Shelly's "A Lament" is a poem of grief for the
loss of life's prime. As such, the most powerful quotes would be the portions that
elucidate the theme, the speaker's feelings, and the affects of the loss. Therefore, one
of the first quotes to consider is:
readability="5">
When will return the glory of your
prime?
This line delineates
the subject of the poem and makes it clear that "On whose last steps I climb" refers not
to Time's final steps, as in the last and final steps, but to recent steps, as in
recently taken, because he has stood there before. This quote is powerful because it is
here that you realize the speaker is lamenting his lost prime of life, his youth, which
encompasses all the creative productivity that accompanied his
prime.
The speaker's feelings (and in this poem, many
assume the poetic speaker is Shelley himself) are elucidated in this
line:
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Trembling at that where I had stood
before;
We know he is
climbing upward on final steps. To learn now that he is trembling as he stands in a
familiar spot calls forth the force and depth of his emotion. The next stanza sheds
light on his feelings when he states that "A joy has taken flight." Both of these are
powerful because they reveal the inner psychology of the speaker. This is also true of
the following:
readability="6">
Move my faint heart with grief, but with
delight
No more
The
twice repeated refrain, "No more -Oh, never more!" might arguably be called the most
powerful because the refrain adds the quality of a hopeless and final lament over an
irretrievable loss:
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When will return the glory of your
prime?
No more -Oh, never
more!
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