What do you think?
Rate this book
A Defence of Poetry and Other Essays
This is a reproduction of the original artefact. Generally these books are created from careful scans of the original. This allows us to preserve the book accurately and present it in the way the author intended. Since the original versions are generally quite old, there may occasionally be certain imperfections within these reproductions. We're happy to make these classics available again for future generations to enjoy!
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
67 people are currently reading
321 people want to read
About the author
Percy Bysshe Shelley
1,651 books1,412 followersWorks of Percy Bysshe Shelley, British romantic poet, include "To a Skylark" in 1820;
Prometheus Unbound
, the lyric drama; and "Adonais," an elegy of 1821 to John Keats.
The Cenci , work of art or literature of Percy Bysshe Shelley of 1819, depicts Beatrice Cenci, Italian noblewoman.
People widely consider Percy Bysshe Shelley among the finest majors of the English language. He is perhaps most famous for such anthology pieces as Ozymandias , Ode to the West Wind , and The Masque of Anarchy . His major long visionary Alastor , The Revolt of Islam , and the unfinished The Triumph of Life .
Unconventional life and uncompromising idealism of Percy Bysshe Shelley combined with his strong skeptical voice to make an authoritative and much denigrated figure during his life. He became the idol of the next two or three generations, the major Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, as well as William Butler Yeats and in other languages, such as Jibanananda Das and Subramanya Bharathy . Karl Marx, Henry Stephens Salt, and [authorm:Bertrand Russell] also admired him. Famous for his association with his contemporaries Lord Byron, he also married Mary Shelley, novelist.
The Cenci , work of art or literature of Percy Bysshe Shelley of 1819, depicts Beatrice Cenci, Italian noblewoman.
People widely consider Percy Bysshe Shelley among the finest majors of the English language. He is perhaps most famous for such anthology pieces as Ozymandias , Ode to the West Wind , and The Masque of Anarchy . His major long visionary Alastor , The Revolt of Islam , and the unfinished The Triumph of Life .
Unconventional life and uncompromising idealism of Percy Bysshe Shelley combined with his strong skeptical voice to make an authoritative and much denigrated figure during his life. He became the idol of the next two or three generations, the major Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, as well as William Butler Yeats and in other languages, such as Jibanananda Das and Subramanya Bharathy . Karl Marx, Henry Stephens Salt, and [authorm:Bertrand Russell] also admired him. Famous for his association with his contemporaries Lord Byron, he also married Mary Shelley, novelist.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 28, 2023
While I’ve only read a couple of Shelley’s poems in the past (which truth be told, I wasn’t sure I interpreted correctly), I was keen on exploring his essays, particularly after coming across a Human Rights Charter which he wrote and of which he apparently used to make copies which were stuffed in bottles and floated off for people to find. I downloaded this collection via Project Gutenberg and after waiting some years on my TBR, this time around I added it to my Books of Summer list so as to actually pick them up. Like his poems, however, this proved to be a challenging collection with segments that went clean over my head, but others which made sense (The writing is of course lyrical as one would expect).
This collection has eight essays, of varying lengths, with a couple split into subsections or chapters and cover a range of subjects from metaphysical reflections to what one might class a thoroughly political subject—the death penalty, to Greek society and culture and finally what one would see as ‘properly’ his province poetry.
The first four essays which go between the metaphysical and political but with their subject matter and ideas connected were ones I got on with best. The short opening piece reflects ‘On Love’, which he begins by observing how humans while similar externally don’t quite understand each other’s ‘language’. Love for him is a ‘bond and sanction connecting one with everything that exists’, a ‘thirst after our likeness’; yet something that isn’t perhaps easy to come by, with us finding more solace in that connect we can have with nature. His thoughts here have what could be seen as a spiritual bent for he is talking of a connection of essences, and one which has depth but also beauty as he writes:
a frame whose nerves like chords of two exquisite lyres, strung to the accompaniment of one delightful voice, vibrate with the vibrations of our own
It is also for him, something that forms the essence of us as humans for, without it we are mere husks, sepulchres of ourselves.
From love to life itself, the second piece emphasises on the ‘astonishing thing’ that life is but at the same time a wonder whose familiarity obscures from us its awe (he acknowledges this is a good thing in the sense that we are protected from being overawed all the time). This isn’t a question to which an answer can be reached, yet there are some (even among adults) as he notes who seem always in a reverie whose natures are dissolved into the surroundings as much as their surroundings are dissolved into themselves. Religion in this background he sees as the outcome of our attempts to ‘invent’ answers to these questions.
