Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Cloud

Mark Sandy (University of Durham)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.06: English Writing and Culture of the Romantic Period, 1789-1837.
Vol. editors: Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Daniel Robinson (Widener University), Emily Rohrbach (University of Durham)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1820

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Shelley published “The Cloud” in the

Prometheus Unbound

volume, appearing in July 1820; he had probably composed the lyric in the early months of that same year. Shelley's lyric was poetically inspired by the opening song of the cloud nymphs (or Nepheliads) in Part II of Leigh Hunt's “The Nymphs”, who exclaim in the first-person that it is they “[w]ho bring the clouds from the great sea” (

Foliage

, 1818, p. xxxi). “The Cloud” draws on Shelley's avid scientific observations and reading, in particular Luke Howard's work on cloud classification in his

Essay on Clouds

(1803) and the hydrological speculations of Adam Walker (who lectured during Shelley's days at Seyon Academy and Eton), which were published in two volumes as

A Familiar System of Philosophy

(1799). “Water,”…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

863 words

Citation: Sandy, Mark. "The Cloud". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7303, accessed 26 November 2024.]

Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Cloud

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback