Stanzas written in Dejection, near Naples- Percy Byshee Shelley

Question 1

When was the poem written and where was the poem written?

Answer 1

-1818
-Italy

Question 2

What did Shelley try to do before writing this poem?

Answer 2

-Get custody of his and Harriet’s children > denied

Question 3

What happened when Mary became pregnant in 1818?

Answer 3

-Baby died prematurely

Question 4

When did Mary give birth to Clara?

Answer 4

1817

Question 5

What happened to his child Clara in 1818?

Answer 5

She fell ill while traveling in Italy and died

Question 6

What did Clara’s death cause?

Answer 6

-Mary Shelley fell into a Great Depression > held Shelley partly responsible for Claras death

Question 7

What are the themes of the poem?

Answer 7

-Solitude
-Nature
-Spirituality
-Sadness/depression
-Life’s pleasure
-Time

Question 8

What does the sibilance in the poem reflect?

Answer 8

Mimicks the sea spray and waves

Question 9

How does Shelley build a joyous and lively scene?

Answer 9

-Metaphor > “The waves are dancing fast and bright”

Question 10

What is significant about “The purple noon’s transparent might, The breath of the moist earth is light,”?

Answer 10

-Asyndeton > makes the thoughts feel rushed and quick > inescapableness of his emotion
-raw emotion

Question 11

What is significant about the last line of stanza 1?

Answer 11

-Iambic hexameter > lengthens the line > shows true depths and lengths of his loneliness
-Reflects his own loneliness and makes him reflect on it

Question 12

What does the quiet sibilance of “seaweeds strewn; …… star-showers” reflect?

Answer 12

-reflects the quietness of solitude and how he internalises this emotion

Question 13

What is significant about “How sweet!Did any heart now share in my emotion.”?

Answer 13

-Last line longer than expected > heightens the speakers solitude > suggests how ongoing this feeling is to him
-“Emotion” ends in a feminine rhyme
-The line ‘falls off’ > unfinished much like the speakers suffering and depression / his motivations

Question 14

What is significant about the repetition of ‘nor’?

Answer 14

Emphasises what he does not have and how he believes he does not have much in his life > significant due to his obsession with personal love

Question 15

What is the significance of ending the lines with dashes?

Answer 15

-Suggest the relentlessness of his life > how there is no point going on any more

Question 16

What is significant about “I could lie down like a tired child,”?

Answer 16

-Simile suggests his vulnerability due to his emotions
-Children > his children are not with him either dead or in England

Question 17

What is significant about “till death like sleep might steal on me”?

Answer 17

-Death as respite from pain
-Sleep > comfort > find comfort in death but not in living

Question 18

What is significant about the ideas of the sea in the poem?

Answer 18

-See is eternal and the speaker is transient

Question 19

What is significant about the last line of the poem?

Answer 19

-Notes beauty will linger > long after the speaker and his troubles are gone > finds consolation in nature
-death means the end of his pain > life’s beauty as eternal gives him comfort
-Daughters memory remains > allows speaker to find enjoyment despite her death > her beauty as eternal like the nature

Question 20

What type of form is the poem?

Answer 20

Spenserian stanza

Question 21

What does the iambic hexameter create on the page?

Answer 21

-Longer line jutting out > subtly highlighting the speaker’s alienation from his surroundings.

Question 22

What meter does the poem use?

Answer 22

-first 8lines of the stanzas > Iambic pentameter
-9th line > iambic hexameter

Question 23

What is the rhyme scheme in the poem?

Answer 23

ABABBCBCC > tightly constructed rhyme scheme is that the poem feels very controlled and musical. The musicality of the poem itself mirrors the beauty of the natural landscape it describes.