Poetry Please

"My heart palpitated in the sickness of fear, and I hurried on with irregular steps, not daring to look about me: Like one who, on a lonely road Doth walk in fear and dread, And, having once turned round, walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread." pg 58 Shelley shakes things up a bit by inserting a poem into Frankenstein's fear, dread, and exhaustion from his creation. We get a glimpse of Shelley's life surrounded by poetry from her childhood to adulthood with her husband. Frankenstein quotes a stanza from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere, in Seven Parts" linking Shelley's knowledge of poetry to the romantic writing still prevalent in the time period in which the story takes place. This romantic writing style calls for dramatic poems, eloquent language, and respectable nature between women and men. The poem surely captures the necessary tone of dread which Frankenstein feels as he attempts to flee from the so-called monster he has created. I enjoy reading the language and how proper people addressed their writing and each other as well as the poetry of Shelley's day and age. For me, reading stories written so long ago adds to the beauty of literature: It's a chance for me to explore the lifestyles of previous generations and decades which is fascinating to me. It's thrilling to explore a story where the characters are making discoveries and the author introduces us to other literature of the time.