Another interesting reflection was that on life after death, another question to which there isn’t an answer, but on which he quite convincingly challenges the popular belief of thought and spirit continuing to have existence after life is ended for it is neither proved that they exist before we are born (which they ought to if they continue), nor is there any reason to suppose that if our physical selves disintegrate, thought and spirit would not.
Somewhat flowing from these ideas is his essay against the Death Penalty which incorporates Socrates’ argument that we can’t really tell whether death is a punishment or reward since we have (and can have) no knowledge of the after. He persuasively shows how the sentence might make the person given it almost a hero figure than a wrongdoer and as well would not truly deter others who take to what we call crime when they are already insensible to pain or fear. While there are things one can question on a more careful reading, I think I did broadly agree with his idea that the whole notion of punishment or death as a penalty ‘confirms the inhuman and unsocial impulses of men’ in that it makes us little different from those whom we deem the wrongdoer. He doesn’t attempt to present any solution though, which in any case is no easy task.
The next two pieces ‘Speculations on the Metaphysics of the Mind’ and ‘Speculations on Morals’ were where I most struggled in this collection; while there were points that made perfect sense like his ideas on the limits of thought (that we can’t think beyond what we have perceived or that when translating what passes in our minds to words, we end up with dead words or cold and borrowed thoughts which do little justice to the actual thought), both of these essays had points that I found I wasn’t quite grasping and as a consequence I skimmed large chunks. The first of these also abruptly cuts off just when he is entering into eerie territory (a déjà vu moment).
This somewhat set the mood for the three remaining pieces of which two focus on the Greeks, one broadly on Greek culture, poetry, politics, literature and arts to which we owe much, the other more particularly on one of Plato’s dialogues, the Symposium. The Plato essay though is a mere fragment and we barely get started when it breaks off. The final essay is ‘In Defence of Poetry’ (also the longest in the collection) where he ponders on what poetry is (‘the expression of imagination’) and what poets do (participate in the eternal and infinite), the materials they draw from and much else. What was most interesting in this piece was how he also looks at the philosophers as poets, including Plato for the ‘truth and splendour of his imagery’ while also looking at poetry in things (even the institutions of Rome) and not simply composed lines as we might think of it, with the idea that poetry can turn all to loveliness. My reading of these last pieces however was affected a little by my frustration with the middle ones which led to a fair bit of skimming.
While this collection did not have the two essays by Shelley I’m most keen on exploring (I have them downloaded and will get to them)—the one on atheism which got him kicked out of university, and the other on the natural (vegetarian) diet which he argues in favour of, these did have a fair few interesting ideas which also give one a better sense of him and his thoughts. These aren’t something that I think one reading is sufficient for, and I will be coming back to these at some point in the future to see what more they reveal (and perhaps also where I don’t agree with them). But I’m glad I did finally tackle these even if the experience wasn’t quite perfect.
Most of these were written in 1815/1818 but published in 1840.
This collection has eight essays, of varying lengths, with a couple split into subsections or chapters and cover a range of subjects from metaphysical reflections to what one might class a thoroughly political subject—the death penalty, to Greek society and culture and finally what one would see as ‘properly’ his province poetry.
The first four essays which go between the metaphysical and political but with their subject matter and ideas connected were ones I got on with best. The short opening piece reflects ‘On Love’, which he begins by observing how humans while similar externally don’t quite understand each other’s ‘language’. Love for him is a ‘bond and sanction connecting one with everything that exists’, a ‘thirst after our likeness’; yet something that isn’t perhaps easy to come by, with us finding more solace in that connect we can have with nature. His thoughts here have what could be seen as a spiritual bent for he is talking of a connection of essences, and one which has depth but also beauty as he writes:
a frame whose nerves like chords of two exquisite lyres, strung to the accompaniment of one delightful voice, vibrate with the vibrations of our own
It is also for him, something that forms the essence of us as humans for, without it we are mere husks, sepulchres of ourselves.
From love to life itself, the second piece emphasises on the ‘astonishing thing’ that life is but at the same time a wonder whose familiarity obscures from us its awe (he acknowledges this is a good thing in the sense that we are protected from being overawed all the time). This isn’t a question to which an answer can be reached, yet there are some (even among adults) as he notes who seem always in a reverie whose natures are dissolved into the surroundings as much as their surroundings are dissolved into themselves. Religion in this background he sees as the outcome of our attempts to ‘invent’ answers to these questions.
Another interesting reflection was that on life after death, another question to which there isn’t an answer, but on which he quite convincingly challenges the popular belief of thought and spirit continuing to have existence after life is ended for it is neither proved that they exist before we are born (which they ought to if they continue), nor is there any reason to suppose that if our physical selves disintegrate, thought and spirit would not.
