The Power Of Life And Personification In The Cloud By Percy Bysshe Shelley

In the poem “The Cloud” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley exposes the power of nature and it’s relation to the human condition. Typically when we examine the concept of life, we think of our lives as being linear and sequential. However, through “The Cloud” we see how nature directly correlates to the cycle of life and the connecting themes of life, death, and rebirth. Shelley uses figurative language in a multitude of ways throughout the entirety the poem in order to entice and captivate the reader. Personification is used to breath life into the poem; the speaker in the poem is the cloud, for which the poem is aptly named. The cloud experiences a variety of emotions throughout the poem, this element of personification has a humanizing component.

The poem stanzas are formed of quatrains, and have varying meter throughout. Each stanza is traditionally end stopped, which also adds to the overall rhythm of the poem. Shelley uses punctuation heavily throughout “The Cloud,” which contributes to the melodious quality the poem has which further engages the reader. Although the poem does cover the gamut when it comes the emotions expressed within the poem, it has a largely joyous and blissful tone. In the poem, “The Cloud” the speaker discusses in depth the power and emotion that nature as a whole contains and represents. Nature is truly one of the only things in life that is immortal; it is in a constant state of transition from one season to the next. The cycle of life is never ending as it constantly perpetuates life, death and ultimately rebirth. The speaker identifies and reaffirms this theme of rebirth heavily in the final stanza, starting as a child and transitioning through the cycle of life stating, “I change, but I cannot die.” At the end of the final stanza the final four lines of prose read, I silently laugh at my own