Background of the Poem “Adonais”

Answer

Background of the Poem “Adonais”.

 According to Greek mythology, Adonis was a handsome young man. Struck by his beauty, the Greek Goddess Aphrodite (Goddess of Love) fell in love with her. But one day, Adonis was killed by a wild boar while hunting. So Aphrodite cried a lot. Zeus, king of the Gods, then brought Adonis back to life at Aphrodite’s request and allowed Adonis to remain with Aphrodite for six months a year. But in this poem, Shelley changed the name a little to Adonais. Again Shelley has changed Greek mythology a little and made Aphrodite the mother of Adonais, where Adonis was Aphrodite’s lover.

Leigh Hunt was an English poet, essayist, and literary critic. He was a close friend of both Shelley and John Keats. And in 1816, he introduced them. Reading Endymion by John Keats, Shelley does not appreciate it very much. But he admired Hyperion because it was the highest reflection of the society of the time. John Keats here takes a lot of advice from Shelley about writing poetry. Then, Shelley traveled to Italy with his wife, Mary Shelley.

Meanwhile, John Keats became very ill. Shelley wrote to him asking Keats to move to Pisa, Italy. They will be there together. But Keats did not do this and went far away from Rome in Italy with the painter Savern. Shelley, meanwhile, continued to worry about Keats. Seven weeks later, he learned that John Keats had died in Rome, Italy, at 25. Shelley was deeply distressed by the untimely death of a dear friend and dedicated the poem Adonais to him. In fact, just as Adonis died young, John Keats died at only 25. Shelley wrote this poem because of John Keats’ similarity with Adonis of Greek mythology.