Dear Dachsie,
There's a lot to ponder here and I'm still working on a response. Patience!
Shelley can be difficult to read when you're not used to him . I was lucky because my father was a literary scholar who specialised in the Romantic Movement in English literature in 18th and 19th century, England. So when I was growing up, there were alway books about the Romantic poets and novelists lying about the house. One day, when I was 17 y.o. it was raining very heavily outside, and I was stuck in the house and really bored. So bored I picked up a paperback collection of Shelley's poetry, and flicked through it. By chance, I read a couple of stanza from one of Shelley's poems that I understand, and reading them TOTALLY blew my tiny mind. After that I started reading more of Shelley's work, most of which I could not understand (being only a teenager). I knew that reading and being able to understand his poems could send you on an awesome spiritual trips; so I ended up bugging my father to take me through Shelley's poetry, one poem at a time. This pissed my father off no end, because teaching me Shelley was difficult and time-consuming; and for him - studying literature was not something he ever really enjoyed, he fell into "by accident" in the late 1950s, and ended up becoming an economic conscript in the English Department at Queensland University. He was always far more interested in sports like "Aussie Rules" football and playing golf in his major poems> I'm glad I bugged him so much, especially re Shelley's poem, because all these years later, when I read one of his poems like, say - "Ode to a Skylark" - I am just as dazzled and spellbound as I was when I read it as a teenager, and I would never have been able to understand Shelley otherwise as a lot of his work is very complex. (Far too complex for my very average brain-power to deal with). (Also, Shelley uses a lot of symbolism from ancient Greece like, for example: Athenian, Gods and Demigod and "Spirits like "Urania"; "Adonis: Hyacynth; "Aphrodite"; the "Maenad," "Daemon," etc; from ancient Hellenic mythology and legends. If you don't know who these characters are, and what their role was in the myths, then you can find some of Shelley's poetry very difficult to properly understand.
Right, Christie FANNY, I can give you my take on the section of
Epipsychideon if you like. It reads like it is about "making love" (i.e. a male , Shelley. and a young girl he had a major crush ine in 1920-21 named Emily Emily [ Emilia Vivandi]. They start off chatting politely, but before long they run out of things to say. This is because they find each other "sexy". Then they draw together and kiss, and after that they are clasping each other. When Shelley write that they have become "ONE", the reader think that Shelley has ...you known... inserted his member into Emily's "Hoo-Har". You can sense the verses become more and more passionate until there is a final "climax", where Shelley write that he is shattered. The lines are kind of consistent with him experiencing a powerful orgasm). But Shelley is using the imagery a heterosexual sex ( i.e. a male screwing his girlfriend) to represent a different concept that is far more fascinating and profound.
I can give you my take on what he (Shelley) is trying to get across, if you like. If so, you will need to watch a short video on "Tiffany" lamps on You Tube: " "Egon Neustadt' Collection of Tiffany Lamps." (I didn't know how to copy the video it into this post).
I think you will
REALLY like what Shelley is trying to say in "Epipsychideon" because you are lefty/liberal Democrat and so was Shelley. (It goes just about as deep into the very heart of liberal philosophy as it is possible go - and at the end of the day everything can be summed up in one or two simple paragraphs). To continue. Shelley was, in fact, such a radical and extreme liberal that you would not be able to put up with him for very long if you travelled back in time to England during the Regency era and hooked up with him, ChristyFANNY. You would find him far, far too wild and 'over-the-top" !! (For a normal, young woman; getting mixed up with Shelley would be like walking directly into a major tornado !!).
SWALK, ChristieF XX
Dachshund - the WONDER HOUND
DLM....Dachshund Lives Matter !!
