Raquel Jordá Bresó 15
– XII – 05
MONT
BLANC
Lines written in the Vale of Chamouni.
II
01 Thus thou, Ravine of
Arve — dark, deep Ravine —
Thou many-coloured, many-voicèd
vale,
Over whose pines, and crags, and
caverns sail
Fast cloud-shadows and sunbeams:
awful scene,
05 Where Power in likeness of the Arve comes down
From the ice-gulfs that gird his
secret throne,
Bursting through these dark
mountains like the flame
Of lightning through the tempest; —
thou dost lie,
Thy giant brood of pines around thee
clinging,
10 Children of elder time, in whose devotion
The chainless winds still come and
ever came
To drink their odours, and their
mighty swinging
To hear — an old and solemn harmony;
Thine earthly rainbows stretched
across the sweep
15 Of the aethereal waterfall, whose veil
Robes some unsculptured image; the
strange sleep
Which when the voices of the desert
fail
Wraps all in its own deep eternity;
—
Thy caverns echoing to the Arve's
commotion,
20 A loud, lone sound no other sound can tame,
Thou art pervaded with that
ceaseless motion,
Thou art the path of that unresting
sound —
Dizzy Ravine! — and when I gaze on
thee
I seem as in a trance sublime and
strange
25 To muse on my own separate phantasy,
My own, my human mind, which
passively
Now renders and receives fast
influencings,
Holding an unremitting interchange
With the clear universe of things
around;
30 One legion of wild thoughts, whose wandering wings
Now float above thy darkness, and
now rest
Where that or thou art no unbidden
guest,
In the still cave of the witch
Poesy,
Seeking among the shadows that pass
by,
35 Ghosts of all things that are, some shade of thee,
Some phantom, some faint image; till
the breast
From which they fled recalls them,
thou art there!
[…]
Shelley, Percy Bysshe.
ODE: INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY
FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD
Paulo
majora canamus
01 There was a time when meadow, grove and stream,
The earth, and the every common
sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
05 The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of
yore; —
Turn wheresoe’er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now
can see no more
[…]
X
[…]
10 What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the
hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory
in the flower;
We still grieve not, rather find
15 Strength in what remains behind
[…]
XI
25 And O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and
Forebode not any severing of our
loves!
Yet in my heart of hearts I feel
your might;
I only have relinquished one delight
20 To live beneath your more habitual sway.
I love the Brooks which down their
channels fret.
Even more than when I tripped
lightly as they;
The innocent brightness of a
new-born Day
Is lovely yet;
25 The Clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober colouring
from an eye
That hath kept watch o’er
man’s mortality;
Another race hath been, and
another palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by
which we live,
30 Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that
blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie
too deep for tears.
Wordsworth, William. Poems, in two volumes, 1807 (López)
ANALYSIS
Titles à Mont Blanc refers directly to the
mountain itself, set in the vale of Chamouni*, and which is the object being
described through the poem.
à Ode:
Intimations of immortality from recollections of early childhood expresses
the essence of the poem; its figurative referent; the feelings the author tries
to express through the poem.
The aim of both P.B.
Shelley and W. Wordsworth in their respective poems is to describe Nature
through a concrete landscape.
P.B. Shelley describes
a specific place, a limited image he has of this real place. On the other hand,
W. Wordsworth, although he also describes a landscape, he does not say which exactly. We do not know where it
is because he does not give a name but we can deduce from the title that maybe
he is describing a place he knew when he was a child. But, otherwise, it is not
as real as Shelley’s one is.
Shelley’s poem, from a
concrete object – the ‘Ravine’ (L1) of the mountain –, describes that place,
that Nature, as an ‘awful scene’ (L4), also with its ‘dark mountains’ (L7) and
its ‘unresting sound’ (L22), whereas Wordsworth shows us a place all
‘apparelled in celestial light’ (L4): its ‘meadow, grove and stream’ (L1).
The ‘dark, deep Ravine’ (L1) Shelley
describes is also a place with beautiful things, ‘many coloured, many voicèd’
(L2) but with ‘crags and caverns’ (L3). This is an obscure image of the place,
meaning perhaps the ‘Power’ (L5) it has inside it, with the ‘Arve’ (L5) and its
‘ice-gulfs’ (L6) that subject its ‘secret throne’ (L6). So this is a place which
contains a dark and strong power with the fierce of the river – the Arve –
‘bursting’ (L7) through it like ‘the flame of lightning through the tempest’
(L7-L8).
