In P.B. Shelley's poem, "The Triumph of Life," please provide the meaning for lines 211-247.

[Poetry is, like all art, something that takes on new life
in the face of each person who interacts with it, based on each individual's life
experiences. There are many ways to interpret art, though it is—in my mind—almost
impossible to say one interpretation is "the only" interpretation. The following is from
research, as well as my own personal interpretations.]

In
Shelley's "The Triumph of Life," lines 211-247, I did not find any similes. However, I
can provide an overview of what Shelley seems to be saying in this segment of the
poem.

Shelley begins this section referring to the great
ones who have come before: leaders of the church, military and kingdoms, intellectuals
("mitres, helms, crowns, and haloed sages"). Shelley believes that with all the
knowledge these great individuals were given, they were never instructed in the art: "to
know themselves."

These great ones hid their ideas as one
would hide mutinous thoughts (thoughts that did not conform to the popular view) under
the cover of darkness (perhaps symbolizing the lack of knowledge), rather than out in
plain sight (the light, symbolic of knowledge or
enlightenment).

Shelley refers to the French writer and
philosopher Rousseau, who though not a contemporary of Shelley's, had an enormous effect
upon the world and how "men" thought. Regarding "The Child of the fierce
hour:"

The
sparks of Rousseau’s writings had kindled a thousand signal fires—including that of the
French Revolution, of which one child was Napoleon, who is
described in lines
215–27.

Shelley seems to feel
that powerful "intellects" have crippled the world, hindering advancement—enabling
anarchists to rise, while hampering great minds:

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Presumably Voltaire (the immensely influential
thinker of the 18th-century Enlightenment) is the “dem- agogue.” Frederick the Great of
Prussia, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Leopold II of the Holy Roman Empire, all
influenced by Voltaire’s ideas, are the “anarchs” (leaders who bring about anarchy).
Immanual Kant (the great philosopher of the German Enlightenment) is the
“sage.”

Overall, at the end
of the passage, Shelley seems to indicate that the passionate nature and ideas of
Rousseau prohibited the philosopher from ever being truly happy, as he strove toward
impossible ideals. My sense is that Shelley, after the time of Rousseau and other
"influential minds," looks not to the significance or prominence that may have been
"falsely" attributed to those who followed them, but those who came
before—"the old faded"—who one might believe knew a truth that has
been obscured from the world.