Somewhat flowing from these ideas is his essay against the Death Penalty which incorporates Socrates’ argument that we can’t really tell whether death is a punishment or reward since we have (and can have) no knowledge of the after. He persuasively shows how the sentence might make the person given it almost a hero figure than a wrongdoer and as well would not truly deter others who take to what we call crime when they are already insensible to pain or fear. While there are things one can question on a more careful reading, I think I did broadly agree with his idea that the whole notion of punishment or death as a penalty ‘confirms the inhuman and unsocial impulses of men’ in that it makes us little different from those whom we deem the wrongdoer. He doesn’t attempt to present any solution though, which in any case is no easy task.
The next two pieces ‘Speculations on the Metaphysics of the Mind’ and ‘Speculations on Morals’ were where I most struggled in this collection; while there were points that made perfect sense like his ideas on the limits of thought (that we can’t think beyond what we have perceived or that when translating what passes in our minds to words, we end up with dead words or cold and borrowed thoughts which do little justice to the actual thought), both of these essays had points that I found I wasn’t quite grasping and as a consequence I skimmed large chunks. The first of these also abruptly cuts off just when he is entering into eerie territory (a déjà vu moment).
This somewhat set the mood for the three remaining pieces of which two focus on the Greeks, one broadly on Greek culture, poetry, politics, literature and arts to which we owe much, the other more particularly on one of Plato’s dialogues, the Symposium. The Plato essay though is a mere fragment and we barely get started when it breaks off. The final essay is ‘In Defence of Poetry’ (also the longest in the collection) where he ponders on what poetry is (‘the expression of imagination’) and what poets do (participate in the eternal and infinite), the materials they draw from and much else. What was most interesting in this piece was how he also looks at the philosophers as poets, including Plato for the ‘truth and splendour of his imagery’ while also looking at poetry in things (even the institutions of Rome) and not simply composed lines as we might think of it, with the idea that poetry can turn all to loveliness. My reading of these last pieces however was affected a little by my frustration with the middle ones which led to a fair bit of skimming.
While this collection did not have the two essays by Shelley I’m most keen on exploring (I have them downloaded and will get to them)—the one on atheism which got him kicked out of university, and the other on the natural (vegetarian) diet which he argues in favour of, these did have a fair few interesting ideas which also give one a better sense of him and his thoughts. These aren’t something that I think one reading is sufficient for, and I will be coming back to these at some point in the future to see what more they reveal (and perhaps also where I don’t agree with them). But I’m glad I did finally tackle these even if the experience wasn’t quite perfect.
Most of these were written in 1815/1818 but published in 1840.
November 20, 2022
This collection consists of nine brief prose writings largely done while Shelley was in his early twenties. Ranging over a series of topics, they still quite uniformly present the vibrant independence of his outlook, and his excessive zeal for individualism, republicanism, equality of the sexes and the primacy of the imagination over any and all overt forms of authoritarianism.
‘On Love’ expresses his almost pantheistic sense of communion with nature in his claim that ‘in the motion of the very single leaves of spring, in the blue air, there is then found a secret correspondence with our heart’. Exiled from his family and country, he bemoans the fact that ‘I have everywhere sought sympathy and have found only repulse and disappointment.’
In ‘On Life’ he shows his agreement with Locke in that ‘nothing exists but as it is perceived’ and even more importantly, his rebellion against the humdrum ordinariness of the common impression of existence since ‘Life, the great miracle, we admire not, because it is so miraculous.’ The common man does not appreciate that ‘there is a spirit within him at enmity with nothingness and dissolution’ and that men are ignorant in so far as ‘the most familiarity obscures the wonder of our being.’
‘On a Future State’ ruminates over the possible existence of a life-after-death with a strong opposition expressed as to any idea that such would involve either punishment or reward for earthly actions in any supposed heaven or hell. Belief in such a system is accomplished by those who ‘persuade only those who wish to be persuaded’ and contradicts the obvious truth that ‘to say that fire exists without light and heat or that the principle of life exists without consciousness, or memory, or desire, or motive’ proves that that these cannot exist after death.
‘On the Punishment of Death’ is a fervent attack on capital punishment, based on the conception that the motives of ‘revenge, retaliation, atonement, expiation … are the chief sources of a prodigious class of miseries in the domestic circles of society’ which actually serve to ‘confirm all the inhuman and unsocial impulses of men’.