On the other poem, W. Wordsworth
states that there was a place of something with a ‘so bright’ (L10) ‘radiance’
(L10), ‘of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower’ (L13), which really
contrasts Shelley’s landscape in the vale of Chamouni.
However, there is a moment in
Shelley’s poem, from line 14 to line 18, where the place seems to be a little
enhanced; where the ‘aethereal waterfall’ (L15) and its ‘veil’ (L15), paint an
‘unsculptured image’ (L16), wrapping everything into a ‘deep eternity’ (L18).
But, nevertheless, P.B. Shelley continues with his sad and black mood when
describing the place, with its ‘caverns’ (L19) and its ‘loud and lone sound’
(L20); an ‘unresting sound’ (L22) which contrasts with the ‘deep eternity’ we
have already mentioned.
The ‘Dizzy Ravine’ (L23) of the Mont Blanc is not the ‘innocent’ (L23)
and ‘lovely’ (L24) brightness of the ‘new-born Day’ (L23) that Wordsworth
claims in his ode. Here – in W. Wordsworth poem – the ‘setting sun’ (L25) has a
‘sober’ (L26) colour, and as an ‘eye’ (L26) has been watching us as mortal
human beings.
P.B. Shelley, in Mont Blanc, from line 23 till the end of
the poem, makes himself a part of the poem, leaving his position as a witness
in order to be part of, get connected to Nature, since the moment he stares at
It and falls into a ‘sublime and strange’ (L24) trance. In this very instant
his ‘human mind’ (L26) starts an endless ‘interchange’ (L28) of thoughts with
the ‘universe of things’ (L29) that surrounds him. And now those ‘wild
thoughts’ (L30), that Nature, are in the ‘still cave of the witch Poesy’ (L33),
looking for some ghost, some ‘shade’ (L35), some ‘faint image’ (L36) of the
place, till its ‘breast’ (L36) ‘recalls them’ (L37).
So Nature and Humanity are mixed up
by ‘the witch Poesy’ in these lines in the same way as W. Wordsworth does in
his poem.
Wordsworth, who manifests his own
opinion through the whole poem using ‘to me’ (L3), ‘I may’ (L7), ‘I have seen’
(L9), ‘my sight’ (L11), ‘I feel’ (L18), ‘I love’ (L21), ‘ I tripped’ (L22) all
over the text – while P.B. Shelley does not so in such way in his poem – makes
the same blend when, from line 29 till the end, gives ‘thanks to the human
heart’ (L29) and all its feelings which come with the ‘thoughts that do often
lie too deep for tears’ (L33).
The different tone they use to
describe Nature shows the different idea both Romantic poets had about it:
Shelley with darkness and wilderness whereas Wordsworth does it with such
sadness noticeable in his words – ‘nothing can bring back’ (L12).
Both poems have some very beautiful
stylistic features, such as William Wordsworth’s images of ‘the glory and the
freshness of a dream’ (L5), ‘the splendour in the grass, of the glory in the
flower’ (L13), ‘the Clouds gathering round the sun’ (L15) and the
personification ‘the innocent brightness’ (L23). Also Shelley’s personifications:
‘the giant brood of pines’ (L9) are ‘children of elder time’ (L10), and ‘drink
their odours’ (L12), and ‘hear an old and solemn harmony’ (L13), the ‘legion of
wild thoughts’ (L30), which are the ‘no unbidden guest’ (L32) and finally the image
of the thoughts coming back to their ‘breast from which they fled’ (L34 – L36).
PERSONAL OPINION
From my point of view, I find both
P.B. Shelley’s poem made me feel the
deep power contained in the poem, in the wild and dark Nature of the place and
find there the magic of the poem.
On the other hand, W. Wordsworth’s
poem produced in me an effect of sadness, of loneliness and of something lost,
like a lover or such a thing.
Both poets are very interesting in
their own vision of Nature.
* Information from http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Blanc
López, F.
Vicente . “Mont Blanc.” By Persy B. Shelley, 1806. Universitat de València Press. 10 Dec 2005. http://www.uv.es/~fores/poesia/montblanc.html
López, F. Vicente . “’Ode: Intimations of Immortality
from Recollections of Early Childhood’, Poems, in Two Volumes, 1807.” by William
Wordsworth. Universitat de València Press. 10 Dec 2005. http://www.uv.es/~fores/poesia/poems1807.html#ode