Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote this first-person poem inspired by the Chamonix Valley landscapes near Geneva. The Romantic style of William Wordsworth significantly influenced Shelley’s poetry. The former applied a similar writing style by describing feelings and emotions with physical objects. The young Englishman visited the Arve Valley by Mont Blanc, the Swiss Alps’ highest peak, in 1916. Contrary to Wordsworth, Shelley was rather amused by nature’s power, instead of seeing it as a benevolent and gentle phenomenon. In general, this poem discussed nature’s power, opposing it to the human mind that struggles to comprehend the truth behind it.
In the first stanza, Shelley observes the landscape and realizes that nature reflects the universe of different things that cannot be instantly comprehended by relatively weaker human thought. However, the natural world enriches the knowledge of those who are capable of observing it properly. The author further downplays the human imagination and mind that cannot understand such a marvelous mountain as Mont Blanc. Nature is too huge, still, unmoved, and stronger than people and their independent thoughts. He states, “all things that move and breathe with toil and sound are born and die: revolve, subside and swell” (Shelley, lines 94-95). According to the author, even mythology is ultimately helpless in an effort to explain its majesty.
In the fourth stanza, the spellbound speaker recalls lakes, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural phenomena expanding past the Mont Blanc to highlight nature’s unlimited power. The latter’s capacity can be compared to the unstoppable glacier that exists for a way longer time than any human lifespan. Human concerns are nothing for the immortality of the mountain. However, the last stanza reveals Shelley’s hope that wise, exalted, and kind-hearted individuals will understand more by communicating with the universe with nature’s help. This experience ultimately teaches the speaker that it is essential to realize such things and fill the mind with silent solitude.
This poem contrasts with Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey in which the Romantic poet shows a version of gentle and quiet nature. In Mont Blanc, the mountain and its surroundings are dizzying, huge, frightening, and totally indifferent to human destiny. Nevertheless, this enormous power that is beautiful in its supremacy encourages people to improve their knowledge and life. The mountain is personified by the author because he cannot understand it in another way. The central problem raised by Shelley here is the limitations of the human mind and imagination. Although the speaker admires nature’s power and feels dizzy staring at the enormous mountain, he believes that humanity can gradually comprehend its mystery. To highlight it, Shelley uses the river, which cut through the Mont Blanc, as a metaphor. Similar to the river, the human mind and understanding start as a “feeble brook,” further improving and becoming a significant power. The speaker wants his thoughts to be unstoppable and free as a river capable of destroying everything people created.
To conclude, the poem is important in terms of the Romantic understanding of human imagination and nature’s power. It continues the discussion by adding arguments in contrast to those presented by Wordsworth. Although the human mind is limited, individuals who realize and adore the world’s multifacet nature have a chance to uncover the truth through continuous study. Readers should learn that nature is more robust than man, but every effort may lead to positive outcomes.
References
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni.” Poetry Foundation, 2020, Web.