Percy Bysshe Shelley’s quote “Death is the veil which those call life; They sleep and it is lifted” is suggesting that death’s dark veil covers all life, even in the happiest moments. Every second that is being lived is also a second closer to dying. Chances are taken at all times when exiting your home and facing the real world. Death is everywhere; waiting to carry on a new life into the after world. The two opposites are extremely contradicting, but Shelley was very interested in contradictions of life. They are everywhere in the world, and life and death is just one of the many. Human beings are on this earth to live, but they are living to die. Dying may be one of the greatest things that happen in a life time, depending on religious beliefs. Shelley also mentions that sleeping lifts some things. But what things are being lifted? Burdens, hope or life? The poem doesn’t make it clear. Sleeping can either be momentarily or forever. If sleeping is supposed to represent death, then the burdens of life are being lifted and the soul is resting in peace. But if sleeping does not always mean death, it can be representing the start of a new life. Every night people go to sleep and they’re problems are lifted from them, they can rest without any worries. By the morning time it is a new day and life but also one step closer to dying. I believe that Shelley appreciates the contradictions of Life and Death because both are needed to create a natural life. Shelley seems to look a death as a beautiful and natural process. Just like the leaves die and fall from the trees every autumn, they grow back just as healthy and as beautiful as they were before. The process will continue on forever, just like humans die every day, but in death, more lives are made to complete the life cycle. Autumn is a representation of a death and a new birth. It gives an example of how both human beings and nature are so similar. Percy Shelley quoted this not to long before his death, he was ready to face life’s contradictions.
-Lauryn Hartung
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