Before we travel too far from Shelley's Adonais, I wanted to draw attention to one specific mythological allusion that I found to be particularly potent. Line 151 on the poem says, "Albion wails for thee", regarding Keats. In Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, Albion was the comparatively benevolent giant that Brutus overthrew in order to conquer Britain. In this sense, Albion's lamentation of Keats speaks to the relationship between old and new that runs through the poem.
However, there is another meaning in this allusion. Prior to Brutus' renaming of the region as Britain (after himself), it was called Albion (after its ruler). Thus, with the original name in effect, Shelley universalizes the mourning to all of England, greatly complicating the elegy.
I'd also like to draw your attention to one of Shelley's Romantic Period contemporaries William Blake and his utilization and operation defining of "Albion" in his works. There appears to be a similar ambiguity in his allusions to Albion which I believe enacts a similar universality of mourning and adding complexity and depth to the messages in Blake's works as well. For Blake, Albion is used as the common poetical name of Britain, the father of all mankind, and others. His allusions stem from the ideologies and figures birthed by Swedenborg and the Kabbalists, to name a few.I agree that this ambiguity confuses and conflates the old and new, the classical and modern, and suggests something greater about their contrary (or maybe not so contrary) dynamic.
ReplyDelete(I referenced the Blake Dictionary for some of the information pertaining to Blake's "Albion."