Studies in English Language and Literature

Question: Examine Shelley’s imagery in relation to his theme in Ode to the West Wind . The term ‘imagery’ refers to a collection of images to signify the objects and qualities of sense perception, whether by literal description, by allusion or in the analogies used in its similes and metaphors.  Perhaps the most beautifully imaginative of the English Romantic poets was Shelley. He was particularly excellent in his ability to convey sensations in terms of imagery, predominantly visual. he was a poet of profound idealism and prophetic passion. Shelley invariably aspired to the infinite and the eternal. The method in many of Shelley’s poetry was to find in natural objects symbols for his emotional and imaginative patterns. In Ode to the West Wind , Shelley found, in the central and pervading image of the all-powerful West Wind, a dualistic role of destruction and preservation. At the very outset of  the poem, the West Wind is presented as an enormously powerful agency....

Question: Comment on the symbolism of the skylark in Shelley’s ode "To A Skylark". One of the legacies of the Romantic period is the heightened concern in literature. It is full of the types of psychological experiences outside the usual limit of consciousness. What seems to take place is a sudden jump or transference of consciousness to another realm, or alternatively, an invasion from the transcendent into human life, and his poetry attempts to describe such an experience. So does Shelly speak of in To a Skylark . As the poem begins, the poet addresses the song-bird. The skylark seems to be no bird at all, but rather a disembodied Spirit of joy. The skylark is an emblem of the celestial permanence to which men aspire, and are invariably associated with images of light, fire, stars, the sun and the moon in keeping with the Platonic implications. The ode is a striking example of what was common poetic procedure with Shelley and Keats. Thus, the skylark symbolises a cele...