Adonais Art and Culture Quotes

As a poet, Keats was similar to a shepherd; he had to tend to his thoughts the way a shepherd tends to his sheep. It's hard work, says Shelley, to write poems.

In the poem, poison serves as a symbol of negative and unfair criticism. To unfairly tear down a work of artistic merit is comparable to poisoning an innocent person, says the speaker. That's a pretty serious charge.

If criticism is the poison, then the "viperous murderer" is the critic. Shelley didn't mince words here. He thought that unfair criticism killed Keats, and he blamed the critic that wrote it. Don't mess with a poet, apparently.