ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Shelley had studied and translated classical elegies. The title of the poem is modelled on ancient works, such as Achilleis (a poem about Achilles), an epic poem by the 1st-century AD Roman poet Statius, and refers to the untimely death of the Greek Adonis, a god of fertility.

Detailed explanation-2: -Adonais, pastoral elegy by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written and published in 1821 to commemorate the death of his friend and fellow poet John Keats earlier that year.

Detailed explanation-3: -In the poem, Shelley’s speaker laments the passing of Adonais, calling the forces of nature, the gods of Greek and Roman mythology, and the great figures of history to share in the speaker’s sorrow. He condemns those he blames for Adonais’ death, with Shelley alluding to the critics who had disparaged Keats’ work.

Detailed explanation-4: -Keats’s fate and fame will never be forgotten. Shelley laments the death of Keats to whom he gives the name of Adonais. Shelley wanted by this name to point out the connection of his poem with the Greek poet Bion’s famous “Lament of Aphrodite For Adonais”. He changed the form of the word “Adonis” to “Adonais”.