Write a Note on Shelly’s Treatment of Nature in Adonais.

Answer

Write a note on Shelly’s treatment of nature in Adonais.

Nature is the soul of Romantic Poetry. All the romantic poets are purely passionate lovers of nature. P. B. Shelley (1792-1822) is somewhat different in the case of the treatment of nature. His treatment of nature is the perfect mingling of sensuousness, symbolism, and myths. The most striking and famous poem, “Adonais,” is no exception to Shelley’s creative attitude to nature.

The Kinship Between Nature and Poet: Shelley shows a relationship between nature and the poet but not exactly akin to Wordsworth. The sensual quality of nature means that the images of the poem “Adonais” are found in abundance. We can cite a quotation for convenience in our illustration.

Grief made the young spring wild, and she threw down

Her kindling buds, as if she Autumn were,

Or they dead leaves; since her delight is flown,

Shelley uses personified nature to mourn the premature death of John Keats. Spring is deeply affected by the death of the poet, as though she has seen Autumn, which is the symbol of fall or death in literature. Such beautiful communication with nature could only be possible by a creative genius like Shelley.

Nature as a True Companion: Shelley considers Nature to be a true friend that can solace a suffering human heart. He often personifies the objects of Nature and talks and listens to them. In the very poem “Adonais,” Nature comes forward to share the poet’s agony over the premature death of Keats. Here, Shelley surpasses the romantic poets and says: 

Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep,  

He hath awaken’d from the dream of life.

The Symbolic Perspective of Nature: The symbolic perspective of nature is common in poetry, but Shelley, as a revolutionary master, gives concrete shape to his abstract thoughts and emotions by drawing on the symbolic perspective of nature. In “Adonais,” ‘pansies’ are the symbols of the fate of poetry, and