The Rhetoric of Romanticism Paul de Man9 Wordsworth and the Victorians lude, this same face-making, totalizing power is shown at work in a process of endless differentiation correctly called perpet- ual “logic” of which it is said that ie "Could find no surface ‘where is power might sleep” (|. 164). The fae, which is the power to surface from the sea of infinite distintions in which Wwe risk to drown, can find no surface, How are we to recon- ile the meaning of face, with is promise of sense and of filial preservation, with its function as the relentless undoet ofits ‘own claim? This all too hasty reading shows that one can find, in Wordsworth’s text, lexical continuities which are perfectly co. herent despite the somewhat ominous overtones ofthe hteral predicament it invokes, the word. "hangs" isa casein point. ‘Other words, such as “sense” in Empson’s essay, lead instead to neartotal chaos. Somewhere in between, atthe interlace of these contradictory directions, words such as “face” can be sid to embody this very incompatibility. They do not master oF certainly do not resolve it, but they allow for some mode of discourse, however precarious, to take place within the ten= sion of a conflict that can longer be reduced to existential or psychological causes. The work of Wordsworth is moral or re- ligious only on the level ofa surface which i prohibits us from finding. This would become even more manifest if instead of considering such obviously figural tems as “ace” or “hangs,” we considered the syntactical and grammatical backbones of Wordsworth’ diction, words such as “even” or “but” or the ceverrecurting “not” and its many cognates. Victorian as well as contemporary Wordsworth criticism have in fact always re sponded to linguistic completes of this kind and, as 1s in evitabe, they Built their defenses against them in ethical and aesthetic terms. It would be nave to believe that we could ever face Wordsworth, a poet of sheer language, outright. But it Would be more naive sill to think we can take shelter from What he knew by means of the very evasions which this knowledge renders impossible, 6 Shelley Disfigured we digging inthe grounds for the new foundations the Broken fraginets of 2 mal ble statue were unearthed. They were sub- rite to various aniguaies, who said tha, fo fat the damage pieces would allow them to form an epinion, the statue Seemed torte that of # mutated Roman sale o,f not an allegorical figure of Death. Only one fro old nabitants guessed whose statue those fragments had composed "Thomas Hera, Barbar ofthe House of Gre Linc sevenat. the trish mantic’ major works The Trump of Life, Shey’ at poem, {Ras i wellknown, a fragment that has been unearthed, ed- ited, reconstructed, and much discussed. All this acheoloy Cal labor can be considered a response to the questions that Sriculate one ofthe tox's main structures." And what ‘sts? Whose shape is shat within the a? and why” 177-78); later repested in a more subjecvorented, second petsn mode: "Whence camest thou? and whither goest thou? How did thy course begin said, ‘and why?” 296-97) ‘ally repeated again, now inthe fist person” ‘Sew whenceoy Shelley Disigured Sagessre oon Peiechasrrlin natin ean So esas ge eas ease eomtatiarae Rt ey Sie pees aan karan oo Seder ions names Sagi /ae eames ae Si nam haa oi meate ee scare fiinceeromang eerie ies roa enue Stic mates nana accueil ofeue santas Soak ee omen Souter ae APE Shelley Disgured 9% es, mutisted, or algorzed (to use Hardy’ aleratves) ier having been stiflened, rozen, erected, or whatever one rants fo cil the particule egy of statues, fhe sats of Tent ke the status ofa statue? Yeas, one of Shelley's closest fenders and dcpe, wrote a fine poem about history and frm {alld The Statue, which f would be rewarding to readin cone Junction with The Triumph of if Bat there are more economic ‘ways to approach this text and to question the posit of “Scobishing# relationship to Shelley and to rmatcsm in {ener Afr al the link Benseen the present T and ante Exdents self dramatized inthe poem, most explicitly and At preatest length inthe encounter Between the natator and the igure designated bythe proper name Rousseau, who has Himself mach fo say about hie own predeceeor. ‘The unearthed fragments of this fragment, the discarded ear- lier versions, disclose thatthe relationship between Shelley anc Rousseau, or between Rousseau and his ancestors, underwent considerable changes as the composition of the poem pro- fressed. Consider, for instance, the passage in which the poet, Bulded at this moment by Rousseau, passes judgment upon fis contemporaries and immediate predecessors, including the ‘openly alluded to Wordsworth, with such vehemence that he Condemns them all to oblivion ® He is reproached for this by Rousseau who intervenes to assert that he himself, as well as Voltaire, would have ascended to "the fane / Where truth and its inventors sit enshrined,” if they had not been so faint- hhearted a to lack faith in their oven intellectual labor as well fs, by implication, that of their ancestors. Those encrypted Statues of Truth are identified as "Plato and his pupil” (pre- sumably Aristotle) who “Reigned from the center to the cir ‘cumference” and prepared the way for Bacon and modern sci- fence. Rousseau's and Voltate’s capitulation isnot a sheer loss however, since Rousseau has gained insight that he is able to ‘communicate in tuen to the young Shelley. Donald Reiman, the editor of The Triumph of Life. glosses the passage as