contrary, it fuels his depression even more because he compares himself in juxtaposition to the beauty of nature. Shelley asserts that a bright day can impact many people’s lives unlike the cold and sad Percy Bysshe Shelley and even goes as far as saying that he would be insulting nature by dying on such a beautiful day. This directly opposes Wordsworth and how the memory of his landscape fuels him at his lowest.
Compare Shelley’s attitude toward nature with that of Wordsworth. What do these two Romantic poets seem to share and where do they differ in their relationships with the natural world?
Both William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem indicate how the beauties of nature. However, these two Romantic poets express their life related to nature world in different way. In William Wordsworth’s poem, he was inspired everything in his life by nature world. He was deeply impressed when he looked his around and he was thankful to the nature world. His life was happy to live in this beautiful nature world. On the other hand, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s felt sadness owing to nature world. He compared his lonely life with the beautiful nature world in his poem. He knew and expressed that the nature is so beautiful. However, he was lonely. He felt lonelier because of the nature. He also felt that other people are happy with the beautiful nature, but he could not belong to the beautiful life. Shelley could not feel sympathy with the beautiful nature world.
Romantic poets Shelley and Wordsworth can differ more than they can relate when they wrote each of their poems. Both poets could appreciate nature, Shelley admires a beach on a winter afternoon and Wordsworth takes in the beauty of a desolated meadow. Their differences are the moods they were in when inspired by these poems. Wordsworth was enjoying the beauty of his sister’s awe and happiness of her discovery of the meadow. Her brother already experienced the meadow’s beauty and found more joy in watching her enjoy it as much as he remembers loving its view. Shelley can appreciate the sunny beach on a cold day, but doesn’t find any joy in it. Shelley still feels unhappy on the beautiful winter day and looks to smiling strangers to help lift his own spirits. Shelley is depressed and can’t get out of his funk, where Wordsworth couldn’t be happier.
2. Compare Shelley’s attitude toward nature with that of Wordsworth. What do these two Romantic poets seem to share and where do they differ in their relationships with the natural world?
Both of two Romantic poets describe the beauty of nature and how their feelings toward the nature. However, Shelley’s attitude is more pessimistic, and depressed. he compares himself to the nature. The spring is coming soon, the nature seems full of joy and life. but he is still suffered from his internal conflict. He feels he is lack of power,joy, love, health and power. He does not have anything . He is very depressed about himself and this world. Wordsworth’s attitude toward nature is more optimistic. He feels like nature is a gift to human being and he is in love with nature. He describes the incredible beauty of the nature and how wonderful he feels about it.
“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?,” the concluding line of “Ode to the West Wind” is one of Shelley’s most frequently quoted lines. What do you think it means?
The speaker of this poem refers to the wind in two ways. There is the Winter wind and the Spring breeze. The Winter wind represents the death of life/nature. Shelley demonstrates this by talking about dead leaves of autumn laying in the cold. The Spring breeze brings the regeneration of nature by causing the seeds to bloom. The wind both destroys and rebirths nature, so we can directly relate it to life by asking if after death(winter) is there rebirth(spring)?
“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?,” the concluding line of “Ode to the West Wind” is one of Shelley’s most frequently quoted lines. What do you think it means?
In the poem “Ode to the West Wind”, in the last line, I believe that Shelley is comparing winter and spring to all of his poems. During his poem he talks about how the wind affects most of the aspects of nature. One example that he gives is that the wind blows dead leaves all around, but when the dead leaves finally reach a destination, they help create new life, specifically new plants. With the last line of his poems, I think that Shelley is comparing winter to there being a good chance that people forget about his poems like he never even existed. However, when he talks about spring, he feels like that his poems will help bring up life among people of the world.
Compare Shelley’s attitude toward nature with that of Wordsworth. What do these two Romantic poets seem to share and where do they differ in their relationships with the natural world?
Both of these Romantic poets share the idea of viewing the beauty of nature and how they feel about it. Wordsworth feels satisfied with nature and seems quite happy reminiscing about his past experiences with his sister. He basically seems to fall in love with nature seeing how happy it made it. On the other hand, Shelley seems to be the complete opposite of Wordsworth. When describing the winter winds and spring breezes, he said it was beautiful, but he seemed unhappy still. In fact, he even felt lonely because of the nature. In my opinion, Shelley’s basically contradicts Wordsworth’s feelings about nature.
2. Compare Shelley’s attitude toward nature with that of Wordsworth. What do these two Romantic poets seem to share and where do they differ in their relationships with the natural world?
Shelley and Wordsworth have a similar way of viewing nature. They were both in a natural settings in their respective poems, that is “Stanzas Written in Dejection” and “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” and both describes the place in full details and were in awe by what they could see. They recount the beauty of nature in their different settings and both drew inspiration from it. However, this inspiration led to profoundly different perspectives in respect to nature. Wordsworth is in love with the latter. He sees the beauty in it as a positive aspect and this helps him reminisce about his life. It is as if the splendor of nature helps him see the bright side of life. Shelley, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. Even though he admires the physical attributes of nature, he sees it in a very negative light. He describes his life as the opposite of beautiful and uses a comparison to nature to get his point across.
