Shelley Keats & Romantic
odes
Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Aug 4,1792 – July 8,
1822
Shelley Bio
• well educated, politically radical
• bullied as a child, against oppression as an adult
• expelled from oxford for writing “the necessity of
atheism” with friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg
• married Harriet Westbrook, friend of his sisters.
• Moved to Dublin, but his politically pamphlets
were not much in favor.
Shelley bio
• After 4 years of marriage (and
2 kids), he feel in love with
Mary Godwin, 16 year old.
• Ran off with Mary and her
sister
• Mary Shelley wrote
Frankenstein
• Saw the poet as a reforming
prophet capable of energizing
human spirit by showing it
perfect, eternal truth
• Symbolic of youthful rebellion
Ode to West Wind
• What was it inspired by?
• How does Shelley describe the wind? How
is this significant?
• What does he compare to the wind?
Ode to West Wind
• Terza rima
– How many lines?
– What is the rhyme scheme?
– What is the effect of this format?
• Personification
– Where does it exist in the poem?
– What is its effect?
Ode to West Wind
• What three major I mages demonstrate
how the West Wind effect the world?
• What is the theme then?
Ozymandias
• Egyptian King Ramses II (died 1234 BCE)
• Italian sonnet
– How many lines? What format?
– What is the traditional rhyme scheme?
– What is the rhyme scheme in Ozymandias?
What is the effect of this?
• What is the theme?
Keats bio
• Moorsfield, London
• At 15, his mom died of tb,
guardian Richard Abbey
• apothecary (historical name for
a medical practicioner who
formulated and dispensed
medicine).
• Wanted to be a poet but Abeey
wouldn’t approve, so became
apothecary and even studied
to be a surgeon.
• When he was 21 he was free
of Abbey and became a full
time writer.
• Got TB. Died at age 26
Homework
• Keats ‘Ode to Grecian Urn” and ‘ode to
Nightingale”
• Byron “The Walks in Beauty”
• Wednesday you will create a review sheet
for Romanticism; Thursday we will review;
Friday you will have your Romanticism test
Romantic ode Extra Credit
• If you write a poem following the format of
one of the romantic odes, due Monday,
you will receive an extra credit quiz. The
format was be explicitly followed in order
to receive credit.
Odes - form
-
Lengthy
Serious in subject matter
Elevated in its diction and style
Elaborate in its stanzaic structure
Odes – subject matter
• Celebratory
• About a particular subject or person
• An Ode to something is written as address
with second person reference (you)
• An Ode on something is more detached
and written with 3rd person reference to
the subject (it, he, she)
Green/Pindaric Ode
• Patterned after movements of the chorus in
Greek Drama
• Three stanza structure that is repeated
throughout the poem
– STROPHE – set meter and rhyme scheme.
– ANTISTROPHE – same as the strophe
– EPODE – has a different meter and rhyme scheme
• As the poem is repeated, the epodes are all the
same
Horatian/Roman ode
• Metrical & rhyme scheme that is the same
in all three stanzas
• Is more personal
• Horace (roman poet) wrote them to be
said and not sung
Romantic Ode
• An outgrowth of the Roman/Horatian ode
• 30-200 lines
• Meditates progressively on an object or
condition (it can also address it)
Romantic Ode
• Three major requirements
– The description of a particularized outer
natural scene
– An extended meditation, which that original
scene prompts, and that focuses on a specific
problem (personal and/or universal)
– An insight or vision, which signals a return to
the original scene with a new perspective
because of the insight.