fol- lows:6 Shelley Disfigured Rouaea et impress n the Pot that it wate this attude toward the past struggle of great men that led him ana Vol ‘aire to abandon their reforming zeal and succumb to hfe This the poet's contemptuous allusion 10 Wordsworth tums against him os Rousseau endesvors to show the Poet how the musake of tone Who have preceded him, especially idealist ike himsel, can sere a8 2 waming to hin: Rousseau and Volaze fll because they adopted the fontempruous etude toward Nstory thatthe poet now diplays the childs father of the man, and Shelley’s eneraion. repeesenting the full mastery of the age that dawned inthe French Revolution’ coe eam from the mistakes of that age’searer generations (those of Rousseau and Voltaire and of Wordsworth) Although this is certainly not presented a an interpretation of the ene text but only ofthis discarded passage! i eoaing ypc ofthe readings generally given of Te Thump i even when they are great deal more completed Ih the iaightionvard statement It isa dear example of the recupon ation of efaing energy by means of an increased weaeress Rousseau lacked power, but becnse he can consciously aa late the causes of his weakness in words, the energy ls pre served and recovered in the following generation Ard tht re conversion extends back tos onginaors, since the elder ot fst condemned, ae now reinstated inthe name of lt neg ative bul exemplary knowiedge: The cid father of he just as Wordsworth Tucdly said, both humbling an saving himself in the eyes of his followers This simple motion cog fake on considerable dialectics intiaey without altering te fundamental scheme. The entice debate as to whether The Triumph of Life represents ox heralds 3 movement of growth or of degradation is pat of this same genetic and histcal met aphor? The unquestioned authority of ths metaphor is uch tore important than the positive or negative valorzton a the movement it generates ‘The inal situation of Rousseatalled with Voltaire and Wordsworth in a shared failure, a8 opposed to Plat, Ane tole, and Bacon, and as opposed, by implcation, to Shell himselt—changes in later versions. In the lst avaiable tex Shelley Disgured a self frozen into place by Shelley’ accidental death, the hier- archy is quite diferent: Rousseau is now set apart quite sharply from the representatives ofthe Enlightenment (which include Voltaire next to Kant and Frederick the Great) who are con= ddemned with some of the original severity, without Rousseat, reproving him for it. No allusion to Wordsworth is inchuded at this point, though Wordsworth is certainly present in other regions of the poem. Rousseau is now classified with Plato and ‘Anstotle, but whereas these philosophers were held up a5 un- tarnished images of Truth in the earlier version, they are now fallen and, in the imagery ofthe poem, chained to the chariot ‘of Life together with "the great bards of old” (247). The rea- ‘sons for ther fall, as well as the elements in their works and intheir lives that both unite and distinguish them from Rous seau, are developed in passages that are not difficlt to inter pret from a thematic point of view. The resulting hierarchies have become more complex: we first have a class of entirely condemned historical personages, which includes representa- tives of the Enlightenment as well asthe emperors and popes ‘of Christianity (28% ff) on a distincly higher level, but nevertheless defeated, we find Rousseau, Plato, Aristotle, and Homer. As possibly exonerated from this defeat, the poem ‘mentions only Bacon, a remnant from the earlier passage who row has lost much of his function, as wel as “the sacred few” (128) who, unlike Adonas in the easier poem, had no earthly dlestny whatsoever, either because, by choice or destiny, they dled too early or because, like Christ of Socrates, they are mere fictions in the wstings of others. As for Shelley himself, his close proximity to Rousseat is now more strongly marked than in the earlier passage: the possibility of his eseape from Rous- seau’s destiny has now become problematic and depends on ‘one's reading of Rousseau’s own story, which constieutes the ‘main narrative sequence ofthe poem.* ‘Lengthy and complex as itis, Rousseau’s selinarrated history provides no answer to his true identity, although he is himeelf shown in quest of such an answer, Questions of ori gin, of direction, and of identity punctuate the text without ever8 Shelley Disgured receiving a clear answer. They always lead back to anew scene ‘of questioning which merely repeats the quest and recedes in infinite regress: the narrator asks himself " “And what is this? (472) and receives an enigmatic answer ("Life® ") from an enigmatic shape; once identified as Rousseau, the shape can indeed reveal some other names inthe pageant of history but is soon asked, by the poet, to identify itsell in a deeper Sense than by a mere name: How did thy course begin and why?’ Complying with this request, Rousseau narrates the history of his existence, also culminating in an encounter with a mysterious entity, "A shape alllight (1333) to ‘whom. in his tum, he puts the question "whence I came, and where I am, and why-"" Asan answer, he i granted a vy son ofthe same spectacle that prompted the pextnarators ‘questioning inthe ist place; we have to mage the sone ce uence of evens repeating themselves or hele, for Rows. ‘eau, and for whomever Rousseau coset question his ok a Shelley questioned him The strucare af he text snot oe Of question and answer, but ofa question whose meaning, ot {question is faced from the moment itis asked. The anwar {0 the question is another question, asking what and why one asked, and ths receding ever further fom the eign gue This movement of effacing and of forgetting becomes prom ‘ent inthe text and dispels any illusion of dialectical progress or regress. The articulation in terms of the guetons cs placed by a very differently structured process that pervades All levels ofthe sarratve and that repeats ell fe main Sequences as well sin what seem to be lateral epson finally enguls and dissolves what started out tober Mke Ass tor, Epipyhiion ox even Prometiens Untond, a gust (or ike ‘Ado, a elegy), to replace it by something que diferent for which we have no name resdlyavalable among the I mile props of iterary history Whenever this selt-receding scene occurs, the syntax and the imagery ofthe poem fe themselves nto Hot whic oe rests the process of understanding. The resistance a those sages i such that the eader soon forges the drab ste Shelley Disfgured ° uation and is left with only these unresolved riddles to haunt hhim: the text becomes the successive and cumulative exper tence ofthese tangles of meaning and of figuration. One of these tangles occurs near the end of Rousseau's naration of his en ‘counter with the “shape alight” assumed to possess the key to his destin, as one between desire and shame Suspended, 1 said “Show whence I came, and where Tam and why Pas not aay epon the pasting steam “Asie and quench thy this’ was her reply. ‘And as shut ly, sticken by the wand (Ot dewy morning's vil alchemy, “Tose; and bending at her sweet command, Touched with fan lps the cup she raised, [And siddenly my brn became a6 sand “where the fist wave had move than hall erased ‘The wack of deer on desert Labrador, Whilst the fice wll fox which they led amazed “Leaves his tamp visibly upon the shore Until he second burste—s0 on my sight Burst a new Vision never seen before — Ah 33-409) ‘The scene dramatizes the false to sais a dese for sell ong nd can therefor ined he alee 3 se ig ofa hey passage. Rouseat isnot given saisfactry trove, forthe ening vison avon of continued de Soni includes him He undergoes instead » metamorpho Sin wich hie bain, the center of his consciousness, transformed. The transformation is also said tobe the erase ten imprinted track, a passive, mechanical operation tt fo longer within the bruins own contol: bath the production find the erasure ofthe tack are not an act performed by the train, but the brain being ated upon by something ese. The resulting “snd” nt, some commentators imply, ani:100 Sheley Disigured ge of drought and steriity (this is no desert, but a shore washed by abundant waters)* "My brain became as sand” suggests the modification of a knowledge into the surface on Which this knowledge ought to be recorded. Ouight to be, for instead of being clearly imprinted itis “more than half erssed™ and covered over. The process is a replacement, a substitu= tion, continuing the substitution of “brain” by “sand,” of one kind of rack, sd to be lke that of a deer, by anather, sa to be like that of a wolf “from which (the deer) fled amazed ‘They mark a stage in the metamorphosis of Rousseau into his present state or shape; when we frst meet him, he is hat I thought was an old root which grew ‘To strange distortion ot ofthe hil sie And. the grass which methought hung so wide ‘And whit, wae bu his thin dacloured ha And "the holes he vainly sought fo hide Were or had been eyes, (82-9 ‘The erasute or effacement is indeed the loss office, in French igure, Rousse no longer or hardly (ashe tacks ane not al gone, but more than half erased), has face Like the protagonist in the Hardy story hei disfigured deur, de. Iced Anda aun th Fay stony To dee acs Biman the loss ofthe eyes, tumed to “stony obs" oto fmpty holes. This trajectory from erased selbnowledge to Aistiguration isthe trajectory of The Trump of Lie The connotations ofthe pair deerwall marking a chan in the insenptions made upon Roussea’s mind, go sameway in explaining the presence of Rovsea in the pos chee that has puecled Several interpreters” The fet and ebvous onirast fs between a gentle and dyic peace pursued yo ‘lent aggression. Shelly, an asiduous reader of Roussene at 4 time wen he was Being read more closely than hes be ‘nce, evokes an ambivalence of structure and of mood tat indeed specially Rousse’ rather than anyone tes, ie clading Wordswort’, Rovssen's work i charcesize in pot Sheley Disgured wo by an introspective, self-reflexive mode which uses literary models of Augustinian and pietistic origin, illustrated, for in- Stance, by such literary allusions as Petrarch and the Asif and, in general, by the elements that prompted Schiller 10 discuss him under the heading of the contemporary idyll. But to this are juxtaposed elements that are closer to Machiavelli than to Petrarch, concerned with political power as well as with eco- nomic and legal realities. The fist register is one of delicacy of feeling, whereas 2 curious brand of cunning and violence per- vades the other, The uneasy mixture is bth 3 commonplace tnd a crux of Rousseau interpretation. It appears in the larger fas well asthe finer dimensions of his writings, most obviously in such broad contrasts as separate the tone and import of a text such a8 The Socal Contract from that of Julie. That the com- patibility between inner states of consciousness and acts of power i thematic concern of The Triumph of Lifes clear fom fhe