The Cloud (poem)
Encyclopedia
The Cloud is a major 1820 poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley
. "The Cloud" was written during late 1819 or early 1820 and submitted for publication on July 12, 1820. The work was published in the 1820 collection Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama, in Four Acts, With Other Poems by Charles and James Ollier in London in August, 1820. The work was proof-read by John Gisborne. There were multiple drafts of the poem. The poem consists of six stanzas in anapestic or antidactylus meter, a foot with two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable.
", the skylark in "To a Skylark
", and the plant in "The Sensitive Plant", Shelley endows the cloud with sentient traits that personify the forces of nature.
In "The Cloud", Shelley relies on the imagery of transformation or metamorphosis, a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. This is a fact of physical nature.
British scientist and poet Erasmus Darwin
had written about plantlife and science in the poem collection The Botanic Garden
(1791). Shelley had cited Darwin in his Preface to the anonymously published novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), explaining how the novel was written and its meaning.
The cloud is a personification and a metaphor for the perpetual cycle of transformation and change in nature. All life and matter are interconnected and undergo unending change and metamorphosis.
In the October 1821 issue of Quarterly Review, W.S. Walker argued that the "The Cloud" is related to Prometheus Unbound in that they are both absurd and "galimatias".
John Todhunter wrote in 1880 that "The Cloud" and "To a Skylark" were "the two most popular of Shelley's lyrics".
In 1889, Francis Thompson asserted that "The Cloud" was the "most typically Shelleyan of all the poems" because it contained "the child's faculty of make-believe raised to the nth power" and that "He is still at play, save only that his play is such as manhood stops to watch, and his playthings are those which the gods give their children. The universe is his box of toys. He dabbles his fingers in the dayfall. He is gold-dusty with tumbling amidst the stars."
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
. "The Cloud" was written during late 1819 or early 1820 and submitted for publication on July 12, 1820. The work was published in the 1820 collection Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama, in Four Acts, With Other Poems by Charles and James Ollier in London in August, 1820. The work was proof-read by John Gisborne. There were multiple drafts of the poem. The poem consists of six stanzas in anapestic or antidactylus meter, a foot with two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable.
Analysis
The cloud is a metaphor for the unending cycle of nature: "I arise and unbuild it again." As with the wind and the leaves in "Ode to the West WindOde to the West Wind
Ode to the West Wind is an ode written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819 near Florence, Italy. It was published in 1820 by Charles and James Ollier in London as part of the Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts, With Other Poems collection...
", the skylark in "To a Skylark
To a Skylark
Percy Bysshe Shelley completed the poem "To a Skylark" in late June, 1820, and forwarded it to London to be included among the verse accompanying Prometheus Unbound published by Charles and James Collier in London....
", and the plant in "The Sensitive Plant", Shelley endows the cloud with sentient traits that personify the forces of nature.
In "The Cloud", Shelley relies on the imagery of transformation or metamorphosis, a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. This is a fact of physical nature.
British scientist and poet Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin was an English physician who turned down George III's invitation to be a physician to the King. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave trade abolitionist,inventor and poet...
had written about plantlife and science in the poem collection The Botanic Garden
The Botanic Garden
The Botanic Garden is a set of two poems, The Economy of Vegetation and The Loves of the Plants, by the British poet and naturalist Erasmus Darwin. The Economy of Vegetation celebrates technological innovation, scientific discovery and offers theories concerning contemporary scientific questions,...
(1791). Shelley had cited Darwin in his Preface to the anonymously published novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), explaining how the novel was written and its meaning.
The cloud is a personification and a metaphor for the perpetual cycle of transformation and change in nature. All life and matter are interconnected and undergo unending change and metamorphosis.
Reception
A review of the 1820 Prometheus Unbound collection in the September and October, 1821 issues of The London Magazine noted the originality of "The Cloud": "It is impossible to peruse them without admiring the peculiar property of the author's mind, which can doff in an instant the cumbersome garments of metaphysical speculations, and throw itself naked as it were into the arms of nature and humanity. The beautiful and singularly original poem of 'The Cloud' will evince proofs of our opinion, and show the extreme force and freshness with which the writer can impregnate his poetry."In the October 1821 issue of Quarterly Review, W.S. Walker argued that the "The Cloud" is related to Prometheus Unbound in that they are both absurd and "galimatias".
John Todhunter wrote in 1880 that "The Cloud" and "To a Skylark" were "the two most popular of Shelley's lyrics".
In 1889, Francis Thompson asserted that "The Cloud" was the "most typically Shelleyan of all the poems" because it contained "the child's faculty of make-believe raised to the nth power" and that "He is still at play, save only that his play is such as manhood stops to watch, and his playthings are those which the gods give their children. The universe is his box of toys. He dabbles his fingers in the dayfall. He is gold-dusty with tumbling amidst the stars."
1919 Movie
On April 20, 1919, a silent black and white movie was released in the U.S. entitled The Cloud which was "a visual poem featuring clouds and landscapes in accompaniment to the words of Shelley's poem 'The Cloud'." The film was directed by W.A. Van Scoy and produced by the Post Nature Pictures company.Sources
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- Fogle, Richard. "The Abstractness of Shelley" in Shelley. Ed. George Ridenour. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1965.
- Fogle, Richard. The Imagery of Keats and Shelley. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1949.
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- Kurtz, Benjamin. The Pursuit of Death. New York: Oxford University Press, 1933.
- MacLaine, Allan H. "Shelley's 'The Cloud' and Pope's 'Rape of the Lock': An Unsuspected Link." Keats-Shelley Journal, Vol. 8, Part 1 (Winter, 1959), pp. 14-16.
- McLane, Lucy Neely. "Sound Values in 'The Cloud'." The English Journal, Vol. 22, No. 5 (May, 1933), pp. 412-414.
- McMahan, Anna. "Shelley, The 'Enchanted Child'." The Dial, Vol. XLVI, (16 June 1909): 399–401.
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- Richards, Irving T. "A Note on Source Influences in Shelley's Cloud and Skylark." PMLA, Vol. 50, No. 2 (June, 1935), pp. 562-567.
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- Swinburne, Algernon Charles. The Letters of Algernon Charles Swinburne, Volume 1. New York: John Lane Company, 1919.
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- Wasserman, Earl. Shelley: A Critical Reading. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1971.
- Wasserman, Earl. The Subtler Language. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1959.
- Wroe, Ann. Being Shelley: The Poet's Search for Himself. Pantheon, 2007.