The Full Text of “Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples”
1The Sun is warm, the sky is clear,
2The waves are dancing fast and bright,
3Blue isles and snowy mountains wear
4The purple noon's transparent might,
5The breath of the moist earth is light,
6Around its unexpanded buds;
7Like many a voice of one delight,
8The winds, the birds, the Ocean-floods;
9The City's voice itself is soft, like Solitude's.
10I see the Deep's untrampled floor
11With green and purple seaweeds strown;
12I see the waves upon the shore
13Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown;
14I sit upon the sands alone;
15The lightning of the noontide Ocean
16Is flashing round me, and a tone
17Arises from its measured motion,
18How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion.
19Alas! I have nor hope nor health,
20Nor peace within nor calm around,
21Nor that content surpassing wealth
22The sage in meditation found,
23And walked with inward glory crowned;
24Nor fame nor power nor love nor leisure—
25Others I see whom these surround,
26Smiling they live and call life pleasure:
27To me that cup has been dealt in another measure.
28Yet now despair itself is mild,
29Even as the winds and waters are;
30I could lie down like a tired child
31And weep away the life of care
32Which I have borne and yet must bear,
33Till Death like Sleep might steal on me,
34And I might feel in the warm air
35My cheek grow cold, and hear the Sea
36Breathe o'er my dying brain its last monotony.
37Some might lament that I were cold,
38As I, when this sweet day is gone,
39Which my lost heart, too soon grown old,
40Insults with this untimely moan—
41They might lament,—for I am one
42Whom men love not, and yet regret;
43Unlike this day, which, when the sun
44Shall on its stainless glory set,
45Will linger though enjoyed, like joy in Memory yet.
The Full Text of “Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples”
1The Sun is warm, the sky is clear,
2The waves are dancing fast and bright,
3Blue isles and snowy mountains wear
4The purple noon's transparent might,
5The breath of the moist earth is light,
6Around its unexpanded buds;
7Like many a voice of one delight,
8The winds, the birds, the Ocean-floods;
9The City's voice itself is soft, like Solitude's.
10I see the Deep's untrampled floor
11With green and purple seaweeds strown;
12I see the waves upon the shore
13Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown;
14I sit upon the sands alone;
15The lightning of the noontide Ocean
16Is flashing round me, and a tone
17Arises from its measured motion,
18How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion.
19Alas! I have nor hope nor health,
20Nor peace within nor calm around,
21Nor that content surpassing wealth
22The sage in meditation found,
23And walked with inward glory crowned;
24Nor fame nor power nor love nor leisure—
25Others I see whom these surround,
26Smiling they live and call life pleasure:
27To me that cup has been dealt in another measure.
28Yet now despair itself is mild,
29Even as the winds and waters are;
30I could lie down like a tired child
31And weep away the life of care
32Which I have borne and yet must bear,
33Till Death like Sleep might steal on me,
34And I might feel in the warm air
35My cheek grow cold, and hear the Sea
36Breathe o'er my dying brain its last monotony.
37Some might lament that I were cold,
38As I, when this sweet day is gone,
39Which my lost heart, too soon grown old,
40Insults with this untimely moan—
41They might lament,—for I am one
42Whom men love not, and yet regret;
43Unlike this day, which, when the sun
44Shall on its stainless glory set,
45Will linger though enjoyed, like joy in Memory yet.
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“Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples” Introduction
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"Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples," by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, is about isolation, alienation, and the vast, enduring beauty of the natural world. The poem depicts a lovely day by the Italian seaside that the speaker, despairing and alone, is too disheartened to appreciate. In fact, nature's loveliness seems only to highlight the depth of the speaker's lonely suffering, which he views as a kind of insult toward's nature's splendor. Eventually, however, the speaker does seem to feel somewhat consoled and soothed by his surroundings, suggesting nature's power to put human troubles in perspective. Shelley wrote this poem in December 1818, after a string of personal losses, including the death of his daughter Clara. It was published posthumously in 1824.
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“Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples” Summary
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The sun is shining and there are no clouds in the sky, and the waves are moving joyously; the sheer purple hues of midday fall over the little blue islands and snow-capped mountains, and the delicate, misty air surrounds flower buds that haven't opened yet. The breezes, the birds, the ocean tide pooling over the land—they're all like one enchanting voice. And even the voice of the city is quiet, like that of loneliness itself.
I see the depths of the ocean where no human feet have stepped, with its green and purple algae scattered all around; I see the waves washing up against the beach like the light of meteors being hurled across the sky; I sit by myself on the shore; the ocean's waves reflect the midday like flashes of lightning all around me, and a sound wells up from the water's steady, rhythmic motion. Oh, how nice it would be if there were anyone else who could feel how I feel!
