ADONAIS

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Written by: Omar Carrilo Arzave.

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An elegy on the death of John Keats

By

Percy Bysshe Shelly

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In the mood for love? Well, Adonais is a Romantic poem, but not like love-letter romantic; it's part of the Romanticism movement of the 1800s.

Romantic poets were a group of writers who were super into things like nature and expressing their feelings.

This formidable crew, including Adonais author Percy Bysshe Shelley, party-boy Lord Byron, Frankenstein-author (and wife of Percy) Mary Shelley, and young-and-passionate John Keats.

So, when Keats died suddenly at the age of twenty-five, this band of BFFs was quite naturally devastated. They considered Keats one of the best poets around, and they knew that his death was a great, great loss to literature. Plus, they just couldn't understand how such a tragedy could happen to such a bright young star. Shelley, overwhelmed with grief, blamed the critics who had recently written a harsh review of Keats' poetry. He decided that this review must have literally broken Keats' heart. And so Adonais was born.

The 55-stanza, 495-line poem expresses the poet's grief and anger the way only a poem can: with lots and lots of imagery, wordplay, allusions and metaphors.

Shelley calls on gods, nature, and mankind to mourn the loss of Keats. The elegy was published in 1821, months after Keats' death, and though it didn't bring him back, it is widely considered one of Shelley's greatest works. We begin with a speaker who is weeping. For whom does he weep? Well, it's for Adonais, the Greek god of beauty and desire, who has just died as the result of another god's jealousy.

The speaker calls on Urania, Adonais' mother, to arrive at his deathbed. After she arrives, the speaker spends some time admonishing her for not intervening and saving his life. After he's done, he summons nature, some more Greek gods, and some of the Romantic poets to join them. He wants everyone there to mourn the loss of the beautiful youth.

After a long period of mourning, the speaker says that the time for weeping is over. The youth has gone to a better place, one where he is part of nature and eternity forever. His concept of the afterlife, which includes joining with a spirit or force that is contained in every living thing on earth, means that the youth isn't really dead. Therefore, he reasons, there's no reason to cry.

What's more, he says, the youth's work lives on. Still, other mourners show up, including famous poets of years past who have been dead a long time. The speaker reasons that Adonais will join them as their King in the afterlife, since those who think lofty thoughts deserve the highest honors.

Finally, the speaker instructs the mourners to visit Rome, where Adonais is buried. There they see the ruins of the fallen empire and the beauty of the city, and finally come upon the field where the body rests. It is beautiful there, and he thinks it will comfort them. The speaker, however, hasn't been fully consoled. Now he thinks that he should join the youth in the afterlife, because this world just isn't good enough anymore. The poem ends with the final image of the speaker's soul seeing the young man's spirit in the heavens.

Adonais (often named "Adonis"), god of beauty, was a tragic figure in Greek mythology. Though desired by many, some gods were envious of his sex appeal and youth. One such jealous deity, Artemis—goddess of the hunt—sent wild boars after him in a fit of jealousy. The boars tore him apart, devastating his fellow gods and goddesses.

Even today, Adonais is seen as a symbol of the epitome of male youth and beauty. Shelley used him to symbolize the poet John Keats, who also died tragically young. But it wasn't just the circumstances of his death that made Adonais a good stand-in. Shelley believed that Keats was a poet with more talent than any other. The loss of such a man was particularly devastating to him, and so he wanted an appropriate symbol of loss that others would immediately recognize. And Adonais fit the immortal, heavenly bill.

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