Major Themes of Shelley

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Major Themes The Power of Nature Shelley discusses the power of both seen and unseen nature throughout his entire canon. This is primarily how critics have come to classify the bard as a "Romantic." Due to Shelley's fervid defense of a godless universe, he often turned to the sheer majestic power of the natural world. In the place of religious doctrine he wanted substantiated evidence of reality. Related Poems: • "Mutability" • "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" • "Mont Blanc" • "Ozymandias" • "Ode to the West Wind" • "To a Skylark" • "Adonais" Atheism The theme of a godless universe cannot be separated from Shelley’s continuous reference to the inspiration he received from Nature. As with his Romantic contemporary poets (of both of the first two generations), Shelley maintained a philosophy that looked to the unfolding of our universe as a natural progress of time. Because of Shelley’s early convictions and his expulsion as a result of his inexorable atheistic views, he learned how unpopular atheism was in his society. As he matured, he became much better job at hiding his religious doubt and masking it in references to mythologies, biblical absurdity, and the comfort of self-admitted ignorance of the world’s greatest mysteries. Related Poems: • "Mutability" • "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" • "Mont Blanc" • "The Mask of Anarchy" • "England in 1819" • "Ode to the West Wind" • "The Indian Serenade" • "To a Skylark" • "Adonais" • "A Dirge" Oppression/Injustice/Tyranny/Power Although Shelley expresses it in many different ways, the idea of a majority being unjustly ruled by an oppressive few (with sometimes the few being unjustly persecuted by the many) is perhaps the most common theme in Shelley’s work. If there is one element of social theory to take from Shelley's poetry, it should be his determination to inspire the oppressed
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