political passages in the poem. In the wake of the in itself banal passage on Bonaparte, the conflict is openly stated uch I greved to think how power and il in opposition sule our mortal day ‘And why God made ireconeilible Good and the means of good 26) Rousseau is unique among Shelley's predecessors not only In that this question of the discrepancy between the power of words as acts and their power to produce other words ¥sin- scribed within the thematice and the siictire of his waitings, but also inthe particular form that i takes there. For the ten sion passes, in Rousseau, through a self which is itself expe- rienced as a complex interplay between drives and the con- Scious reflection on these drives; Shelley's understanding ofthis Configuration is apparent in this description of Rousseau 25, "etwen dese ad shame Suspended. 027 The opposition between will and power, the intellectual joal and the practical means, reappears when its said, by and ‘oF Rousseau, that". . my words were seeds of misery Even02 Shelley Disigured as the deeds of others." (l, 280-81). The divergence be- tween words and deeds (by way of "seeds") seems fo be sus- pended in Rousseau’s work, albeit atthe cost of, or rather be {use of, considerable suffering: "I/ Am one of those who have ‘created, even / If tbe but a world of agony” (I 293-95). For what sets Rousseau apart from the representatives of the ki lightenment is the pathos of what is here called the “heart (T'was overcome /By my own heart alone. --") The con- trast between the cold and skeptical Voltaire and the sensitive Rousseau is another commonplace of popular intellectual his: ‘ory. But Shelley's intuition ofthe “heart” in Rousseau is more than mezely sentimental. Its impact becomes clearer in the contrast that sets Rousseau apart from “the great ards of old Homer and Vergil, said to have... inly quelled / The pas- sions which they sung...” (I. 274-73), whereas Rousseau has. . suffered what fhe] wrote, or viler pain! Unlike the epic narrators who wrote about events in which they did not take par, Rousseau speaks out of his own self-knowledge, not only in his Confessions (which Shelley did not lke) but in all hhis works, regardless of whether they are fictions or politcal treaties. In the tradition of Augustine, Descartes, ane Male- branche, the self is for him not merely the seat of the affec tions but the primary center of cognition, Shelley is certainly ‘ot alone in thus characterizing and prising Rousseau, but the configuration between self, heart, and action is given even wider significance when Rousseau compares himself o the Greek philosophers. Aristotle tums cut to be, lke Rousseau 8 double structure held together by the connivance of words and deeds; if he is now enslaved to the eroding process of "fe," itis because he does not exist singly, as pure mind, but ca not be separated from the "woes and wars” his pupil Ales ander the Great inflicted upon the world. Words cannot be isolated from the deeds they perform; the tutor necessarily performs the deeds his pupil derives from his mastery. And Just as “deeds” cause the undoing of Aristotle, itis the “hear” fhat brought down Plato who, ike Rousseau, was a theoreti- ‘ian of statecraft and a legislator. Like Aristotle and like Rous Sheley Disfigured 103 seau (who ke a doer but also tke @ wo) Plat iat least Aouble; ie “conquered [his] Heart” a8 Roussen was "over ‘come by [his] own heart alone." "The reference Io the spocry- al tony of Aer makes lea that "heat here me me than mere afectvty, Plato's heart was conquered by “love ind, inthis context, ove is like the intelectual eros that inks Socrates to his pupils. Roussen is placed within a configure: tn, brought about by “words,” of kaowledge, actions and erotic deste, The eleents are present in the symbole sene ftom which we started ou, since the pursuit tthe deer By the wo, in this context of Ovidian and Dantesque metamor phoses, is bound to suggest Apollo's pursuit of the nymphs Es wall as scenes of insertion an efacement "The scene i one of Wolence and grief, and the distress reappears inthe historical description of Rowsoeau witht e- pasted emphase on slfering and agony, a0 well asin the Eramatic action of defeat and enclavement, But this defeat is per i eae, Rouseny hs ovece the ce cy of action and intention that teas apart the Nistor wor and he has done so because he words Rave acqied the power of actions aswell a of the wil Not only beense they Fee: tet cree on acon bt ee they themes er tly, are actions. Tir power to act ext independently of het power fo know: Ansttes or Pat's mastery of mind did ot fe thm any contol oer he dw the wo sho sd Specially the deeds that ensued at a consequence of thelr ‘words and with hich they were recy involved. The power thot am the word ao este se he power ner then. Rousseau gains shape, fae, oF fire ony Tose 8 he aguies i. The enigma ofthis power the burden of what ever understanding Shelley's poem permis, depends primar. iy on the reading of Rouseat's recaptulaive narrative of his encounter with the “Shape all light” (lI, 308-433). Rousseau’s history, as he looks back upon his existence fom the “April prime” of his young years tothe present, tells of specific experience that is certainly not a simple one but that104 Shelley Disigured can be designated by a single verb: the experience is that of forgetting. The term appear erally 97) and in weroce pemphrass (such a “olious spell” 331) orn meapos frith a clear analogical vehicle such a “uct” soph ot thom memory” 0 30, "amp" (. 