Changing of the Guard
One of the initial themes that Shelley examines in this short poem is the short-lived nature of literary heroism. He admits that Wordsworth is an iconic figure in the opening words by referring to him as “poet of nature.” But his true goal is illuminated in the fact that he uses just one line to list the thematic composition of Wordsworth’s most respected works: youth, love and friendship. Then the zinger: “These common woes I feel.” In one sweetly fell swoop, Shelley serves to undercut the high prestige enjoyed by Wordsworth by suggesting he, too, writes about those things and, perhaps, is writing about them at a higher level now than is Wordsworth. Shelley foreshadows the end of the poem here by offering himself as the logical inheritor of the mantle of “poet of nature.”
Eulogy for a Poet Past His Prime
The middle section of the poem is a brilliant display of Shelley’s masterful use of language. He situates Wordsworth as the reigning king of his time by comparing him to a bright star, a solid fortress and a lion whose voice was enjoyed by the multitudes. But with judicious word choice, Shelley then recasts Wordsworth as a lonely star whose light shone in the past, a fortress constructed of rocks subject to weakening and crumbling, a man roaring to crowds suffering blindness. He both builds up Wordsworth as a great figure and subsequently tears him down by the admonition that he was great—in the past.
Loss and Grief
Wordsworth is one of the great poets of grief and loss. Here, Shelley takes one of Wordsworth's major themes and turns it against him, so to speak. This doesn't mean, however, that Shelley's expression of loss and grief here isn't sincere; it certainly is. One of the surprises of the conclusion of the poem is precisely the strength with which the feeling of loss is expressed. For Shelley, it is as if Wordsworth has died. The almost paradoxical formulation of this comes from the fact that the loss wouldn't feel profound enough to evoke death as a metaphor if it weren't for the strength of the feeling that Shelley felt for the poet that Wordsworth previously was.
Liberty
The word "liberty" took on a very precise political connotation in the aftermath of the French Revolution, the rallying cry of which was "liberty, equality, brotherhood" (in French "liberté, égalité, fraternité"). For Shelley, liberty stood for the overthrow of all forms of oppression, the main ones being the monarchy, the aristocracy, and the Anglican Church. It meant that the people would govern themselves in the form of a democratic republic. It also meant freedom from the mental slavery that Shelley believed was imposed on people by the falsehoods of Christianity.
Literary Influence
A significant part of the poem is devoted to the expression, through elaborate metaphor, of the literary influence that Wordsworth exerted over the young Shelley. Hence, Wordsworth is "a lone star" guiding the solitary and fragile younger poet like "some frail bark" through a dark and difficult world ("winter's midnight roar"); or Wordsworth is like "a rock-built refuge" by which the poet can escape "the blind and battling multitude." His influence came both through the expression of the common experiences of humanity—"Childhood and youth, friendship and love's first glow"—but also because his poems were "consecrate to truth and liberty." He also admired Wordsworth's "honored poverty," that is, the fact that Wordsworth devoted himself to his art rather than pursuing a career that would bring him more worldly success.
Nature
Nature was a very important concept for the Romantics, following after Enlightenment thought in which Nature had come to replace God at the center of the universe. For many Romantics, God was no longer a separate, personal being that controlled nature from above, but merely the force or energy of the universe itself. Wordsworth and Coleridge, in their youth, were much influenced by Baruch Spinoza, a Spanish philosopher and deist, for whom God and Nature were one and the same. Wordsworth wrote much about Nature and its importance to the development of human sensibility and morality. For Shelley, an atheist, such poetry was a powerful testament to the inherent goodness of Nature and hence provided support for the view that a moral life didn't require religious belief.
