The Cold Earth Slept Below

• Context

  • Shelley is thought to have written this poem about his late wife Harriet, who allegedly took her own life while pregnant with their child (after Shelley left her).
  • Poem includes Gothic imagery and references to the sublime throughout.
• Themes

  • Fear of death and imagining the death of Harriet.
  • Proto-existentialism: death as inevitable; lack of meaning in death, death as an inescapable mechanism.
  • Sublime, the power of nature but referring to it in a darker light.
  • Weakness of the 'free love' philosophy.
  • Disillusion with the natural world because it is here that Shelley's ex wife ended up dying.
• Summary

  Poem begins with the speaker describing a walk he took on a cold night, with everything seeming devoid of life. The moon is going down, increasing the darkness with each passing second. The speaker is drawn to a light in a bog or swamp, it turns out to be the glare from his dead lover's eyes.
• Title

  • The nature seems distant and uncaring, "cold" winter connotes loneliness.
  • "earth" is personified with Gothic connotations of burial and the sublime.
  • "below" may be a reference to the Greek underworld or Hell, unable to escape from death. Linking to the Christian belief that those who commit suicide will go to Hell and cannot be buried on holy ground.
• Structure

  • Four sextrains.
  • Rhyme scheme disintegrates as the poem progresses, mimics the theme of decay.
  • The rhyme appears when the speaker revels about loss.
  • Inconsistent rhyme conveys the uncontrollable nature of thoughts.
• "The cold earth slept below."

  • Personification of nature and the elements of nature.
  • Prepositions of "below," "above" and "all around" show a sense of entrapment, suggesting the speaker is trapped in grief.
  • Contrast of "above" and "below" link to Heaven and Hell.
  • Theme of death throughout first stanza, link to Christian 'Memento Mori.'
  • Frequent 'o' sounds reflect grief and mourning.
  • Semantic field of cold weather, winter.
• "Beneath the sinking moon."

  • "sinking" = the moon is associated with femininity, perhaps a reference to Harriet's drowning.
  • May also be a reference to Shelley's guilt in leaving Harriet for Mary, possibly playing a part in her suicide.
  • The only source of light in the darkness is fleeing by the second, conveying fading hope and optimism.
• "The wintry hedge was black, // The green grass was not seen."

  • Colour imagery of "black" connoting evil and danger, which goes against typical positive Romantic ideas of the sublime through imagery of decay.
  • Suggests nature is unpleasant and a place of destitution.
  • "green grass was not seen" shows nothing grows in winter, highlights how the speaker feels unable to move on and grow as a person.
• "The birds did rest on the bare thorn's breast."

  • Plosive 'b' sounds suggest a sense of anger and blame towards the mother for the death of the unborn child, implied by the "thorns."
  • Percy doesn't seem to acknowledge his role in the suicide of his late wife.
  • Birds "resting" may be interpreted as an allegorical description for the unborn child's death, with "birds" typically being associated with innocence and child-like purity.
• "Thine eyes glowed in the glare // Of the moon's dying light."

  • Apostrophe, direct address shifts the focus from nature to Shelley's late wife.
  • "dying light" may symbolise the light leaving Harriet's body, Gothic imagery. Also suggests a loss of hope through oxymoronic language.
  • "moon" associated with femininity, lunacy, darkness, secrecy, evil.
  • "glowed" contrasts the darkness of the previous stanzas, reflects a positive, feminine image of the moon suggesting that she holds a special place in Shelley's heart.
• "Fen-fire's beam."

  • A will-o'-the-wisp, an atmospheric ghost light seen by travellers at night. In folklore these are said to send travellers off the correct path, leading them to their deaths.
• "yellowed the strings of thy raven hair."

  • "yellowed" describes Harriet's hair as the "moon" and the other elements of nature have corrupted it, caused it to decay.
  • Just as she physically decays, she also decays morally in the speaker's eyes due to killing their unborn child through her suicide.
  • "raven hair" is associated with beauty, but "raven" itself links to the superstition of evil and death.
• "The moon made thy lips pale, beloved -"

  • "moon made" shows the power of nature as a destructive force.
  • "pale" conveys imagery of illness and death.
  • "beloved" and "dear" is intimate, endearing language which suggests a sense of deep care and affection.
  • Murmuring alliteration recreates the sound of the voices calling Harriet to her death, linking to the idea of the "moon" causing lunacy.
  • Caesura may suggest Harriet's life was cut short, or the speaker's reluctant attitude to believing the truth behind her death, still directly addressing her as if she were alive.
• "Where the bitter breath of the naked sky // Might visit thee at will."

  • Stanza 4 presents the self-denial of the speaker, he attempts to convey that nature led to the decay/death of his late wife, rather than his own impulsive actions.
  • Plosives of "bitter breath" suggest that her death was tainted, linking to the Church's view of suicide as highly sinful.
  • "naked sky" seems sexualised, almost as if death were embracing her.
  • The sky is both physically and figuratively bare, suggesting a lack of meaning and spiritual element.