38, "eead wat. 3, "erase" (408), eH combines wh another move fang retaphorkcal son tit is present thrugheat te cate poo images of osing and waning ight and tte sn “he structive of “orgeing,” inthis text not claied by echoes ofa Pltonie collection and recognition ere si that enter the poem prt byway of Seley Oo Pe tonic and. Neopiatonicveedings? pay by way of Words Mons Inmoraliy Ode howe martes presence in th pat ‘tthe poem, has misled even the mon atentve readers of he Trp of Life In the Pho (7) and, with qualifeations too numerous to develop here, in Wordsworth Ode was oe forgets former state which Yeats, who used the soa et af emble,cmpue to the Unity of Bang vedi Ae tophanes" Sopot specch asthe malnpeing of ore oe sire, Within Neoplatonic Christian taiton his easly bes Comes a ting symbel forthe Incarnation, fra bith oof ansennta rim int ne mt a a pres what the experience of forging in The Team Uk ee ‘What one forgets heres Bo soe previous condone line of demarcation between te wo conditions i ae urea the distinction between the frgoten andthe rersenbered 6 Lnlke the distinction between tro well-defined sess tak ee have no assurance whatever that tne forgoten vss sxe “nether my life had been before tha sleep The Heaven which | imagine, ots Hel ike this harsh woud in which I wake to weep. now nat Wh eay The polaris of waking and seeping (or remembering and forgetting are cast ambi ints passage, oe of past and present of the imagined and te rea af knowing Sheley Disfigured 105 and not knowing. For seat fom the previous scene? {ote born nie fal ae, tus sseiting he th Shep then “wake” tam an slr condo of Soe. ing Ko" arth woo eet ony be 0 De ara of en'speratent condition of samba tobe move han Cet tscep, caper de elon aight ona deeper ee tng Ding sited by an at temony wich enemies ont fnpeting And dice Heaven andl rot ere transcendent eine ut tne ere oppoaion betnesn She agin and there what we dove koow wheter we tre svaieoralep dead orale rgeting or remembering We cnn tl te difernce bebe saoress and dle thee and ths lubiy to know tks on te form fa pe. EXohiedge whichis alld’ fngeting Notun eer tis fn unbelabe conden of iedennfahon hi at fo be fepetod, But Secaue the cnn a out of hot ITaecs creas hove betwee sa of wing and norknowing he he symptom of» ase whch fc the pre omen! ha ne ements absence, What {ergot abent inthe mode a's posse eso, which is totes nay of saying ta does nat wn» yrmme thal stctore of presets and absence inconorly wi he consent te of sun imagery, this hovering maton eked ugha te poem By 2s of gimme igh Tho very ‘mae wnteplct na taro Rouen she overeat fhe opening suns fey in Rous encounter wt ne ne pe, uk tetra the tem flrgeting othe mots of it The verb appar inthe opening cee a strange trance over my fancy grew ‘which wae no umber, for the shade i spread Wis so transparent tat the scene came through ‘As clear as when a velof light is drawn (Fer the evening hil they glimmer, (25-33, emphasis addes) land then again later on, now with Rosteat on stage106 Shelley Disfigured ‘The presence ofthat shape which onthe sen Moved as moved slong the wilderness, More dimly than day appering dream “The ghost ofa forgotten form sep, Aight fom Heaven whose al einguished beam Through the ck day in which we wake 1 Glimmers, forever sought, forever lost? So di that shape ecb eno keep Ai a3-3,enphisls added) Jt 4s impossible o say, in either passage, how the parc ties of light and dark are matched wth thee of wating el sleep the confusion i the same as in the previously ceoted passage on frgeting and remembering. The ight in the see: nd pusage is said te Hea dream, rte sep ("the ghost of a orgoten form of sleep’), yet t shines, however de tanty, upon a condition wich is one of awakening (the sed day in which we wake to weep”) in thi light fo beatae to beast one were aslep. Inthe fst pasege, tis cope slated that since the poet perceives so deaty, he cannot he aslep, but the clarity i then sad tobe tke tha of vel Graven ‘vera darkening surface, a description which necessary com, ‘notes covering and hiding, even ifthe vel is aid fo be "of light" Ligh covers ight tance covers shmber and cette conditions of opal confsion that resemble nething as such 48 the experience of tying to tend The Triumph of Ee te ‘meaning glinmers, hovers, and wavers, but refaoes to pied the cant it keeps announcing This ply of veling and unveling is, ofcourse, altogether tantalizing, Forgetting is highly eroic expenence: © ike slimmering ight beeause it cannot be decided whether re Wels or hides; tis ke desire becuse, ike the well pursing the der, i does violence to what sustang i te oe ora dream because its asleep tothe very exen that tin cove scious and awake, and dead tothe exten tha! ip alive, The passage that concerns us makes this knot, by which knowl Shelley Disigured wer ge, oblivion, and deste hang suspended, into an arcu: Inted sequence of evens that demande interpretation The chain tha leads Rosen rom the Dh of Bis con- sciousness 1a hs present stale of Impending death passes through a welbmarked suscesion of reays, Pato and Words. ‘worth provide the inal linking of bth with forgeting, but ths forgeting has, in Shelley's poem, the glimmering smb ence which makes imposible fo conser iat act OF losute oof beginning and which mates any further compar- tron with Wordeworts televant. The metaphor for ths pro Ceot i that of “a gentle rivulet [which filed the grove Wi sound which all who hear must eed forge All pes sure ad al