Percy Bysshe Shelley

"Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

Yet if we could scorn
Hate and pride and fear,
If we were things born
Not to shed a tear,
I know not how thy joy we ever should come near."
(Shelley, pg 404, from To a Sky-Lark

The first line here is so poignant. It makes me think of Wordsworth's We Are Seven. I remember reading somewhere in this book earlier about joy being recognized by experiencing pain and vice versa. It is true that there is far better joy realized when you know pain and a much deeper pain felt when you have experienced happiness. I like the rhyme scheme that Shelley used in Sky-Lark. When I read it, I could actually picture flight because of that extra b thrown into the rhyme scheme. I think of as the bird swooping! I also like the scheme he used in West Wind. I like to call the terza-rima sonnet-stanza a better than plain sonnet. It is so detailed and flows so smoothly. The very reason I did not care for Mont Blanc. It made for a tired read. I prefer Wordsworth's take on detailing nature, but I was able to relate to Hymn to Intellectual Beauty.

"While yet a boy, I sought for ghosts, and sped
Through many a listening chamber, cave and ruin,
And starlight wood, with fearful steps pursuing
Hopes of high talk with the departed dead.
I called on poisonous names with which our youth is fed.
I was not heard--I saw them not--
When musing deeply on the lot..."
(pg 398)

These lines remind me of the caves I used to visit in North Carolina and the woods there and in Florida. I also think of sitting around a campfire exchanging ghost stories as a child. I would never participate, but it makes me think about a ouija game or a seance as well. And I have to admit that I did used to call on "poisonous names," like Bloody Mary, in a mirror. "I was not heard" and "I saw them not." I am pretty thankful for that! Shelley's work is fun to read, but I prefer Byron out of this circle and William Wordsworth overall.