While claiming in ‘Speculations on Metaphysics’ that this discipline represents ‘an inquiry concerning those things belonging to, or connected with, the intellectual nature of man’, he goes on to express quite boldly that ‘man is not a moral, or an intellectual, but rather primarily an imaginative being.’ This fundamental role attributed to the imagination returns later in ‘A Defense of Poetry’.
‘Speculations on Morals’ includes an almost Benthamite acceptance of utilitarianism in that such systems are judged on how well these system of morals ‘represent the achievement of the most pleasure for the most people.’ Individuality also is stressed, since ‘morality is not that which binds men together and makes them socially interactive, but rather it is in the appreciation of the differences and individualities of men that it exists.’
Shelley’s enthusiasm for all things Hellenic comes through in ‘Essay on the Literature, the Art and the Manners of the Athenians’ which states that they comprised ‘the most perfect specimens of humanity of whom we have authoritative record’. Still, he criticizes them since Athenian women possessed only ‘the habits and qualities of slaves.’
‘On the Symposium of Plato’ shows his fervent admiration for this writer whom he felt combined ‘close and subtle logic with the Pythian fire of poetry.’
The much longer ‘Defense of Poetry’ is actually a perceptive analysis of literature from Homer through Dante to Milton – the three of whom are the sole writers in Shelley’s view to be terms ‘epic poets’ - but even more importantly, argues that poetry serves a wide and crucial purpose in human society. Based as it is on the imagination, from which all human moral impulses spring, it allows ‘virtue, love, patriotism and friendship’ to develop and presents the best hope for reforming current economic and social situations in more equitable ways, so that the gaps between the haves and have nots, the rich and poor and authoritarianism and anarchy may be overcome. Since ‘poetry redeems from decay the visitation of the divinity in man’, it is through it that such gross social, political and economic inequities will be seen to be patently wrong. After all, ‘the most unfailing herald, companion and follower of the awakening of a great people to work a beneficial change in opinion or institution, is poetry’ since ‘poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world’.
Reading a lot of Shelley lately, I’ve become convinced that more than ‘a poet with radical beliefs’ he was ‘a radical who happened to write poetry’. The fundamental social purpose ascribed to poetry in this final essay seems to bear out this analysis.
Recommended.
‘On Love’ expresses his almost pantheistic sense of communion with nature in his claim that ‘in the motion of the very single leaves of spring, in the blue air, there is then found a secret correspondence with our heart’. Exiled from his family and country, he bemoans the fact that ‘I have everywhere sought sympathy and have found only repulse and disappointment.’
In ‘On Life’ he shows his agreement with Locke in that ‘nothing exists but as it is perceived’ and even more importantly, his rebellion against the humdrum ordinariness of the common impression of existence since ‘Life, the great miracle, we admire not, because it is so miraculous.’ The common man does not appreciate that ‘there is a spirit within him at enmity with nothingness and dissolution’ and that men are ignorant in so far as ‘the most familiarity obscures the wonder of our being.’
‘On a Future State’ ruminates over the possible existence of a life-after-death with a strong opposition expressed as to any idea that such would involve either punishment or reward for earthly actions in any supposed heaven or hell. Belief in such a system is accomplished by those who ‘persuade only those who wish to be persuaded’ and contradicts the obvious truth that ‘to say that fire exists without light and heat or that the principle of life exists without consciousness, or memory, or desire, or motive’ proves that that these cannot exist after death.
‘On the Punishment of Death’ is a fervent attack on capital punishment, based on the conception that the motives of ‘revenge, retaliation, atonement, expiation … are the chief sources of a prodigious class of miseries in the domestic circles of society’ which actually serve to ‘confirm all the inhuman and unsocial impulses of men’.
While claiming in ‘Speculations on Metaphysics’ that this discipline represents ‘an inquiry concerning those things belonging to, or connected with, the intellectual nature of man’, he goes on to express quite boldly that ‘man is not a moral, or an intellectual, but rather primarily an imaginative being.’ This fundamental role attributed to the imagination returns later in ‘A Defense of Poetry’.
‘Speculations on Morals’ includes an almost Benthamite acceptance of utilitarianism in that such systems are judged on how well these system of morals ‘represent the achievement of the most pleasure for the most people.’ Individuality also is stressed, since ‘morality is not that which binds men together and makes them socially interactive, but rather it is in the appreciation of the differences and individualities of men that it exists.’
Shelley’s enthusiasm for all things Hellenic comes through in ‘Essay on the Literature, the Art and the Manners of the Athenians’ which states that they comprised ‘the most perfect specimens of humanity of whom we have authoritative record’. Still, he criticizes them since Athenian women possessed only ‘the habits and qualities of slaves.’