pain» "le 24-t6)- Unlike Yeats, Sebey' ver docs ot function as the "generated sou," a8 the deacent of the tranacendental soul info earthly time and space. As the sage develop, irenters nt system of reatonships that Ete natural rather than esoteric. The propery ofthe ver that the poem singles outst sound; the oblivious spel emanates tro te epee shyt of te water wh cles a Tandon into a define pater. Water, which has no shape ‘ot Wace mode into shape By is contact withthe eat, just asin the sone ofthe water washing sway the tracks, generates the very possblty of stucure, pattern, form, ot Shape by way of the disappearance of shape into thapelest: nest. The epeiion of the ersues rhythmic arcuate what {bin facta deartculation, andthe poem seem fo be shaped by the undoing of shapes, But since this pattem does na lly correspond to what itcoves up it leaves the trace which a lows ome to ell this ambivalent shaping » forging. The beh what an esr Shelley poem such a8 Mon lame woul stl have called the mind occurs a the ditrton which allows one to make the random repular by "Torgeting” diferences 'As soon asthe wate’ nose becomes arclated sound it can enter no contact withthe ligt. The Bir of form asthe interference of light and water passes, in the semrsynaes- thesia ofthe passage, through the mediation of sound:108 Shelley Disfgured however only a semi-synaesthesi, for the optical and audi= tory perceptions, though simultaneous, nevertheless remain lweated in asymmetrical opposition ‘A shape alight, which with one hand did ling Dow on the earth as if she were the Deven Whose invisible rain forever seemed to sng A silver music on the mossy lawn, ‘And stil before heron the dusky pass Iris her many coloured sar had drawn, 352-57, emphasis added)” The wate of the orignal sver here fll «double and not necessary complementary acon: ait combines withthe lightto fom, onthe one hand, e's Sear or ano and, on the other Rand the “iver musi’ of oblivion A tained symbol ofthe integration of the phenomena! wth the tee, Scendenfal word, the natural syne of water and ight Ia therrainbow i in Shelley the fama “dome of men ot cured glass” whose “sain isthe earthly tac ad promsas of fan Ee in which Adonai soul ssid t del "the rsa A such i rats al the tstures and forms of he tral arid with the vel ofthe sun rigor Aglare, jst pe ‘ides the anaogiel ight and heat ht wl make t posto ‘ser othe poet's mind as embers” The meleprl chan ‘whch inks the sun toate to oon to heat to mau. to tind, and to consciousness certainly at workin the poem 2nd can be summarized inthis image ofthe abo But the symbol is sid to exist her inthe tenuous mode of instenee 2 something that sl preva (36) deapte the cncrooe. ‘ent of something else. also emanating from water od nen and associated with them from the start elle music afar getting. This something else, of which could be sid tat Strenches the final statement of Adonis into aifferent shapes Sppeats in some degre of tension with the symbel of Ine mint = The ene scene ofthe shape's partion and subsequent saning (42) smactured ses nenrmiaculous suspefacn Shelley Disgured 109 teen thete tw diferent forces whose intercon gives io the figure the Hovering motion which may well be the mode cl bing ofl gues thi hme ure thes o te frm tthe eneeacable reflection of Naess the manifestation ‘of shape st the expense ofits possesion. The suspended fa toa ofthe Nnrnte san ich in he ment when the shape sald to move with pal tender ‘Thr tad broke nthe mi low ai 5-0) ‘The scene is seliefexive the cnr ofthe shapes con tours is brought about by sei'dupleation The ight generates Ss own shape by tear ofa mitor surface that aus itstoutsctng up's ens separion that ciferenistee te fide fom outside a see dferentated fom other, The sll Sat mes no bing tc moment sion in pata terms, optical symmetry asthe ground of sacar, opal ‘petion athe tac pani that engender eres ss {Rapes "shape all ight is feferetaly meanings sine ight the necesenr cndtion for shape, i elke wate, without shape, and soies shape ony when spin he uson of « Gublenens whch is ot that of slander. The sn in tox irom the star the igre ofthis seltconained specs ity But the double ofthe sun can only be the eye conceived 2 the minor of ight. "Shape and "mor" ar inseparable inthis scene juts the suis ineparable fom the shapes it ecrates an which ate, fact the eye, ad ust athe uh EP nsepaable from tsi since it produces the uson ofthe Self as shape. The sun cin be sid "to stand” 2 figure which assumes the eistence of an emie spatial organization, be Cause stands personied ithe blse OF his own beg A. 349-50) ‘The sun “ses” is own ght reflected, Hke Nar, in a well that is mitror and slo an eye10 Shelley Disfgured the Sun's image edit intense Bred onthe waters ofthe well tha lowed br tase Because the sun is itself a specular structure, the eye can be ssid to generate a world of natural forme, The athemess of = ‘word that iin fact without oder now Becomes, forthe eye maze made accesible to solar paths, asthe eye turns fom the bank radiance of the sun tt geen and blue telecon in the world, and allows us tobe inthis world ay ina land Seape of onde and intents The sun threaded all the oes maze With winding path of emerald fe ser) The boldest, but also the most ralitional, image in this ps: ‘aH tht ofthe sy a thread tat stiches he tre ‘world, the necessary and complementary background for the eye of Narcissus, The water and pupl ofthe exe gem erate the rainbow of natural forms among which t dell fn sensor slums. The