Queen Man - Percy Shelley

As I pointed out last time I wrote about poetry, I'm a little out of practice. I can read and write about movies, poetry, and work stuff with no problem. Poetry, I figured it better to go with something super familiar after my Shakespeare foray. Thus Queen Mab by Percy Shelley, whom I once considered myself a disciple of. Now, not so much.

Mab is a long, narrative poem published in 1816. The poem tells the story of a young woman named Ianthe who falls asleep and is taken on a journey by the fairy queen Mab. Mab shows Ianthe a series of visions that reveal the injustices and inequalities of human society, and the need for a new, more just social order.

In the course of her journey, Ianthe witnesses the suffering of the poor and oppressed, the cruelty of rulers and priests, and the ravages of war. She also sees visions of a more ideal society, in which reason and science have replaced superstition and religion. In such a society, human beings live in harmony with nature. I can get on board with that. 

In undergrad I wrote a Marxist critique of the poem. I got a B+, which annoyed me. I thought it was an A paper. The idea behind Marxist literary criticism is that literature reflects the social and economic conditions of the time it was written. Thus my Marxist critique of the poem focused on how it reflects and critiques the economic and social conditions of Shelley's time. The professor's note was that this couldn't be a Marxist text because it was before Marx. Also, Marxism requires violent revolt. You can still read a text through a Marxist lens, I argued, but the professor wasn't having it and is infinitely smarter than me so I'd take what I'm saying for what you will. 

Looking back at the essay, I should have been happy with the B+. As most people know, especially ones that write for a living—gonna borrow, i.e. thieve, something Pynchon said—it is a huge blow to the ego to read over anything you wrote 20 years ago, even cancelled checks. The reaction, for me and Pynchon at least, was oh my God.

My argument still holds up, just hard to read. Also, I had two typos, a frequent issue for me. I had the word “barley” instead of “barely” and, even more horrifying, “veal” instead of “zeal.” Oh my God, plus physical symptoms at this point. 

Anyway, in the paper, I mostly analyzed the poem's portrayal of power and inequality which requires a little historical context. During Shelley's time, England was experiencing rapid industrialization and urbanization. This was accompanied by growing economic inequality and social unrest. In Queen Mab, Shelley depicts a world in which the powerful oppress and exploit the poor and working classes. ound familiar? Ianthe, the poem's protagonist, is a symbol of this oppression, as she is confined to a life of poverty and servitude while the wealthy and powerful live lives of luxury and excess.

I paid particular attention to the poem's treatment of religion. Things like ““What palpable deceit!--but for thy aid,/Religion! but for thee, prolific fiend,/Who peoplest earth with demons, hell with men,/And heaven with slaves!/Thou taintest all thou lookest upon!” (VI.68-72). Shelley was a radical atheist who believed that religion was used by the ruling classes to control and oppress the masses. Shelley criticizes religion as a tool of oppression and calls for its abolition. Speaking to the choir here. 

Something that stuck out for me this reading was the role of the artist in Shelley's vision of a better world. In the poem, he sees the poet as a revolutionary figure who can help bring about social and economic change. The poem itself is a call to action, urging readers to join in the struggle for a better world. Shelley believed that art could be a powerful force for social change, which he lays out in the poem.

According to Shelley, the imagination is the ultimate creative force, and it has the power to transcend the limitations of reality and envision a more perfect world. Art, then, is not just an expression of the human experience, but a means of transforming it. See VIII. 134-144, which reads thus: 

'But chief, ambiguous Man, he that can know
More misery, and dream more joy than all;
Whose keen sensations thrill within his breast
To mingle with a loftier instinct there,
Lending their power to pleasure and to pain,
Yet raising, sharpening, and refining each;
Who stands amid the ever-varying world,
The burthen or the glory of the earth;
He chief perceives the change, his being notes
The gradual renovation, and defines
Each movement of its progress on his mind.

By inspiring the imagination and encouraging people to envision new possibilities, art had the power to shape the course of human history. Shelley believed that the poet had a moral obligation to use the imagination to inspire others and promote social and political progress.

Overall, Queen Mab would focus on the poem's critique of power and inequality, its rejection of religion as a tool of oppression, and its celebration of art as a means of social change. Shelley's doctrine of Necessity comes into play here, “Necessity! thou mother of the world!” (VII. 198), something he goes into detail on in his essay “A Defense of Poetry.” The doctrine posits that the role of the poet is to advocate for social and political change by appealing to the necessity of imagination and the imagination's ability to inspire and create new possibilities. This is borrowed and expounded upon from Enlightenment philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Mary Wollstonecraft (mother of his wife, the author of Frankenstein, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley). However, in pure Romantic fashion, he prioritize imagination over reason.