Shelley, "The Triumph of Life"
synopsis
1-40. Introduction: narrator, his untold personal crisis, the dream Vision
41-175. The visionary triumphal pageant
41 sees stream of people
54 each deficient, limited, obsessed
67 they don't attend to nature
77 sees icy glaring light approach, chariot bearing hooded figure of Life
94 chariot is led by blindfolded Janus figure
110 attended by crowd of a million, like Roman triumph
128 except for the sacred few who flee from the chariot
137 wild dancing, until
159 they fall and the chariot passes over them
164 old men and women left behind, sink to corruption176-295. Rousseau identifies figures, warns against inaction
176 saddened, notices an old root is alive; Rousseau in state of nature
188 Rousseau to tell story of procession
200 his own failure to avoid corruption
208 on those chained to the car: the wise and great who fail to know truth
215 Napoleon
235 other rulers: anarchs, demagogue, sage
254 Plato
269 Bacon
274 Classical bards, first Christian emperors, etc.
292 who ruled only to destroy296-543. Rousseau's own story in allegories
300 Rousseau begins to speak of his own plight
305 narrator should turn from spectator to actor
308 Rousseau tells his story
316 the grove of forgetfulness
331 into which he was born
352 shape: the bright but perhaps deadly light of knowing
385 whose dance effaces human thought (memory of childhood)
398 Rousseau asks where he has come from
404 he drinks from the cup of knowledge
411 given a new vision, the shape fades, and his past with it
434 he sees the chariot advancing with its captive crowd
460 Rousseau swept on with it
480 the figures in the procession shed their shadows, etc.
500 death resumes the power of monarchs
518 he sees the aging of youth and beauty
526 from each falls numerous shadows or masks544-548. What is Life? -- fragment
Document created November 22nd 2003