Mont Blanc - Percy Bysshe Shelley

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• Leerjaar 5

Mont Blanc - Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY - 1816 

www.poetryfoundation.org

First Stanza

The everlasting universe of things

Flows through the mind, and rolls its rapid waves,

Now dark—now glittering—now reflecting gloom—

Now lending splendour, where from secret springs

The source of human thought its tribute brings

Of waters—with a sound but half its own,

Such as a feeble brook will oft assume,

In the wild woods, among the mountains lone,

Where waterfalls around it leap for ever,

Where woods and winds contend, and a vast river

Over its rocks ceaselessly bursts and raves.

Which Romantic characteristics can be found in the first stanza?

What is the poet's opinion of the nature he witnesses?

Metaphor

. . . where from secret springs

The source of human thought its tribute brings

Of waters, — with a sound but half its own,

Such as a feeble brook will oft assume

In the wild woods, among the mountains lone,

Where waterfalls around it leap for ever,

Where woods and winds contend, and a vast river

Over its rocks ceaselessly bursts and raves.

In this stanza we can also find the first metaphor. Which is it and what does it represent?

Second stanza - ravine of Arve

In this stanza we will come across the well-known sublime. Explain why!

Third Stanza

In this stanza we come across another big characteristic of the Romantic era. Which one?

Explain the meaning of this stanza linked to the supernatural.

Fourth stanza

Another characteristic of the Romantic Era is contrast. Which contrasts do we find in the fourth stanza?

What happens halfway through this stanza concerning the tone of the poem?

The fifth and final stanza

Give an example of the following literary devices (use the entire poem): simile, personification, metaphor, alliteration,