If you like the work I do, then you can support my channel here: www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=D8LSKGJP2NL4N Thank you very much indeed for watching.

I’m so grateful you picked this piece. I now know why Mary Shelley and Percy were in love. Percy’s passion for human rights is something I share and has won me over. Thank you so much, Octavia. I’m very grateful for your insights and choices and to learn about literature and history from you is something I very much look forward to every week.

@DrOctaviaCox

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much for your kind message, Alesha. I'm so pleased that you find my analyses interesting. Yes, Shelley was certainly passionate about the things he believed in.

@hkempire401

2 жыл бұрын

@@DrOctaviaCox I am from India But can understand because your teaching is amazing ♥️

This literally takes me back, decades ago, when I was a senior in high school, to afternoons laying on my parents' sofa reading Newman Ivey White's two volume biography of Shelley. Still one of the best books I've ever read, and the first of its kind for me at that age. It changed my whole life, and gradually led to a home full of thousands of books.

@DrOctaviaCox

2 жыл бұрын

How wonderful! - I can't think of much better than a home filled with books!

I can not get enough of your channel, Dr. Octavia! I wonder whether anyone has done a critical reading of this poem reflecting on certain events in the US in the past few years.

@DrOctaviaCox

2 жыл бұрын

Many thanks, David - much appreciated.

@helenfeatherston1989

2 жыл бұрын

Indeed, like all great poems it resonates with today's society and if you don't confine it to the uk, ..old mad despised king (president) , princes the dregs of their dull race, ( a paedophile, a woke hypocrite etc.) . and thank you for pointing out that Shelley was a deeply spiritual poet. Really enjoyed the analysis, Helen Featherston

I find that all the other replies "name my very deed of love" (well, gratitude, anyway). I am also grateful to you for recommending Duncan Wu's biography of William Hazlitt which casts a very interesting, vital light on life in England during all the social and political events which marked the emergence of what we call the Romantic movement, including portraits of Leigh Hunt and Shelley. Thank you for this latest installment in a very exciting series. You always leave me wanting more!

Don’t hold yourself back, Shelley… Excellent teaching, and what a great poem. I hadn’t previously read it (just come across quotations), so thank you very much, Octavia! Your videos are like treasure on KZread.

In my opinion, the poem sounds like something which describes today, the way politics is going. Could use this as inspiration for a future video if I want.

As a Professor Emeritus who retired from an English Department after 40 years of service I find your practical criticism exercises very refreshing . I tried for years to restore Practical Criticism or a version of it for first year English students but was outvoted by "theorists." Your efforts give us some hope!

I really love your dedication to English literature and the work you do to share your knowledge. Even with the ones of us, like me, that have not such a formal education and for whom English is not the first language. I am so grateful for this opportunity you are creating with your channel. Have a wonderful day.

A very detailed and probing analysis of Shelley's poem.

Thanks for sharing this .Ode to The west wind is my favourite read among other works.. ❤️❤️

I regularly follow your videos on Jane Austen, I am a student of English Literature & learnt a lot from you, I am grateful to you, loads of luv to u Dr. Octavia. 💕💕💕

This poem seems so topical right now; Shelley was prescient.

Subscribed i liked your session

Best annotations

How do you interpret Shelley’s poem ‘England in 1819’?

@londongael

2 жыл бұрын

I was not familiar with this poem, and it was good to hear your detailed analysis and context-setting. I think "Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow" means that the "leeches" drop off, having sated themselves to the point of being "blind in blood", without the need for their victim to strike a blow - in other words, the ruling class will (or may!) destroy themselves by their own degeneracy, without the need for a violent revolution (the French Revolution and the Terror being still in living memory). The poem seems a bit...hesitant, to me - in keeping with Shelley's waiting to see how the country would react. As you say, there is a faint hope, as if the poet says "surely THIS is the last straw!", but the image of a "Phantom" - even a "glorious" one - bursting from a grave, doesn't seem quite the revolutionary rallying cry one might expect. It sounds more like the ruling class reinventing itself, in a somewhat less brutal form - which is kind of what happened. Only twenty years later, after Shelley's death, Queen Victoria's accession to the throne and her renewal of the image of the monarchy, and the passing of the 1832 Reform Act, it was quite safe for Mary Shelley (now a respectable widow and literary figure, not just that mad feminist's daughter, who ran off with the married atheistic poet) to see it through to publication.

@Jill-jb1jg

2 жыл бұрын

I agreed with all your reading of the poem. I also think, like a previous commenter, that there might be a reference to Daniel 12.4, 10. Daniel is given a prophecy, then told, ‘But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end… None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.’ The picture is of a message from God that will be sealed for a time, i.e. no-one will understand it until ‘the time of the end’. And then only the wise. In the poem it could be the Christian religion that is ‘a book sealed’ - to the religious leaders, I suppose. They don’t really understand its message. That boils down to the Bible being sealed to them, as you said, because the message of the Christian religion is found in the Bible. There could be an implication that they aren’t wise. Or he might just be using the saying ‘a sealed book’, I guess! (Which was possibly based on Daniel.) I do think Shelley has a slight nerve criticising the religious leaders when he was not a Christian himself. Although if they failed to condemn the Peterloo massacre he probably had a point. There is a lot in the Bible about not oppressing the poor.

