Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni

“Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni” has been categorized as an ode. An ode is defined as “[a] formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and often celebrates a person, place, thing, or idea” (“Ode.” Poetry Foundation, 2022.). Odes written specifically during the Romantic period of literature “vary in stanza form” and “often address an intense emotion at the onset of a personal crisis […] or celebrate an object or image that leads to revelation” (“Ode.”). Shelley’s poem is an ode celebrating the grandeur of Mont Blanc and developing a revelation about the interrelation of all things in the universe. The poem is a lyric in that it depicts the thoughts and feelings of the speaker. The poem consists of five individual stanzas labeled with their respective number. The first stanza has 11 lines, the second has 37 lines, the third has 35 lines, the fourth has 43 lines, and the fifth has 18 lines. While there is no consistent length for each stanza, they follow a pattern of continuously increasing in size until the fifth stanza, which decreases in size. Since the poem’s focus is a mountain, the structure of the poem mirrors its subject. The poem “climbs” in stanza length just as the speaker makes their way through Mont Blanc’s landscape with their description.

The poem does not have a set rhyme scheme. There are some lines that rhyme, though there is no clear category in which the rhyme consistently falls (masculine versus feminine rhyme, couplets versus alternating rhyme, etc.). For example, Lines 4 and 5 feature a masculine rhyme, or a rhyme of the final stressed syllables, with “springs” and brings.” Then, Lines 6 and 8 have masculine rhyme again with “own” and “lone.” This time, the rhyme scheme is not in couplet form but alternating rhyme. In the second section, feminine rhyme, or rhyming of stressed syllables followed by unstressed syllables, can be found in Line 20 with “clinging” and in Line 23 with “swinging.” This time the rhyme occurs farther apart. In addition to these inconsistent rhymes, Shelley also employs slant, or near, rhyme. These are lines that almost rhyme but not quite. One occurrence of this slant rhyme is with “ever” and “river” in Lines 9 and 10, respectively. These shifting rhymes and patterns mirror the universal interconnection that is a major theme of Shelley’s poem. It also keeps the reader guessing; just as the speaker cannot know the full extent of Mont Blanc and its splendor, the reader cannot predict what will come in the poem.

While there is no set rhyme scheme in Shelley’s poem, there is a set meter, or a set pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Shelley writes “Mont Blanc” in iambic pentameter. In this particular pattern, there is a repeated poetic foot, or unit, of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. This particular unit is known as an iamb. Pentameter indicates that there are five of these units. This pattern is evident in the first two lines of the poem: The everlasting universe of things / Flows through the mind, and rolls its rapid waves.” While the inconsistent rhyme scheme creates unpredictability, the iambic pentameter pattern lends predictability. By using this metrical pattern, Shelley adds his poem to a long list of classical works that have likewise utilized this meter. The set pattern acts as a counterbalance to the inconsistent rhyme, another binary pair to add to Shelley’s long list.