But unfortunately for me, I'm neither hopeful nor healthy, and I don't have a sense of peacefulness or calm. I don't have the kind of happiness or satisfaction that's even better than having lots of money, the kind that a wise person might discover through meditating and then be able to walk around with an internal glow. I don't have recognition or influence or love or even free time. I see other people who have these things, smiling and thinking it's a joy to be alive. My lot in life has been very different from theirs.
Still, my deep sadness has gotten a little less intense, softening in line with the gentle wind and waves; I could curl up like a sleepy child and cry away the burdens I've carried and must continue to carry until death quietly crept on me like sleep; my skin might grow cold in the warm air, and the last thing I'd hear before I ceased to exist would be the endless rhythm of the sea.
Some people might mourn my death, just as I will mourn the passage of this beautiful day—a day my weary heart does injustice to by whimpering about its unwelcome sorrows. Those people might express sadness over my death because even though I'm not someone people love, they'll still feel bad that I'm gone. By contrast, when night replaces the flawless beauty of this day, that beauty will carry on in memory, and therefore continue to bring joy.
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“Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples” Themes
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Isolation, Despair, and the Consolations of Nature
Sitting at the Italian seaside, the speaker of “Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples” feels desperately sad and alone. The speaker sees the beauty and serenity of nature everywhere he looks, yet readers get the sense that nature's lovely harmony only makes the speaker more aware of his own isolation and suffering. Despite his utter "dejection," however, by the poem's end the speaker does seem to find some consolation in the peaceful, lasting beauty of the landscape. The poem ultimately suggests that nature can offer both comfort and perspective: the natural world helps the speaker realize that his own sufferings are only temporary, while the beauty and serenity of nature are everlasting.
The poem’s speaker seems to believe at first that nothing can comfort him in his sorrow. Even a beautiful Italian seaside scene seems only to hammer home his despair: the day is “warm” and “clear” and the ocean’s “waves are dancing fast and bright,” yet he's also a mere observer of all this enchanting beauty. The speaker seems cut off from the splendor that surrounds him, and the “winds, the birds, [and] the ocean floods” to “[t]he City’s voice itself,” just remind him of his own solitude.
He thus moves from observing the beauty of nature to lamenting the bad luck he's been "dealt" in life and begrudging those who walk around "smiling" and find being alive pleasant. Not only does the speaker not have anyone to share this scene with, he reflects, but he also has no “hope,” “health,” “peace,” or “calm” to fall back on. In other words, he doesn’t have a single friend and feels generally heartsore, unlucky, and hard done by.
Gradually, however, the landscape also makes the speaker’s heartache a little easier to bear. Despite his profound sorrow and self-pity, the speaker notes that his “despair” feels more "mild" as he sits by the sea watching “the waves upon the shore.” Natural beauty, the poem suggests, has the power to soften or dull even the most stubborn pain. The speaker even starts to feel as if “lying down” and “dying” beside the ocean wouldn’t be so bad—as long as he could feel “the warm air” of “the sea” against his cheek as life slipped away. (Of course, an alternative reading works here too: the speaker's despair becomes so unbearable that he'd like to stop living altogether; either way, the image is one of peace, rest, and comfort.)
This talk of death makes the speaker reflect that nature’s beauty isn’t just consoling and distracting: it’s also reassuringly permanent. The lovely rhythm of the day around the speaker reminds him that while people’s lives are imperfect and short, the world’s beauty is a deathless source of “joy.” When imagining his own death, the speaker reflects that he may or may not be “mourn[ed].” Nature, on the other hand, “dies” as beautifully as it lives, leaving only more delight behind it. When this particularly lovely day “dies” at sunset, its memory will “linger” on, creating more “joy” as people recall its beauty. Even nature’s endings, these lines suggest, have an enduring loveliness of their own.
The idea that nature’s beauty persists forever seems to help the speaker to see beyond his own misery, even if only temporarily. The speaker might die unlamented and alone—but then he’ll be dead, and his pain will be over. Nature, meanwhile, will go on and on, providing eternal comfort and joy. In some sense, then, natural beauty always gets the last word: human sorrows and failings are impermanent, but nature endures.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples”
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Lines 1-6
The Sun is warm, the sky is clear,
The waves are dancing fast and bright,
Blue isles and snowy mountains wear
The purple noon's transparent might,
The breath of the moist earth is light,
Around its unexpanded buds;The poem's title tells readers that what follows all takes place "Near Naples," a coastal Italian city. The speaker then begins describing the world around him with simple observations that reveal the loveliness of the day at hand. He begins:
The Sun is warm, the sky is clear,
The waves are dancing fast and bright,Note how the parallelism (bolded above) and asyndeton (or lack of conjunctions) immediately make the speaker's observations feel quick and straightforward. The metaphor of dancing waves, meanwhile, imbues the scene with liveliness and joy.