figure ofthe sn, present rom the begining ofthe poem, repeats ise in the gure ofthe eyes seliceroie contact with its own surface, which i abo the ae for of the ratral world. The erotic element is make fess the sarin the polarity ofa male sun and eminine shape, ‘ye or wel, whith is sid to ed her Head under the datk bough, til ike wilow Her fiir swept the bosom ofthe sern ‘hat whispered th Sigh be tht plow — 35-46 Shele’s imagery often assumed tobe incoherent and er- ‘ic, s instead extraordinarily systematic whenever light is bing thematzed. The passage condenses al tha evict and later poets (one can think of Valery and Cide's Newisus at well as ofthe Romar dele Rotor of Spenser) ever dl with light water, and mirors. it also bears witness the affinity Sheley Disfigured a ‘of his imagination with that of Rousseau, who allowed the [phantasm of language born thapsodically out ofan erotic well to tll ts story before he took it all away. Shelley's treatment ‘ofthe birth of light reveals all that is invested in the emblem ofthe rainbow. It represents the very possiblity of cognition, feven for processes of articulation so elementary that it would be impossible to conceive of any principle of organization, however primitive, that would not be entirely dependent on its power, To efface it would be to take away the sun which, ifitwere to happen to this text, for example, would leave litle tls, And stil, this light is allowed to exist in The Trivmp of Life only under the most tenuous of conditions “The frailty ofthe stance is represented inthe supeenatur Aelicacy which gives the shape "palms so tender Their tread, broke not the mirror of [the rivers billow”” and which allows it to “lide along the river.” The entire scene is et up a= 3 barely imaginable balance between this gliding motion, which remains on one side of the watery surface and thus allows the specular image to come into being, and the contrary motion Whieh, like Narcissus atthe end of the mythical story, breaks through the surface ofthe mirror and disrupts the suspended fall of Its own existence. As the passage develops, the story ‘must run its course. The contradictory motions of “gliding” and “treading” which suspended gravity between rising and fall- ing finally capsize. The “threading” sunrays become the ‘reading’ of fet upon a surface which, inthis text, does not stlfen into solidity.” Shelley's poem insists on the hyperbolic lightness of the reflexive contac, since the reflecting surface is never allowed the smooth stasis that is necessary to the du plication of the image, The water is kept in constant motion: Itis called a “billow” and the surface, although compared toa crystal, is roughened by the winds that give some degree of ‘erisimiitude to the shape's gliding motion. By the end of the section, we have moved from “thread” to “tread” to “tram ple,” in a movement of increased violence that erases the ini- fil tenderness, There is no doubt that, when we again meet the shape (l. 425 ff, its no longer gliding along the river but ‘drowned, Ophelarike, below the surface of the water. Thewa Shelley Disigured violence is confirmed in the return of the rainbow, in the en- sing vision, a5 a rigid, stony arch said “fiercely [to extol] the fortune” of the shape's defeat by what the poem calls joins This chain of metaphorical transformations can be under= stood, up to this point, without transposition into a vocabu lary that would not be that of their own referents, not urlike the movement ofthe figure itself as it endeavors to glide in cessantly along a surface which it tries to keep intact. Speci- ‘ally, the figure of the rainbow is a figure of the unity of per= ‘ception and cognition undisturbed by the possibly disruptive "mediation ofits own figuration, This is not surprising, since the underlying assumption of such a paraphrastic reading is itself one of specular understanding in which the text serves 28 a mirror of our own knowledge and our knowledge mirzors in its tum the text's signification. But we can only inade- quately understand in this fashion why the shaped light of understanding is itself allowed to wane avvay, layer by layer, ‘until it is entirely forgotten and remains present only in the guise of an edifice that serves to celebrate and to perpetuate its oblivion. Nor can we understand the power that weighs down the seductive grace of figuration until it destroys itsell ‘The figure of the sun, with all ts chain of corelatives, should also be read in a non-phenomenal way, a necessity which is itself phenomenally represented inthe dramatic tension ofthe text. ‘The transition from “gliding” to “trampling” passes, inthe action that i being narrated, through the intermediate relay of “measure.” The term actively reintroduces musie which, after having been stressed in the previous scene (I. 354-55), is af first only present by analogy inthis phase ofthe action (I 359 74). Measure is articulated sound, that is to say language Language rather than musi, in the traditional sense of har- ‘mony and melody. As melody, the “song” of the water and, by extension, the various sounds of nature, only provide & background that easily blends with the seduction of the nate ral world Shelley Disigured ny all the place Was filed with many sounds woven into one Oblvious melody, confusing sense ‘Amid the gliding waves and shadows dun; Gi. sy0-48) [As melody and hermony, song belongs tothe same ging motion that i interrupted ony hen the shape’ fet to the ceaseless song (OF faves and winds