Reading Response #3

In Joan Reiss Wry's "Panoptic Perspectives in Shelley's Mont Blanc: Collapsed Distance and the Alpine Sublime" describes and breaks down in great detail about this appealing poem. At the beginning, it starts with what most of the romantic poets share in common, Edmund Burke's requisite passion for astonishment. Having great sublime while thinking to the power of human reason. Although when Shelley wrote Mont Blanc, his astonishment hold a diverse experience compare to his contemporaries and the romantic poets. The reason was due to the fact that generally the romantic poets stood at a distance from the natural object that inspired them while trying to understand what it contained. Contrast to that, Percy Shelley offers a close range perspective of Mont Blanc, by imaginatively placing himself there. Which results to Shelley having striking dark and disorienting to the surface features, the power of the human mind. In the first stanza it "presents an ambiguous scene of fluid movement" using words like flow, roll, and rapid. That later revels in the second stanza, this scene is taking place at the Arve River. Demonstrating what Shelley sees up close. But he later acknowledges, no matter how close we get, it extends even further. Once the second stanza begins, Shelley gives you a wider view to provide the mountain features, but "still maintaining the effect of a collapsed distance." Doing this, gives the reader a glimpse on what Shelley is thinking, his creative power. Not only does it do this, it also explains how "the universe of things participates in unremitting interchange with the poet's mind." Meaning gathering everything around us and processing it through our unique minds. As Shelley decreases distance between him and Mont Blanc, he feels an threatening sublime towards the topography mountain by saying "the eagle brings some hunter's bone and the wolf tracks her there." Therefore it starts making him wonder if he is awake or just dreaming. Eventually, Shelley notices that destruction provides things in order to keep up with the cycle of life. Examples were the glaciers that move like snakes. Finally at the end of the poem, Shelley tells you what Mont Blanc represents. Mont Blanc illustrates our mind, that shows many forms and thoughts that gives meaning and existence to objects. And seeing the mountain, gets us thinking, clarifying many things. But Shelley still has doubt because there is still many unanswered closing questions; therefore his outstanding imagination balances the silence and solitude in Mont Blanc.

At the end of the article, I truly felt like I understood Shelley's Mont Blanc. Joan break down what every stanza meant and why Percy Shelley wrote that. When I first read the poem, I thought Mont Blanc represented just our thoughts. But in the article, the mountain demonstrates our mind overall. Which has many formations, thoughts that are express, and gives being. Showing that our minds are very powerful if we use them correctly, because explains many everyday things. For an example, nature. Another thing I realized about Shelley and the romantic poets, was each them think that nature holds many answers and some things in nature also acts as our minds. In both the article and Shelley's poem, Mont Blanc is a figure of our mind. Although the article was more helpful because we get to see how Shelley really thinks and why he decided to get closer to the object to get inspiration. It shows, Shelley doesn't always do everything like the other romantic poets, especially in this poem. The idea of the collapsed distance provides more details about the mountain and its true beauty. But Shelley gives a wider view of Mont Blanc as well, so we can understand more. Though something the article didn't mention were the pine trees. I thought the pine trees in the poem were helpful to distinguish us and the mountain. The pine trees in the poem meant "a symbol of the persistence in human values in the face of obstacles." Then once the poem included the "glaciers creep like snakes that watch their prey," it explained to me that we are the pine trees and we are the prey of the glaciers. If we don't use the power nature, we might get crush during a face of an obstacle. Overall the article expressed everything clearly about Percy Shelley's Mont Blanc.