The next few lines are filled with more colorful imagery as the speaker describes "[b]lue isles," snow-capped mountains, and the "purple" light of midday. The speaker's use of personification also creates the sense that nature is truly alive all around him. The little islands and "mountains" aren't just tinted "purple"—they're "wear[ing]" the day's vibrant colors like clothes; the speaker calls the moist sea air the earth's own "breath," which is "light" as it surrounds flower buds that have yet to bloom. That those buds are "unexpanded" further suggests their unrealized potential; it's an image of hope and anticipation. And the sibilance of this passage (as in "dancing fast," "its unexpanded buds") subtly evokes the spray of the sea and the gentle hush of those dancing waves.
The poem's title doesn't just tell readers where things take place; it also tells readers that the speaker is feeling dejected, deeply sad, and alone. As such, while the speaker quickly, tenderly catalogs the beauty around him, readers might get the sense that he's trying to distract himself from his own pain and suffering.
This opening stanza also establishes the poem's meter: all these lines are in iambic tetrameter. An iamb is a poetic unit with an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern, and tetrameter means there are four iambs per line (for a total of eight syllables). Here's that meter in action in lines 1 and 2:
The Sun | is warm, | the sky | is clear,
The waves | are danc- | ing fast | and bright,The steady iambic rhythm evokes the calm serenity of the day at hand.
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Lines 7-9
Like many a voice of one delight,
The winds, the birds, the Ocean-floods;
The City's voice itself is soft, like Solitude's. -
Lines 10-14
I see the Deep's untrampled floor
With green and purple seaweeds strown;
I see the waves upon the shore
Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown;
I sit upon the sands alone; -
Lines 15-18
The lightning of the noontide Ocean
Is flashing round me, and a tone
Arises from its measured motion,
How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion. -
Lines 19-23
Alas! I have nor hope nor health,
Nor peace within nor calm around,
Nor that content surpassing wealth
The sage in meditation found,
And walked with inward glory crowned; -
Lines 24-27
Nor fame nor power nor love nor leisure—
Others I see whom these surround,
Smiling they live and call life pleasure:
To me that cup has been dealt in another measure. -
Lines 28-32
Yet now despair itself is mild,
Even as the winds and waters are;
I could lie down like a tired child
And weep away the life of care
Which I have borne and yet must bear, -
Lines 33-36
Till Death like Sleep might steal on me,
And I might feel in the warm air
My cheek grow cold, and hear the Sea
Breathe o'er my dying brain its last monotony. -
Lines 37-42
Some might lament that I were cold,
As I, when this sweet day is gone,
Which my lost heart, too soon grown old,
Insults with this untimely moan—
They might lament,—for I am one
Whom men love not, and yet regret; -
Lines 43-45
Unlike this day, which, when the sun
Shall on its stainless glory set,
Will linger though enjoyed, like joy in Memory yet.
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“Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples” Symbols
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The Sea
In this poem, the sea symbolizes the constancy, vibrancy, and everlasting beauty of nature.
The sea is at first an active, lively presence in the poem: its waves dance, light bounces off its surface like "lightning," and its depths are filled with colorful plants far beyond humanity's reach. These descriptions speak to the joy and loveliness of the natural world that surrounds the speaker, and they also present the natural world as something vividly alive.
Yet while at first the speaker is struck by the sea's "fast and bright" beauty and its "voice of [...] delight," he's eventually comforted by just how "mild" (or calm and gentle) its waters are, and the way the sounds of the ocean seem to "breathe" over him with "monotony"—steadily, without changing. The sea isn't striking only for its vivacity, then, but also for its constancy: the way that the waves continually move in and out, in and out, day after day. The steadfast, rhythmic movement of the water seems to assure the speaker that even as his own heart, riddled with anguish, will "too soon grow old" and die, the beauty that surrounds him will "linger" on—even if only in the memories of those who've witnessed it.
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“Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Imagery
The poem is overflowing with rich, vivid imagery that evokes the beauty of the shore near the Italian city of Naples. The speaker's detailed descriptions reveal just how closely he's observing the natural world, making his sense of separation from it all the more poignant.
