Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1817

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Historical Context

Percy wrote “Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni” while he traveled through the area with his wife, Mary Shelley, and her stepsister Jane “Clair” Clairmont during July and/or August of 1816. They had all traveled to Geneva to meet with Lord Byron. By this point, Shelley had experienced much turmoil in his personal life. He had left his first wife, Harriet Westbook to elope with Mary Godwin. Mary became estranged from her father as a result, and the two lovers lost their first child, a baby girl. Until he inherited wealth from his grandfather, Shelley remained in financial distress, running from lenders. These life experiences of loss, death, and suffering inform this particular poem as the speaker muses on the passage from life to death. The pessimistic visions of the wasteland located atop Mont Blanc and the destruction of human civilization by the oncoming glaciers may reflect the hopelessness and despair Shelley at times felt. The grandeur of Mont Blanc the speaker expresses and the interconnection between all things may likewise be Shelley’s attempt to feel as though he is a part of something bigger given the rejection he and Mary experienced from most of their family and friends.

Apart from his personal histories that may have informed the poem’s content, there are other world occurrences that may have factored into its production as well. At the same time the Shelleys and Clairmont were in Geneva and visiting Mont Blanc, a natural disaster likewise affected Europe as a result of the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in April of 1815: “In the summer of 1816, cold, wet conditions in central and Western Europe and even North America led to crop failure, the death of livestock and famine” (Strickland, Ashley. “Why a volcanic eruption caused a ‘year without a summer’ in 1816.” CNN, 2019.). This blight parallels the more negative and destructive side of nature expressed in “Mont Blanc.” The speaker directly refers to what this area experienced during the summer of 1816 when they note, “The torpor of the year when feeble dreams / Visit the hidden buds” (Lines 88-89). However, as with everything in nature, the speaker acknowledges how this period of inactivity and famine will “revolve, subside, and swell” (Line 95). According to the cycle of life, the current famine will eventually give way to a bountiful harvest.

Literary Context

The Romantic Period of British literature was a time of literary introspection and experimentation. The writers of this particular period did not call or consider themselves “Romantics,” rather this term was administered to them by the Victorians. Academics in the 1900s attributed various shared traits to this collection of writers. These Romantic authors were grouped into “schools,” includeing the “Lake School,” the “Cockney School,” and the “Satanic School.” Writers of this literary period used the various revolutions and radical social change taking place around them, whether in the form of the Industrial Revolution, the American Revolution, or the French Revolution, to inspire their work. Common attributes of Romantic includeinclude a focus on the common/rustic man, a focus on the individual, a preoccupation with emotional/mental/imaginative states, an interest in the supernatural, and a devotion to writing about the natural world. Though a good portion of writers from the Romantic Period utilize a number of these themes in their writing, that isn’t to say all of them did. The Romantic period likewise sought to question who exactly can be regarded as a poet and for whom poetry is written (The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Edited by Stephen Greenblatt, vol. D, 8th ed., W.W. Norton & Company, 2005). Shelley’s “Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni” fits within the traits attributed to the Romantic period writers and their works. One of the main focal points of his poem is how the human mind perceives nature and mines inspiration from its wonders. In addition to focusing on mental states, the speaker questions the power of the human imagination as well as the effectiveness of human innovation when faced with the absolute power of nature.