Summary

In the opening of the poem, Shelley establishes a bilateral connection between the human mind and the universe: “The everlasting universe of things / Flows through the mind, and rolls its rapid waves” (1-2). The mental universe is as mysterious as physical according to this early exposition, which describes the flow of water in the natural world as a reflective process akin to thought. The aural echo of waterflow is twinned with the echo of consciousness.

The second section of the poem addresses the “Ravine of Arve” (2) in the Chamonix valley of France. It sets the scene of the poet staring into the mysterious and timeless abyss of the ravine. The natural setting depicts storminess and tumult on a vast scale, causing the poet to contemplate his own meagre place as beholder of such mysterious grandeur. In this encounter the poet intuits a...