Adonais Themes
Immortality
Death has taken Adonais, the beautiful youth who represents Keats, before the poem's beginning. Bummer. It's not all doom and gloom, though. Shelley doesn't necessarily think that death is the end,...
Man and the Natural World
Rather than being the caretakers of nature, the speaker in Adonais believes that nature is part of a greater spirit that includes mankind. The elements of nature show up to mourn Adonais, and are g...
Art and Culture
Though ostensibly about the death of a character from Greek mythology, Adonais is actually an elegy for a young poet who died at the height of his career. The reason for his death? According to She...