Pastoral elegy Shelley's "Adonaïs" is a pastoral elegy written by Shelley immediately after hearing about the death of John Keats. The elegy is 495 lines long, consisting of a total of 55 Spenserian stanzas. "Adonaïs" was composed during the spring of 1821 and was eventually published in July 1821. Studying the works of many classical pastoral elegies himself, Shelley admired Milton's poetic voice and form in "Lycidas". Thus, Shelley composed "Adonaïs" specifically in the tradition of Milton's "Lycidas" Introduced to each other by their mutual friend Leigh Hunt in late 1816, Shelley and Keats often exchanged letters of advice about their works
Marienbad Elegy Marienbad Elegy The "Marienbad Elegy" is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It is named after the spa town of Marienbad (now Mariánské Lázně) where Goethe, 73 years old, spent the summer of 1821. There he fell in love with the 17-year-old Ulrike von Levetzow. Goethe returned to Marienbad in the summer of of 1823 to celebrate his birthday. On that occasion, he asked Ulrike, via his friend, Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, to marry him. She declined. This poem, considered one of Goethe's finest and most personal, reflects the devastating sadness the poet felt when his proposal