The speaker also often personifies nature within this imagery, making the world around him seem distinctly alive: the waves are "dancing fast and bright," while the "Blue isles and snowy mountains wear / The purple noon's transparent might." The rich colors here—"blue," "snowy" white, and "purple"—suggest the vividness of the landscape while also subtly hinting at the speaker's dejected spirits, which seem to cast the world in somber tones.
The imagery here isn't just visual: the speaker also notes the sounds of the wind on the water, of the birds flying overhead, of waves on the shoreline, and even of the city in the distance. These sounds all seem to swirl together, different notes belonging to a singular "voice of one delight." This imagery, in turn, highlights the speaker's isolation: the voice he doesn't mention here is his own, implying that he isn't a part of all this lovely harmony.
Likewise, in the second stanza, the speaker juxtaposes intense imagery of the ocean—from the darkness of its deepest depths to the way sunlight bounces of its surface—with his own position sitting "upon the sands alone." Even as the speaker highlights his separation from the beauty around him, however, he still manages to convey the serene, peaceful beauty of the scene at hand, with the "measured motion" of the waves.
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Metaphor
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Simile
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Alliteration
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Assonance
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Sibilance
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Polyptoton
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Anaphora
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Polysyndeton
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Juxtaposition
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"Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Isles
- Transparent
- Unexpanded buds
- Ocean-floods
- The Deep's untrampled floor
- Strown
- Dissolved
- Star-showers
- Noontide
- Measured
- Alas
- That content surpassing wealth
- Sage
- Borne
- Monotony
- Lament
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Small islands.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples”
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Form
"Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples" is made up of 45 lines divided into five stanzas.
Each stanza has nine lines. Based on their rhyme scheme and meter, these are more specifically a riff on something known as Spenserian stanzas (a form popularized by the 16th-century poet Edmund Spenser in his epic "The Faerie Queen").
We'll discuss this more in the Meter and Rhyme Scheme sections of the guide; what's important to note here is that such stanzas lend the poem a sense of structure and consistency that subtly mimics the gentle constancy of the natural world. Spenserian stanzas also feature a final line that's longer than the rest. Here, the final lines in each stanza often focus on the speaker's emotions as they jut out into the blank space of the page, in turn subtly highlighting the speaker's alienation from his surroundings.
Finally, Shelley links his poem to English literary tradition—elevating the language and, in turn, elevating the despair described in the poem itself.
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Meter
Shelley uses a variation on the meter typically associated with the Spenserian stanza (a form developed by the 16th century English poet Edmund Spenser for his epic poem "The Faerie Queen").
The first eight lines of a Spenserian stanza are written in iambic pentameter (meaning they contain five iambs, feet with an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern, for 10 syllables total). The ninth line is then written in iambic hexameter (six iambs per line, for 12 syllables total). This longer final line is known as an "alexandrine."
Shelley, however, adds his own twist here. Instead of pentameter, he uses tetrameter—meaning he uses just four iambs per line. For example, look at lines 1-2:
The Sun | is warm, | the sky | is clear,
The waves | are danc- | ing fast | and bright,These lines are in perfect iambic tetrameter; emphasis falls on every second syllable, giving the poem a soothing, consistent rhythm that might evoke the gentle sound of waves washing ashore.
While Shelley chose to work with tetrameter instead of pentameter in the first eight lines of each stanza, he stuck with the one long line of hexameter at each stanza's end. Take a look at line 9:
The Cit- | y's voice | itself | is soft, | like Sol- | itude's.
Just as with the traditional Spenserian stanza, the extra syllables at the end of each stanza add emphasis to the final line. However, because Shelley is working with shorter lines overall, this line of hexameter stands out even more. Note, too, how those final lines so often turn inward, toward the speaker's feelings of isolation and sadness. In this way, the final lines evoke the speaker's feelings of being utterly alienated from other people.
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Rhyme Scheme
The poem follows the strict rhyme scheme associated with the Spenserian stanza:
ABABBCBCC
For the most part, these end rhymes are exact ("bright"/"might"/"light"), but occasionally the poet uses a slant rhyme instead (such as "clear" and "wear" in lines 1 and 3). Regardless, the overall effect of such a 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.
It's also worth noting that, for Romantic writers like Shelley, the poet's job wasn't just to encounter intense emotions and muse on the beauty of nature; it was to turn these encounters and musings into capital "A" Art. While Shelley was undoubtedly writing from a place of genuine sorrow and heartache, the poem's deft rhyme patterning might suggest that he was never far from thinking about his legacy as a poet!
