John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley

Around the late 1700’s authors such as John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley were born. These two famous authors influenced many other authors to come. John Keats (1795 – 1821) and Percy Shelley (1792-1822) were both good friends during their time, which could be why they wrote their poems on similar topics for example both “Ode to the West Wind” by Percy Shelley and “To Autumn” by Keats were both written on nature and how they perceived it. The first time reading “Ode to the West Wind” by Percy Shelley, it seems as if the poem is just a poem about the wind and nature. Shelley expresses no emotion or feelings in this poem, he only describes autumn using similes. After rereading this poem many times, reading the footnotes and looking up definitions, I have come to understand the poem in a different perspective. I’ve realized how much emotion Shelley actually puts into the poem. Shelley writes the poem in 25 stanzas each with three lines except for every fifth stanza, which only have three lines. Shelley might have written it this way for a purpose. After reading the poem, the footnotes, and some background on Shelleys life I’ve realized what Shelly might have been trying to convey through this poem. In the footnotes it explains how Shelleys son William died of Malaria when he was only three and a half years old. During the late1700’s Malaria was still a new sickness and no cure was found. I believe that in his poem Shelley trying to explaining the pain and emotions he went through while at his sons side. He had to watch his son through pain and torture, and went through a lot of emotions during this time. In every fifth stanza he writes, “o hear!” Although his biography says he was an atheist I think he might be trying to reach out to god, or some higher power out there that can help him and his son, he wants someone to hear him and help him out. Shelley makes every fifth stanza shorter because these might be difficult moments for Shelley to go