The revolutionary rebellious young Shelley was influenced by all the revolutionary and ideas of this time, Through Mab, he announced that “there is no God!” What he visualized was an ideal society under the rule of the goddess Necessity. In it humanity would return to its natural condition of good-ness and freedom.
To him the emancipation of mankind could only be won “by resolute perseverance and in-courage, and the systematic efforts of generations of men of intellect and virtue”
Major Poems and Comments of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Queen Mab(1813),Shelley’s first long
poem of importance,express almost all his 长诗的 major political ideas.It takes the form of篇章 a fairy-tale dream.The poem has nine cantos. The cantos present a vision of the woeful past，the last two an ideal view of the happy future. The five middle cantos are fierce attacks on the social evils of the day: on Monarchy, on War, on Commerce, and on Religion.
The Revolt of Islam(1818) is another
废立，废 important long poem. In it Shelley describes “the 位 bloodless dethronement” of the people’s oppressors and expresses his belief in “a slow, gradual, silent change.” 解放；释 放
Shelley’s masterpiece is Prometheus 抒情诗调的
Unbound, a lyrical drama in four acts, The
theme of this poetical drama is borrowed from Prometheus Unbound, a play by the Greek tragedi-an Aeschylus. But Shelly deals with the myth in his own way. He changed the ending of the original play, in which Prometheus finally reconciles with Zeus.
悲惨 first two 的
暴政；专横 Queen Mab is a reevolutionary poem condemning tyranny and exploitation and was frequently quoted in the English working-class periodicals of the 19th century.
Shelly’s short poems on nature, love, and political freedom form an important part of his literary output. Shelley is skillful at expressing his emotion through the description of all kinds of natural phenomena. The image of the west wind in his famous “Ode to the West Wind” symbolizes rebirth and creative power.
In Shelley’s poem Prometheus represents mankind itself and Zeus becomes the symbol of reactionary force. To Shelly, the images of Prometheus embodies four noble qualities: man’s intellect, his heroic endurance, his defiance of tyranny and his love of mankind. At the end of the drama, Prometheus is freed by Demogorgon, a symbol of be. Prometheus bound becomes Prometheus unbound; Prometheus triumphant. It is the victory of mankind over tyranny and oppression. Yet, the poem is disliked by some readers, complaining that it fails to bring ordinary life into the drama.
Most of Shelley’s poetry reveals his philosophy, a combination of belief in the power of human love and reason, and faith in the perfectibility and ultimate progress of man. His lyric poems are superb in their beauty, grandeur and mastery of language.