“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?,” the concluding line of “Ode to the West Wind” is one of Shelley’s most frequently quoted lines. What do you think it means?
In this line Shelley is saying that he is expecting that his life is going to get better. His going to keep fighting the hard moments in his life because he knows the storm is going to pass. Winter is often portrayed to be negative and summer/spring are associated with happiness and spring comes after winter.
3. “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?,” the concluding line of “Ode to the West Wind” is one of Shelley’s most frequently quoted lines. What do you think it means?
The concluding line of “Ode to the West Wind”, “If Winter comes, can Spring be far being?”, is one of Shelley’s most frequently quoted lines. When he describes the Winter, it refers to cold and death. When the Spring comes, there are trees and flowers. I think the quote means that there are always bad things happens, just like Winter comes in the end of every year. However, we can overcome the difficulties. When Spring comes, there is a new start. Whatever is bad, it will be the past.
Compare Shelley’s attitude toward nature with that of Wordsworth. What do these two Romantic poets seem to share and where do they differ in their relationships with the natural world?
Both of them appreciate the beauty and the greatness of nature. They both think the nature is powerful. Wordsworth compare the feeling he got viewing this religious house five years ago with his present impressions, he thinks nature gives him a powerful to transform optimistically and also, his sister will go through the same transformation as time goes by. On the contrary, Shelley’s attitude toward the nature is pessimistic. He thinks the nature is beauty and grand but if one’s in bad mood, he would be able to appreciate this beauty no matter how fabulous the view is.
3. “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?,” the concluding line of “Ode to the West Wind” is one of Shelley’s most frequently quoted lines. What do you think it means?
I think that with this line Shelley is trying to transmit hope. Winter is cold and it is often referenced to death, darkness, bad times, etc. On the other hand, Spring is full of life, colors start to appear on trees again, leaves start to grow, the sun gets warmer and everyone gets a little happier. With that said, I interpret the quote as meaning that when rough times come, the good times are right around the corner. It can also mean that when death approaches there is nothing to worry about because as one person dies, another person is born.
Compare Shelley’s attitude toward nature with that of Wordsworth. What do these two Romantic poets seem to share and where do they differ in their relationships with the natural world?
Shellys attitude toward nature unlike the other poets is looked at in a bad light. The other poets show nature in a good way and all the beauty that nature has to offer them by going into great detail. The person in this poem is very sad and doesn’t find any happiness with anything in life. Everything is dull and there is no happiness to be found. While Wordsworth says nature is a beautiful thing and we should all love and appreciate nature. Shelly gave up on life and with that comes giving up on the beauty around you and not seeing the good it has to offer.
3. “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?,” the concluding line of “Ode to the West Wind” is one of Shelley’s most frequently quoted lines. What do you think it means?
Based on my own interpretation, I think Shelley is trying to be optimistic about life. Winter is symbolically a sad season and usually associated with death. Trees and animals die and overall, the season is very gloomy. The quote follows up Winter by asking if Spring is far behind. This is kind of saying that even though life is hard at the moment, it will get better later on. Difficult times will always pass, so just bear with it. People see Spring as a season of life and change. People transition from gloominess to happiness as the weather grows warmer and society becomes more lively.
Compare Shelley’s attitude toward nature with that of Wordsworth. What do these two Romantic poets seem to share and where do they differ in their relationships with the natural world?
Both of these romantic poets share views of the natural world. Shelley’s attitude I believe is more negative than Wordsworth. When Wordsworth revisits, he believes that it made him a better person and he was able to overcome anything. The beauty of Tinten Abbey has stuck with him since the time he visited and he always reflects back on the day he was there. Shelley on the other hand is very negative and does not see life to be as beautiful as nature even though Shelley acknowledges the beauty of nature.
Compare Shelley’s attitude toward nature with that of Wordsworth. What do these two Romantic poets seem to share and where do they differ in their relationships with the natural world?
Wordsworth was truly in awe of the power and beauty of nature. He believed that it has a powerful, calming, and rejuvenating effect. This appreciation of nature’s beauties is also shared with Shelley. However Shelley regularly dealt with severe bouts of depression, which shifts the perception of its victim. While he saw nature as a beautiful and powerful force, his thoughts about it were not purely positive, in fact he could be pessimistic or even angry towards nature in a way that Wordsworth never was.
3. “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?,” the concluding line of “Ode to the West Wind” is one of Shelley’s most frequently quoted lines. What do you think it means?
Winter represents death, and spring represents hope and lives. As wind is driving dead leaves, carry them to new place. As spring comes, wind helps to spread seeds, they create new lives. Nature has life cycle like human beings. When we overcome difficulties like cold winter, we can have joyful moment like spring. Shelly also expresses his desire that he wants his poetry can be spread for long time after he dies. Though spring is coming, we should not forget what we go through.