the cold earth slept below (242) Flashcards
“cold earth”
setting in a world void of life and full of decay instead, taking something that embodies life (earth) and filling it with decay (cold) like life
shelley immortalising her in nature and poetry
“cold earth slept below, above”
below + above reflects the vastness of death; all of nature is mourning which brings shelley comfort
“breath of night like death”
personification; obscure and surrounding/overwhelming presence despite the tenderness emphasises w simile; night is when we temporarily die??? night has heightened powers as something mystical
motif of winter/coldness
winter as death vs the life of summer reflecting the cyclical cycle of nature matching the cyclical cycle of life; death is necessary and unavoidable and allows new growth
“the birds did rest”
the juxtaposition of life; very much alive but they rest, a reminder that death is not permanent and that embracing death (rest) can bring a comfort
who was harriet
shelleys ex wife who he left for mary westbrook and who drowned in the serpentine river in london; she was pregnant which perpetuates the juxtaposition of life and death shelley emphasises in the poem
pathetic fallacy + use of rule of three
“the moon” “the wind” “the night”
shelley blames the weather over the suicide as suicide is a mortal sin (no heaven); he is taking the blame off of harriet/the woman and into the world around her
“moons dying light”
death of a woman but also immortality of the moon; symbol of love and guidance in the darkness (finding comfort in death)
“sluggish stream” + “frozen dew”
contextual link to the serpentine and therefore harriet
rhyming pattern
not consistent but there is some pattern; reflecting shelleys beginning of understanding of the sublime and ununderstandable
how is nature presented
as a comfort; mirroring humanity rather than fixing or promising change which is key difference between first and second-generation who want to sit in the sorrow
shelleys philosophys
atheist and heretical
