The cold earth of Percy Shelley slept below below plumages readers in a spooky winter landscape, where death and beauty are intertwined in a creepy yet enchanting silence, writes William Bove
The cold earth slept below, by Percy Bysshe Shelley, husband of Mary Shelley, catches us with the cold of winter on a brightly lit full moon evening. Everything is frozen, covered in a cold, peaceful peace. There is no movement except the wind that flows through the bare landscape, which means we are grabbed by a lonely, icy isolation.
The silence is spooky – an almost deadly silence that envelops the senses. It is not the playful winter of childhood, filled with laughter and wonder. No, this is something much darker. There is a gloom, but it forces us to get stuck, to absorb his silent abandonment. Although we do not want to freeze in this silence, the soft and innocent beauty of the snow keeps us trapped. It invites us to his solemn embrace, where the deadly loneliness prevails.
But in the fearful splendor of all this, we recognize the value of this silence. It is a silence to be cherished, a peace to enjoy deep inside. This is the ultimate peace that promises us in death – something to not be feared, but embraced. Shelley masterly conveys this eternal silence and reminds us that, although it follows us, there is a profound serenity to indicate. Through a bald, frozen lens he paints a world covered with chill, such as a spooky presence that always waits.
Shelley’s passion is clear from the very first rules. He is a poet who allows the elements to speak for themselves instead of speaking to them. In The cold earth slept belowAs in many of his works, he reveals the soul of nature. He arouses a hunger in us, a feeling of something new that is born. He encourages us to see the world through his eyes, to experience the miracle of the imagination next to him. Every time we deal with his poetry, we come across a new aspect of his soul, a new perspective that waits to be discovered.
But we are not completely alone in this frozen landscape. Shelley introduces us to a love that has been lost through death, yet kept in the most moving form. This frozen love is beautifully illustrated in the lines:
‘The Moon made your lips pale, loved,
The wind made your bosom chill,
The night threw on your sweet head
Are frozen dew, and you lye
With the bitter breath of the naked air. ‘
Death has claimed that she left pale and cold behind, only embraced by the bitter kilometer of the night. But even in this frozen state, love and beauty remain. The words of Shelley are filled with tenderness, which retain grace and affection that once flourished in life. Although the time has stopped for his beloved, the heart of the poet keeps her beauty in him.
Percy Shelley remains one of the most iconic poets of the Gothic romantic period – a passionate and youthful figure whose heart and soul are deeply interwoven with nature. His poetry is raw and unrestrained and offers readers a direct bond with his experience of the world. He does not impose meaning to us or leads us with reins of language. Instead, he invites us to see nature as he does, to rediscover his mysteries through his eyes. Each of his poems becomes a unique and deeply personal experience.
The cold earth slept below is a stunning example of gothic poetry, full of the characteristics of the genre – love arrested in bloom, death, creepy landscapes and dark, suggestive images. These themes of love, death, the supernatural and the spooky beauty of nature are what turns out to me to gothic literature. While Shelley cherished nature and life, I cherish this poem as a timeless expression of sadness and splendor.
Fun fact: The heart of Percy Shelley refused to burn famous during his cremation. His wife, Mary Shelley, kept it for the rest of her life.
I know that this fact is often repeated, but I don’t care – I love it.
What do you think of Shelley’s display of winter and death in the cold earth. Let us know in the comments!
