Divinity, Humanity, and Natural Imagery in "Mont Blanc" Marine Bruno College

A meditative poem, “Mont Blanc” begins with Shelley inspecting the mountain and the sublime attained by such power. The unique perspective weaves environmentalism and romanticism and concludes the sublime’s impact and the power of nature. Through a first-person poetic persona in five parts, the poem addresses Mont Blanc and its everlasting nature. The first part ponders the feeble human thought when compared to the grandeur of the peaks. The second part’s imagery focuses on the small details of the mountain, which come together into the sublimity of Mont Blanc. The immensity of the mountain incites an incomprehensible feeling within the narrator, the feeling of awe. Human nature is to resort to mythology or God, but the narrator appreciates that nature’s power is much higher than the one “given” to Gods. The poem tackles the immortality of nature and Mont Blanc’s immortality, as it will remain long after him and the rest of humanity. The movement in the poem parallels the movement in the eternal nature of the mountain; the flow of the lines and the language equate the flow of the river. The solitude felt when facing the spirit of nature in the sublime is touched in the last stanza; the narrator gives the mountain a final look...