This incorporation of a ski run allows the observer to view humans (in their tiny insignificant markings) against the great mountain imbued with “still and solemn power” (128). By existing “in scorn of mortal power,” its “awful scene” becomes a power to be reckoned with (103, 15). Seeing how small humans look in comparison makes the mountain subliminally beautiful in its perception of impressive terror. This converges with Shelley’s poetic theme of the sublime.
The choice to place two renderings of the same subject side by side helps me explore Shelley’s understanding of the poet and poetry. The left picture is the most similar image of the scene that I could encapsulate and share, yet it looks very different from the artistic illustration on the right. Similarly, even though poetry is meant to be an “image of life expressed in its eternal truth,” life’s translation is contingent on the middleman (the poet) conveying it (Lecture). In this understanding, the poet is an imperfect translator to the reader rather than an invisible vessel. This weakens Shelley’s claim that poetry is a truthful distillation of life because the truth can never be truly conveyed with a middle man (Lecture). As a result, I had to approach this description from a different angle: seeing the “image of life” not as an actual physical scene in reality, but as a theme or a characteristic of human life that Shelley hopes to authentically recreate. His poem is not simply about the awful nature of Mont Blanc, but about the relationship between the humbling power of nature to the humbled man. The mountain, as such, becomes the metaphorical vehicle for him to express that “eternal truth,” but it is not the truth itself.