Thank you as always, Dr. Cox! Appreciate this poem which was unknown to me and your insights. Also think that the two- edged sword references Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any twoedged sword..." If so, then PBS may have been contrasting the two-edged sword of the army with the closed Word of God. Thank you again!!

This was excellent - thank you so much, one of my favourite poems. Could you follow this with an analysis "The Mask of Anarchy", please? Two points: "Rulers" surely, includes the political class - Liverpool, Castlereagh, Sidmouth, Eldon et all - a despicable government (remember Byron's little four-liner "Posterity can ne'er survey/A nobler grave than this/Here lie the bones of Castlereagh/Stop traveller and .....") "Religion, Christless, Godless..". The obvious point is, surely, that those professing the state religion of the UK - Christianty - ignore the words of its founder (eg the beatitudes, of love of reconciliation) for the very good reason that their "Crosstianity" (not a typo) is part of the means of oppression by the ruling class ("Religion is the opium of the people", as a certain left-winger put it).

@DrOctaviaCox

2 жыл бұрын

Ha! - That Byron does have a way with a rhyme! Yes, I think "Rulers" includes the whole lot of them. Leaving it opaque means that it does not exclude anyone. The Mask of Anarchy is a fabulous poem - also written in response to the Peterloo Massacre (and also too hot to print in 1819 - it wasn't printed until 1832) - with many evocative passages about political resistance, such as the wonderful closing triplet: Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you - Ye are many - they are few. (ll.370-2)

@Jill-jb1jg

2 жыл бұрын

I would like to see an analysis of ‘The Mask of Anarchy’ too. I remember reading part of that in my A level History textbook.

Thank you❤️

I wish to invite you to my favorite library in Manhattan 🧡😊

Dr. Cox, I am curious as to what your impression is of the personalities of Ms. Bates and Mrs. Elton are in Emma?! Thank you

The "sealed book" is interesting. Parts of the Bible could be problematic to despots, such as stories about prophets calling out kings. I suspect (though I could be wrong that at the time parts of the Bible that might seem critical or embarrassing to people in power were never ever taught by the Church of England. Since other religious movements were suppressed the effect could be that much of the Bible was "sealed" for all intents and purposes.

Thank you. I wonder about the sealed book. There are several references in the Bible about sealed books and two-edged swords. In the Bible, the concept of a book sealed is that the book is misunderstood by its hearers, and also that the book is sealed and cannot be open by one who has the princely, kingly, right to unseal it. As in the seven seals of Revelation and as in the Book of Daniel where Daniel is told that the true knowledge of the end times will be misunderstood until the right time. The idea of graves make me think of the Resurrection when Jesus rose. There's also the idea in Jesus rebuke to religious people that the religious people are being like whited sepulchres. In this case, Shelley seems to be saying that there is a phantom of spirituality in the culture, a misunderstood and carnal Christianity, which the ruling class are observing. So he seems to be inditing the kings and the priests/religious world for not seeing clearly. But one day, another "phantom" (he can't seem to say Christ is alive but the implication is that spectres of religion past is no use) will rise up with better, stronger, less "gentle jesus meek and mild" and more tempestuous. With a phantom who doesn't bully the people into passivity, change may come.

@DrOctaviaCox

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for these illuminating observations, Carole. Your point about knowledge (or understanding, or open-eyed-ness, or awareness... whatever we might call it) being misunderstood until the right time is apt. I get the sense that Shelley felt that now _was_ the right time!

@Liliquan

Жыл бұрын

Percy was not just an atheist but a public atheist which at such time was quite perilous. He clearly took his atheism very seriously. So, I don’t regard the phantom as being even slightly religious. The phantom was revolution. The type of revolution found within The French Revolution. The revolution of over-throwing the monarchy.

Please do some H. P. Lovecraft's work. I would love to hear your thoughts on him.

Wondering what the phantom is that may burst forth from the graves of the previous rulers + people. A better set of rulers and therefore a non starved-and-stabbed people?

This poem could have been called "Charlottesville 2020."

@louise-yo7kz

2 жыл бұрын

🎯💯

Nothing was what it should be. The farmers should be tilling the fields, confident in the benevolent support of the the royals, confident that parliment will pass just laws, secure in the protection of the army, and guided in godly morality by the church - but with all the institutions failing, the farmers were not farming and starvation was a real threat. Every part of society had become a decaying grave of what it should be. But possibly someone (from within one of the broken and seemingly dead structures) might begin to proclaim a truth, a solution, a remedy. That truth could rise and grow, shining like a light to show a way out of the misery and restoring the country.

And then May Day became a thing 70 years later, another kind of uprising 😁

25,000 pounds in 1820 would be something like 2.5 million pounds today, or 3.3 million in US dollars. For comparison, the inauguration of US Presidents usually cost in the area of $150-$200M today, but how little outrage we see.

I can see 2023 so clearly today, with all of the crap we see with Prince Harry and Andrew. My goodness Shelly was prescient.

hate the word couplet

Yikes. So modern.

@DrOctaviaCox

2 жыл бұрын

Sadly I'm not sure the abuse of power ever goes out of fashion!

John Halifax Gentleman. by mrs Dinah Craik ( one of the early Women writers ) covers the corn riots in great detail, You can get the book on audible. _ One of my mums favouite books.