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“Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples” Speaker
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The poem's speaker is writing from a place of "dejection." Though he's sitting beside the ocean on a beautiful day, he seems unable to fully appreciate nature's charms because his spirits are so low. The speaker considers himself profoundly unlucky, saying he doesn't have money, good health, peace, or satisfaction. He also says that he's utterly alone in this world, cut off from all those "[s]miling" people who have things like "hope" and "health."
Shelley wrote this poem following a string of personal tragedies, including the death of his baby daughter, estrangement from his wife, and poor critical reception of his work. The speaker here is thus almost certainly meant to represent Shelley himself, whose life the poem alludes to throughout. For example, in addition to his familial woes, Shelley was often in debt, he had chronic lung issues, and his poetry was unpopular in his lifetime (hence the reference to lacking things like fame, power, love, and leisure).
That said, readers certainly don't have to take the speaker as being Shelley (or a man, for that matter) to understand the poem. The feelings of isolation and despair described here have certainly been felt by many.
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“Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples” Setting
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The title tells readers where the poem takes place: near the Italian coastal city of Naples. The speaker is more specifically by the seaside on a warm, sunny day, which the speaker describes in great detail: the waves are "fast and bright," there are little islands and snow-capped mountains in the distance, and the moist sea air seems to wraps itself around the still unopened "buds" of trees—suggesting that it's early spring.
Yet the speaker feels distanced from all this natural beauty and serenity. He can "see" natural wonders all around him, yet he remains "upon the sands alone"—sitting by himself without anyone to share the day with. The vibrancy and vivacity of this setting contrast with the speaker's immense sorrow, suggesting how he feels cut off from both humanity and the natural world while "in dejection."
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Literary and Historical Context of “Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples”
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Literary Context
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was a major figure in the artistic and literary movement known as Romanticism. This movement emerged in response to the Enlightenment's emphasis on reason and rationality (itself brought about by advances in scientific inquiry, technology, and industry in the 1700s). Romantics, by contrast, concerned themselves with rebellion against authority; connection with nature; the power of the imagination; and the notion of the lone, heroic, and misunderstood artist.
Like other Romantic poets of his generation, including his close friend Lord Byron, Shelley was greatly indebted to the work of early Romantic poet William Wordsworth. As time went on, however, an increasingly conservative Wordsworth fell out of favor with those he had initially inspired. A freethinker, atheist, and political radical, Shelley believed it wasn't enough to write great poems; one had to actively participate in making the world a more equitable place.
Shelley wrote this poem in 1818 while in Italy. This was a profoundly difficult time in Shelley's life: he'd recently lost his baby daughter, Clara, and in the aftermath grown estranged from his wife and fellow writer Mary Shelley. Shelley also struggled with his own poetic reception: despite his posthumous fame, Shelley wasn't a popular or well-reviewed poet during his own lifetime. These issues undoubtedly inform the pain behind "Stanzas Written in Dejection."
Historical Context
Percy Shelley's short life was marked by tragedy. In 1814, he fell in love with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (daughter of feminist author Mary Wollstonecraft, and the eventual writer of Frankenstein), and the couple eloped—despite the fact that Shelley was already married! This, along with Shelley’s radical political sensibilities, resulted in the couple’s being more or less ostracized in England.
In September of 1816, Mary’s youngest sister, Fanny, died by suicide; her death impacted Shelley in part because he believed she had been in love with him. Just three months later, Shelley’s first wife, Harriet, also died by suicide. Shelley attempted to get custody of his and Harriet’s children but was denied due to his abandonment of the family and subsequent affair (and likely also because of his atheist beliefs). Mary became pregnant with the couple's first child around this time, but the baby died after being born prematurely. The couple was also in near-constant debt due to Shelley’s indiscriminate spending habits. Mary gave birth to a second child, Clara, in 1817.
In March of 1818, while traveling in Italy, the 17-month-old Clara fell ill and died. Mary fell into a severe depression after this event and grew distant from Shelley, whom she held partly responsible for their daughter’s death. Shelley wrote “Stanzas Written in Dejection” soon after.
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More “Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples” Resources
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External Resources
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What is Romanticism? — An overview of the Romantic movement.
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The Shelley-Godwin Archive — A collection of digitized manuscripts by the Shelley-Godwin family.
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Tragedy in Italy — Read more about Percy and Mary Shelley's misfortune in Italy.
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Shelley's Life and Work — A biography of the poet and additional poems via the Poetry Foundation.
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A Reading of the Poem — Listen to the poem read aloud.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley
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