ABSTRACT
Adonais is perhaps, among Shelley's poems, the one that lends itself to a more unswerving interpretation and incorporation within the Italian literary context. It draws on a wide range of sources; it incorporates Classical mythology, while keeping the core of the argument under a modern light; and it softens Shelley's usual radicalism, making its reception and dissemination easier. In Adonais, scenes, characters and situations develop gradually, whilst the conclusion reverses the tone set at the beginning, with the affirmation that Adonais is, indeed, not dead, as he has now triumphed over mortality. From the impersonal artifice of mourning Adonais exemplified by Urania's sorrow, the tone of the poem suddenly reverses with the introduction of the shepherds gathered in mourning, epitomizing the likes of Byron, Hunt, and Shelley himself, with 'the herded wolves' and 'the obscene ravens' being symbols of the hostile critics.
