Lines

Quiz — Lines by Percy Bysshe Shelley

1. Recall – Form & Structure: How many stanzas does Lines contain, and how does the poem's focus shift as it progresses?

1. Recall – Speaker & Addressee: Who is the speaker in Lines, and in which part of the poem does he first directly address another person?

1. Recall – Setting: In what month and season is the poem set, and how does the natural world appear at the poem's opening?

1. Comprehension – Imagery: What image is used to compare the moonlight reflected in the beloved's eyes, and what does that image traditionally represent in folklore?

1. Comprehension – Symbolism: What does the cold that permeates the poem — in the earth, sky, wind, and dew — symbolise beyond mere weather?

1. Comprehension – Symbolism: Why are the birds described as resting on bare thorns rather than on leafy branches, and what do those thorns suggest about the emotional atmosphere of the poem?

1. Analysis – Tone: How would you describe the poem's overall tone, and what technique does Shelley use to make the single term of endearment for the beloved feel especially powerful?

1. Analysis – Symbolism: What does the gradually fading or sinking moon symbolise in Lines, and how does this symbol contribute to the poem's elegiac quality?

1. Analysis – Theme: How does Shelley blur the boundary between the coldness of nature and the coldness of death in the final stanza, when he describes the effect of the night on the beloved's body?

1. Context: Lines was written in November 1815, a turbulent period in Shelley's personal life. Identify one biographical uncertainty surrounding the poem and one broader historical event from the same period that may have contributed to the poem's atmosphere of exceptional cold and darkness.

Answer Key

1. The poem contains four stanzas. It begins by describing the frozen, colourless landscape and then shifts in the third stanza to focus on a beloved person lying vulnerable within that harsh environment.

1. The speaker is Shelley himself (or a lyric "I"). He first addresses the beloved directly in the third stanza, using the word "thee."

1. The poem is set on a frigid November night. The natural world appears locked in cold and darkness, with the frozen earth likened to something sleeping — a haunting, death-like stillness.

1. The moonlight in the beloved's eyes is compared to a fen-fire (will-o'-the-wisp). In folklore, this mysterious marsh light is associated with the spirits of the dead luring travellers to their doom.

1. Cold functions as the poem's central metaphor for death and emotional emptiness; it is not simply a weather condition but a pervasive symbol of lifelessness and loss.

1. The bare thorns provide no shelter or comfort, emphasising a world stripped of life and warmth. Thorns traditionally evoke suffering and sacrifice, reinforcing the poem's mournful atmosphere.

1. The tone is quiet and sorrowful — almost a whisper, without dramatic displays of grief. The word "beloved" feels unexpectedly warm because Shelley has surrounded it with relentlessly harsh, cold imagery throughout the poem.

1. The sinking, dying moon symbolises endings — the fading of hope, life, or a relationship. As the poem's main light source gradually disappears, it deepens the elegiac mood and suggests that whatever warmth once existed is slipping away.

1. In the final stanza, each element of the night acts directly on the beloved's body — her lips are drained of colour, her chest feels cold, and frozen dew falls on her — so that nature's chill and the chill of death become indistinguishable.

1. Biographical uncertainty: The identity of the "beloved" is unresolved — she may be Shelley's estranged first wife Harriet Westbrook, his companion Mary Godwin, or an entirely fictional figure. Historical context: The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora led to the "Year Without a Summer" in 1816, producing exceptionally harsh winters across Europe that would have heightened the atmosphere of cold and bleakness present in the poem.