Reading Order
AdonaisAdonais Reading Order
Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats (1821) by Percy Bysshe Shelley is the greatest English pastoral elegy since Milton's Lycidas — a fifty-five stanza poem in Spenserian stanzas mourning the death of Keats (who died in Rome in February 1821) and asserting that his poetry, and by extension all great poetry, partakes of an immortal beauty that transcends death. Shelley, who had met Keats only briefly and was not a close friend, was inspired to write the elegy by his conviction that Keats had been killed by the harsh reviews of 'Endymion' in the Quarterly Review and Blackwood's Magazine (a contemporary myth that Shelley believed and Byron mocked: 'Who killed John Keats? / Says the Quarterly so savage and so Tartarly'). The poem opens in the pastoral convention (the mourning of shepherds, the procession of mourners, the question of why the Muses did not protect their votary), then moves to an assertion that Adonais/Keats has not died but has become part of the immortal One — the Platonic absolute beauty of which all beautiful things are temporary reflections. The final stanzas are among the most famous and most debated in English Romantic poetry: 'The One remains, the many change and pass; / Heaven's light forever shines, Earth's shadows fly.' Shelley himself died the following year, drowning in the Gulf of Spezia.
Where to start
Adonais (1821) — the Norton Critical Edition of Shelley's Poetry and Prose includes it with essential notes; the Penguin Classics Selected Poems of Shelley edited by Timothy Webb (1977; revised 2009) is also excellent. Read 'Lycidas' by Milton first — Adonais is a conscious response to the pastoral elegy tradition that Lycidas defines, and knowing Lycidas makes every gesture in Adonais more precise.
Complete Adonais Book List
- 1Buy
Shelley: Selected Poems (Penguin Classics)
Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Timothy Webb)·2009·The best annotated single-volume Shelley for general readers — includes Adonais, Prometheus Unbound, and the major lyrics; Webb's notes are the most accessible identification of classical and Miltonic sources. - 2Buy
Lycidas
John Milton·1637·The pastoral elegy that Adonais is in direct dialogue with — Shelley knew Lycidas intimately and structured Adonais as a response to and development of it; reading Lycidas first makes Adonais's formal choices completely legible. - 3Buy
In Memoriam A.H.H.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson·1850·The Victorian elegy that inherits Adonais's tradition — where Shelley grieves in the pastoral mode and resolves into Platonic transcendence, Tennyson grieves for a specific friend over a decade and resolves into Victorian faith; the two poems together define the elegy tradition. - 4Buy
The Odes of John Keats
John Keats·1819·The poems Shelley was mourning — reading the Odes that Shelley considered the apex of English poetry alongside the elegy he wrote for their author gives Adonais its full emotional and critical context. - 5Buy
The Elegies of Tibullus
Tibullus (trans. Guy Lee)·1982·The Roman elegiac tradition that underlies the pastoral elegy form Shelley uses — reading Tibullus alongside Adonais traces the line from Roman elegy through Milton to Shelley; useful for readers who want to understand the full classical context.
Adonais — Frequently Asked Questions
What is Adonais by Shelley about?
Adonais (1821) by Percy Bysshe Shelley is an elegy for John Keats, who died of tuberculosis in Rome in February 1821. Shelley believed (incorrectly, but passionately) that Keats had been killed by the harsh reviews of his early poetry in the Quarterly Review and Blackwood's Magazine. The poem follows the pastoral elegy convention (mourning shepherds, a procession of mourners, the question of why the Muses did not protect their votary) before asserting that Keats has not died but has become part of the immortal 'One' — the Platonic absolute beauty of which all beautiful things are temporary expressions. The poem ends with one of the most famous conclusions in English Romantic poetry.
Was Keats really killed by bad reviews, as Shelley believed?
No — Keats died of tuberculosis at 25, and the harsh reviews of 'Endymion' (1818) in the Quarterly Review and Blackwood's Magazine, though genuinely cruel, did not kill him. Keats himself was relatively equanimous about the reviews, writing to a friend 'These things I shall have no care for.' The myth that 'Who killed John Keats? / The Quarterly, so savage and Tartarly' (Byron's comic version) was largely Shelley's creation in Adonais. Keats's friends knew better: Byron mocked the idea, and Keats's letters show a man who was demoralized by the reviews but understood they were not the source of his fatal illness. Shelley needed a villain for the elegy's conventional narrative of the innocent poet destroyed by hostile forces, and the reviewers were useful.
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