Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Parenthetical Citations
- Introduction: A Philosophical Poet (of Ordinary Language)
- The Constitution of Shelley's Poetry
- Chapter 1 The Everlasting Universe of Things as Shelley Found It in 1816: “Mont Blanc” and “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty”
- Chapter 2 Where Shelley Wrote and What He Wrote for: The Signature of “Ode to the West Wind”
- Chapter 3 Knowing What We Do (With Words): Act I of Prometheus Unbound
- Chapter 4 Recounting Reverses, Recovering the Initiative: Act II of Prometheus Unbound
- Chapter 5 The Congregated Powers of Language: Act III of Prometheus Unbound
- Chapter 6 Resounding Celebrations and Constraining Commissions: Act IV of Prometheus Unbound
- Coda: A Voice to Be Accomplished
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 4 - Recounting Reverses, Recovering the Initiative: Act II of Prometheus Unbound
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Parenthetical Citations
- Introduction: A Philosophical Poet (of Ordinary Language)
- The Constitution of Shelley's Poetry
- Chapter 1 The Everlasting Universe of Things as Shelley Found It in 1816: “Mont Blanc” and “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty”
- Chapter 2 Where Shelley Wrote and What He Wrote for: The Signature of “Ode to the West Wind”
- Chapter 3 Knowing What We Do (With Words): Act I of Prometheus Unbound
- Chapter 4 Recounting Reverses, Recovering the Initiative: Act II of Prometheus Unbound
- Chapter 5 The Congregated Powers of Language: Act III of Prometheus Unbound
- Chapter 6 Resounding Celebrations and Constraining Commissions: Act IV of Prometheus Unbound
- Coda: A Voice to Be Accomplished
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Follow, poet, follow right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining voice
Still persuade us to rejoice;
With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress;
In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start.
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.
W.H. AudenAt the close of Act I, a new day dawning prompted a Panthea “who loves” to leave Prometheus and seek out Asia. Now in response, an Asia with her eyes fixed on the same “point…[of the morning star] quivering still/Deep in the orange light of widening morn” implores her sister “wear[ing]/The shadow of that soul by which I live” (30–31) not to delay any longer but to come:
This is the season, this the day, the hour;
At sunrise thou shouldst come, sweet sister mine…
Too long desired, too long delaying, come!… (13–15)
Act I starts out with Prometheus in chains; its successor begins with Asia in suspense, hanging on every word her sister might be bringing of Prometheus.
But at this dawn of a new day and a new act, Panthea does not directly tell Asia what has happened to Prometheus in his long night of pain and bondage. Instead, she tells of two dreams that have presumably arisen from within the tortured psychic and textual space of Act I.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Constitution of Shelley's PoetryThe Argument of Language in Prometheus Unbound, pp. 95 - 148Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2009