Discuss Prometheus Unbound as a lyrical drama.
Shelley is one of the supreme lyrical
poets of England. The lyrical rapture in all his works is unique. The
spontaneous utterance of his passion and emotion and the rich melody of his
poetry are an abiding contribution to English lyric poetry. He achieved an easy
flexibility of rhythm that is quite astonishing in every form of verse he wrote.
It is the lyrical intensity which is so invariably accompanied with a gift of
melody in Shelley’s love lyrics that drives Swinburne to call him, “the perfect
singing god.”
Prometheus unbound is a
wonderful combination of the lyric and the drama and here Shelley is remembered
most as a lyric poet than as a dramatist because there are more of lyric or
poetic elements in it than dramatic action. Almost all the great qualities of
lyricism--- music, intensity of emotion and passion, economy of expression, and
a subjective note can be found in Prometheus Unbound.
The dramatic element in Prometheus
unbound consists in the awful mythological story of the conflict between
Jupiter and Prometheus of which centuries ago Aeschylus produced the dramatic version
Prometheus Bound. Prometheus is suffering nailed to the rock, his heart
being eaten up by an eagle. The Furies torture him. Mercury comes for
conciliation which Prometheus rejects. The main action, however, comes in the
last part of act ii and act iii of the play when Asia penetrates into the den
of Demogorgon followed by the fall of Jupiter with happiness restored
everywhere.
