Notes on 3 Poems by Shelley

a short letter discussing original ideas of constructs (platonic model) and structure and unifying devices in Shelley "Ode to the West Wind," "The Cloud," "To A Sky-Lark"  February 26, March 3, May 28,- June 1, 2003--a letter discussing the possiblity of thematic through constructive devices in "Ode to the West Wind," "The Cloud," and "To a Sky-Lark."

I've included my original (type-edited) note on the Ode to the West Wind (Shelley), because I find that if you model all three of the mentioned works (OdeWW-Cloud-Sky-Lark) to the forms shown, that it's possible to imply that it may be less likely that the schools have interpreted to the text--in addition, I recommend line-by-line interpretation from the text!

That would read--up to two hours to explain every connected element in the Ode && relate them through the five stanzas!  A quicker && more unclear read through of the Cloud && explaining it over half an hour--to reformulate && clarify its vaguer shapings && a clear stanza by stanza read through of Sky-Lark--this does mean--that you have to change the points of view as outlined && connect the poems (transition) through the possiblity of the artistic add of more than one person as the first person && second persons change(s).

Not very contemporary--but it hadn't been done as a model--&&artists are innovators, so who knows, maybe no example is no bad example--If you can formulate the structure--it's likely that the probable interpretation will change accordingly!


notes: Ode to WW  February 26, 2003
missing pictures and words (am)ode
the missing orignal handwritten notes
because imply possible: I=spoken ~~~~images through "listen"
implies possible "vapours" connection to ---------^diagram as (invoke) spoken-word-listen 3//stz
                                __________

                                ~~~~images
spoken word through "listen"
-----------
structure

transition omitted from A(-)  B(-) C(=)

************
May 28 and June 1, 2003 letter

Given the glossed moment, I've added that, upon reconsideration, I don't find that I don't mean to consider first and second person constructions in the personified voices of the three poems.  I mean, that second person "we," is "we," "he," "she," third person instead of the third person objective framework implied by "you," "he," "she"--I find that Sky-Lark is reluctant to accord a full-hearted acquiescence to its hymnal tone, and says so.  I have to think, that in the philosophical constructs thad I diagrammed, that the relationship between persona and object && the transference implied replaces an objective third person exposition, i.e. "first" and "third" person && personifications within an implied objective outer framework.

From the last letter:--I also find that these poems may have narrative surface meanings as an artistic trait, and that in addition to the narrative line or lines--they are constructed separately and specifically within the narrative lines.  This means that for every reading that you like, there seems to be in each of the three poems, a specifically constructed word through line through stanza reading, which includes precisely chosen words, descriptions, and implied meanings that follow one another as a matter of deliberation.

In other words, when you read West Wind as an invocation from "O wild"--through"O hear,"--that's what you find from start to finish--with the minus five to plus three lines back to the beginning (pattern) through the stanzas to include in a discussion.  If you read the introductory notes first--you can actually find that's what you're looking at--If you find a narrative line that you most prefer, you could be selling yorself on your own ideas or ability, and come to prefer those readings, given time.

The first stanza of Ode to the WW--has both a masculine && a feminine personification of Winds and a "clarion."  Reading back from stanza V (lips)--which is derived from the "cloud"--in II--through its repeat twice in IV (cloud--Lift...cloud)--through "living" and "lift"--in IV--You can read to find the wintry construct in I && the concluding idea of the poem--This is specific && would explain the voice--loud--listen device running through the end of the three poems.

I read WW as from, "breath of Autumn's being"--through the one-to-one relationship of the poetic persona with the forces in the poem--as it changes shape and form in a matching pattern--to the final intellectual circumstance of the poetic persona--until the forces can no longer challenge the persona.  Reading back into stanza one && the clarion call--you can go into stanza one of the cloud as the same I--you also can read this I continuing from stanza V of the Ode to the WW--The cloud could be out of Clarion as a changeable shape--&& be a "loud" transition to "ar-ion (air-ion) --the unembodied joy of the unseen Sky-Lark--as possibly realated constructions in the poetic.

The first stanza of "The Cloud" is in the active voice--see the transition I note above--and the second is the passive, which suggests the changes in persona possible to introduce with the subject.  If you're determined to read Sky-Lark as a pastoral description of nature, you could read the "keen are as the arrows" reading--where the first persona has no possibility of luring the subject or object of the poem into a knowable range, because "what thou art we know not"--as a device, the persona can't think of a way to bring it in close--or to know it--and consider the flights of sensory experience that come close to reaching the Scorner of the ground, but cannot reach it and its skill.

Art is as you find it--two hunderd years is a long time ago now.

The letter mentions line-by-line reading of the text--Ode to the WW--is so densely and specifically a set of following words and pictures, that you wouldn't realize to connect it all forwards, that you can only connect each line by also working backwards through the preceding stanzas--that it is clearly implied pictures, narrative, personas, meanings, and relationships betweeen those things.  It's probably a polished stone, and an object evaluated as worth its dedication.

The other note to the letter--that the diagramming of "vapours" suggests spoken--word--through "listen" && the perceptual constructs--(rels one-to-one in Sky--Lark && concluding stanza) are only at hand choices--in other words--it could be thought word--"listen"--the way that poetry runs, in general.

With the diagrams--it's a real possiblity--&& I think it's out of one word (loud) or so--not in itself the required thinking to follow the ideas being developed in the three poems.

(An add to the conclusion note:  can the poet get the relationship between persona && object to be earth bound--or is it another parallel (Loud) with the "West Wind?"  As a flight through three disparate perceptual devices, as diagrammed in the letter.


FOOTNOTE:

"Shelley's Poetry and Prose," A Norton Critical Edition, (selected and edited by Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat) W.W. Norton & Company, New York) 1977. (paperback edition)