The Question: Shelley

• the question is a little bit more complex and a little bit more interesting than three Shelley poems
• the speaker describes a dream
• the poem is in iambic pentameter
• the poem has the same tendency of other Shelley poems to have an ABAB CCDD rhyme scheme
• the poem seems quite reminiscent of Wordsworth


  Even the word 'wonder' is used
• the poem deliberately evokes earlier romantics like Wordsworth
• the poem has a barrage of senses - smells, sounds, sights
• the poem has a mixture of formal, controlled language and a sense of straining to get out of it
• the poem has romantic elements like nature being maternal
• the poem ends with the idea of a dream, something that is just out of reach
• Flowers mentioned in the poem


  • Wind flowers
  • Violets
  • Daisies
  • Oxlips
  • Bluebells
  • Eglantine
  • Cowbind
  • Hawthorn
  • Cherry blossoms
  • White cups
  • Roses
  • Serpentine
  • Flag flowers
  • Water lilies
  • Bulrushes
  • Reeds
• the poem has a slightly frantic nature, straining against the gentle iambic pentameter
• the poem has a double meaning to the word 'visionary' - both in the sense of showing how to live, and in the sense of being a dream vision
• the poem has irony in the last stanza, where the speaker tries to recreate the beauty of nature in a nosegay but fails, as the natural mingling of colours is lost
• the poem suggests the speaker is a flawed poet, unable to fully capture the beauty of nature in words
• the final question of the poem is not just about passing on the romantic torch, but also about the speaker's ability to achieve in his poetry what he wants to achieve