and waves and bids and bees And fling drops moved ina measure nev (h. s75-70) The “tread” ofthis dancer, which needs ground tothe ex- tent that caries the weight of gravity, sno longer mod fous, but reduces music to the mere messue of repeated artic Slane igen ou fom mu the sta o ion which is also present in spoken diction. The scene ald be seid to nate he birth of usc cut ofthe pat of language, since the determining propery isan aritlation Aistnctve of verbal sound prior os ging function. The {hematization of language in Te Tum of Le occurs at tis it, when “measire™ separates from the phenomena! ae ects of signification asa specular repmsentsion, and stresses [Rstend the Hteral and material aspects of language In the dee Inatc action ofthe narrative, mensure disrupts the symmetry eogrion as representation (he figure of the rion of he tye and of thes) But since measure i any principle of lin. fulstic organization, not only ax rhyme and mete Dut a8 any Syntactic! or grammatical scansion, one can read “feet” not just the poetic mete that iso conspicuously evident nthe ler rina ofthe poem, but as any principle of signification Yet it te precisely these “fet” which extinguish and bury he poetic and philotophical ight Te is tempting to interpret this event, the shape’s “tam pling” the Bes of though “into the dust of death” (. 388),a4 Shelley Disigured certainly the most enigmatic moment in the poem, as the bi fureation between the semantic and the non-signifying, mate Fal properties of language. The various devices of articulation, from word to sentence formation (by means of grammar, syn fax, accentuation, tone, ete, which are made to convey meaning, and these same articulations left to themselves, ine dependently of ther signifying constraints, do not necessarily determine each other. The latent polarity implied in al lash. cal theories ofthe sign allows forthe relative independence of the signifier and for its free play in relation to ie signifying. function, If, for instance, compelling thyme schemes such a “illow," “willow, “pillow” or transformations. such as “thread!” to “tread or "seed to “deed” occur at crucial mo- ‘ments in the text, then the question arises whether these pa ticularly meaningful movements or events are not being fers erated by random and superficial properties of the signifier rather than by the constraints of meaning, The obliteration of thought by “measure” would then have to be interpreted a6 the loss of semantic depth and its replacement by what Mal. larmé calls “le hasard infini des conjonctions” lpr, But this is not the story, oF not the entire story, told by ‘The Triumph of Life. For the arbitrary element in the alignment between meaning and linguistic articulation does not self have the power to break down the specular structure which the text erects and then claims to dissave. It does not account for the final phase of the Narcissus story, asthe shape tra verses the mirror and goes under, just a8 the stars are con: 4uered by the sun atthe beginning of the poem and the sun then conquered in its turn by the ight of the Chariot of Life The undoing ofthe represeniational and iconic function of fi uation by the play of the signifier does not sufice to beng about the disfiguration which The Triumph of Life ats out oF represents. For itis the alignment ofa signification with any Principle of linguistic articulation whatsoever, sensory of nok Which constitutes the figure. The iconic, sensory of, if one Wishes, the aesthetic moment is not constitutive of figuration Figuration is the element in language that allows forthe re Shelley Disfgured ns Aeration of meaning by substitution: the process i at last {ofl and this prot is ataly stated by opt ons OF epeculaniy, But the particular seduction ofthe gure snot ‘necessarily that it creates an ilusion of sensory pessure, but that restos an luion of meaning In Shelly's poem, the shape iso figure regardless of whether I appears dea figure fof light (he tanbow) of of articulation in general (must a8 measure and language) The traniton from pleasure to ig ification, from the aesthetic tothe semilogical dimension, iy mated inthe psy enone moves om the are ‘ainow to tha f the dance, fom sight Yo esse. ke ‘tans the lenin ofthe shape a i el fig tl in general. By taking tis step Beyond the traditional con: ceptions of figuration as tnodes of representation, a polaris bec and objec, of pat and whole of pees ad chance Sr ofan and exe, the way is prepared forthe subsequent un doing and erasure ofthe figure atthe extension, which co. Scie wth the pasage fom topologies! models such as repr, ci, mele prearooc nich 2 phenomenal element, spatial or temporal 8 necestary i ‘rlved) to topes such a grammar and syntax (which funtion Sh he evel ofthe ter witout he renton of none {teow isnot by isl capable of erasing the fire of in the representations cole ofthe lst, of owning the shape or Trampling out thought. Another intervention, another aspect of language has to come into pay he aie uns fess nc ods from the appation of the shape (34) fs replace iment (ka) by anew von” alows ation fae by two events that are acts of power the sun overcoming the ight ofthe stars, the ight of Me overcoming the sun, The move ren fms pn aco, demi nine BY ket tof power, "othe gliding, suspended motion “ofthat shape Sthich’on the steam Moved, ss moved along the wider fel ah) te ne otan net the ie the poor, Ar hasbeen pointed out by several commentator, "Toximpht” Gesignates the actual victory a8 well the rf,