Shelley's poem "Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples" is about depression. The speaker, whom we can assume to be the poet himself, is sitting at the shore watching the light on the water and thinking about his life, actually, feeling a little sorry for himself. He sees the beauty around him and knows he should be able to appreciate it, but he cannot. He sees people going about their daily business and bemoans that life has dealt him "another measure" so that he cannot take joy in his surroundings. Yet he admits that his despair is "mild, even as the winds and waters are," and not so consuming that he cannot live. He even thinks he might "lie down like a tired child" and passively wait for death rather than do anything to hasten it. It seems at first as if he may be suffering over a lover, but in the last stanza he appears to be lamenting that he is not well-known and appreciated when he says "I am one whom men loved not," and he hopes that someone might lament for and regret his passing.
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