Identify the poem from which this
quote comes: “Our sweetest songs are those that tell of
saddest thought.”
760:
Why was Shelley expelled from
Oxford?
805:
Why, according to Shelley, has he
chosen to eliminate the reconciliation between Prometheus
and Jupiter?
806:
How, according to Shelley, does
Prometheus compare to Satan?
808:
Explain Prometheus's situation at the beginning of the
poem.
814:
Why does Prometheus summon the phantom of Jupiter?
815:
Explain: "O'er all things but thyself
I gave thee power, / And my own will" (1.273-74).
825:
How, according to Panthea, has Jesus's name become a curse?
Explain lines 1.625-28.
831:
Explain the exchange between Asia and Demogorgon.
842:
Explain lines 3.4.193-204.
Other Discussion Questions: 761:
Explain the Platonic conception of the two worlds.
What does skeptical idealism involve?
804-5:
How, according to the editors, is Shelley's portrayal of
revolution in Prometheus Unbound different from his
presentation of it in his earlier works such as Queen Mab?
806:
Explain: "The imagery which I have
employed will be found in many instances to
have been drawn from the operations of the
human mind, or from those external actions by
which they are expressed" (806).
807:
Explain: "Poetry is a mimetic art" (807).
808:
Explain: "Didactic poetry is my abhorrence" (808).
Explain Shelley's metaphor of the seeds.
809:
Why does Prometheus pity Jupiter?
810:
What request does Prometheus make in 1.73? Why?
812:
Explain: "[T]hou art more God / Being wise and kind"
(1.144-45).
813:
Describe the two worlds that Earth identifies (See also
761).
816:
Explain Prometheus's response to the repeated curse.
818:
Why has Mercury come down to speak to Prometheus?
823-24:
Explain the Chorus's speech in 1.539-63.
826:
Why does Earth summon a chorus of spirits?
832:
Explain 2.4.47-48.
Explain: "[S]peech created thought, / Which is the measure
of the universe" (2.4.72-73).
833:
Explain: "All spirits are enslaved which serve things evil"
(2.4.110).
Explain: "[T]he deep truth is imageless" (2.4.116).
835:
Why is Panthea unable to endure the radiance of Asia's
beauty (2.5.17-18)?
837:
How is Asia's soul "an enchanted Boat" (2.5.72)?
838-39:
What is Jupiter describing in 3.1.37-44?
840:
Explain the image of the vulture and the snake (3.4.119).
What change has occurred on Earth following the fall of
Jupiter?
(from an earlier edition):
Explain this stanza:
Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and Endurance.--
These are the seals of that most firm assurance
Which bars the pit over Destruction's strength;
And if, with infirm hand, Eternity,
Mother of many acts and hours, should free
The serpent that would clasp her with his length--
These are the spells by which to reassume
An empire o'er the disentangled Doom. (4.562-69)
Explain the final stanza:
To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than Death or Night;
To defy Power which seems Omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope, till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change nor falter nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan! is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire and Victory.
(4.570-78)
