The Sacred Immorality of Keats’ Political Spirit in Shelley’s Adonais

In the Romantic period, the ideological conflicts between the conservative and the liberal poets become greatly complicated after the failure of the French Revolution. The liberal poets like Shelley strongly propose that they have the change the society more idealistically by means of their poems. Shelley might acknowledge that in reality it is extremely difficult to satisfy his idealistic aspiration. Adonais is the poem which Shelley’s burgeoning aspirations for the political power is deeply embedded in, though it is well known as a pastoral elegy for Keats’s tragic death. He subconsciously disguises his sense of political power by questioning Keats’s death in Adonais. In spite of Keats’s physical death in reality, Shelley symbolically portrays the tragic death as a political triumph in Adonais, which means the realization of idealized revolt. In addition, Shelley’s aggressive and eternal desire for taking over the political power is also reflected in Adonais. Especially, Shelley liberally treats his Adonais as a consciously exposed manifestation of realistic antipathy or a confirmation of discreditable orthodox by clinging to his Utopia. The Utopia that Shelley in Adonais aspires for can be said to be what he wishes to realize politically as a poet of revolution. Though Shelley’s political aim was not realized in the reality, his political aspiration for the Utopia is fulfilled in his imaginative poem.