‘On the Symposium of Plato’ shows his fervent admiration for this writer whom he felt combined ‘close and subtle logic with the Pythian fire of poetry.’
The much longer ‘Defense of Poetry’ is actually a perceptive analysis of literature from Homer through Dante to Milton – the three of whom are the sole writers in Shelley’s view to be terms ‘epic poets’ - but even more importantly, argues that poetry serves a wide and crucial purpose in human society. Based as it is on the imagination, from which all human moral impulses spring, it allows ‘virtue, love, patriotism and friendship’ to develop and presents the best hope for reforming current economic and social situations in more equitable ways, so that the gaps between the haves and have nots, the rich and poor and authoritarianism and anarchy may be overcome. Since ‘poetry redeems from decay the visitation of the divinity in man’, it is through it that such gross social, political and economic inequities will be seen to be patently wrong. After all, ‘the most unfailing herald, companion and follower of the awakening of a great people to work a beneficial change in opinion or institution, is poetry’ since ‘poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world’.
Reading a lot of Shelley lately, I’ve become convinced that more than ‘a poet with radical beliefs’ he was ‘a radical who happened to write poetry’. The fundamental social purpose ascribed to poetry in this final essay seems to bear out this analysis.
Recommended.
June 23, 2020
Alguns comentários sobre a morte e a poesia foram muito interessantes. Os questionamentos sobre a onipotência de Deus e as críticas a religião foram ótimos e precisos(*sua opinião sobre o ateísmo causou sua expulsão de Oxford*).
October 30, 2010
I think I may have to read this one a few more times to come to a definite conclusion, but one read caused me to question a number of ideas expressed here.
First of all, it seemed there was no difference whatsoever between style and poetry to Shelley. Shelley refers Plato and Lord Bacon as poets because their language possessed a certain rhythm. Where does style end and poetry begin?
Secondly, he also states poetry needs moral. I think it's an interesting idea, even if something that never occurred to me.
Lastly, the idea that caused me most confusion was when he expressed his opinion on which poetry is the center and boundaries of knowledge. As much as I appreciate (love, even) poetry, I cannot see it like that. I agree poetry is a unique way to look to the world, a fresh, beautiful, individual perspective; but I don't see it as the basis of knowledge. Imagination, however, is something very different.
To sum up, I really enjoyed this reflection, but I think Shelley may have gotten a little carried away (passions tend to have that effect on people). However, I must say I admire him very much, for this essay shows just how dedicated and passioned he was about poetry. I'll be reading more from him for now on.
First of all, it seemed there was no difference whatsoever between style and poetry to Shelley. Shelley refers Plato and Lord Bacon as poets because their language possessed a certain rhythm. Where does style end and poetry begin?
Secondly, he also states poetry needs moral. I think it's an interesting idea, even if something that never occurred to me.
Lastly, the idea that caused me most confusion was when he expressed his opinion on which poetry is the center and boundaries of knowledge. As much as I appreciate (love, even) poetry, I cannot see it like that. I agree poetry is a unique way to look to the world, a fresh, beautiful, individual perspective; but I don't see it as the basis of knowledge. Imagination, however, is something very different.
To sum up, I really enjoyed this reflection, but I think Shelley may have gotten a little carried away (passions tend to have that effect on people). However, I must say I admire him very much, for this essay shows just how dedicated and passioned he was about poetry. I'll be reading more from him for now on.
January 1, 2015
*For College*
Pretty good, I must say. Shelley writes beautifully, it made me curious to read actual poems from him.
"Poetry is indeed something divine. It is at once the centre and circumference of knowledge."
"Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds."
"Poetry thus makes immortal all that is best and most beautiful in the world."
"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."
Pretty good, I must say. Shelley writes beautifully, it made me curious to read actual poems from him.
"Poetry is indeed something divine. It is at once the centre and circumference of knowledge."
"Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds."
"Poetry thus makes immortal all that is best and most beautiful in the world."
"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."
July 6, 2021
The language and the tone reminded me of a mix between Virginia Woolf’s objectiveness and Oscar Wilde’s polemicism. Shelley flirts between being nuanced and making wild unsubstantiated claims. Nonetheless, it as a thrilling read that I much enjoyed. Shelley was so progressive for his time and my favourite essays were those on atheism and metaphysics. His defense of poetry essay was average. Whilst making some interesting points it was too exaggerated and he overstated how amazing and all econompassing poetry.
Very decent essays, yet nothing entirely new and both the language and content are a little out of date.
Very decent essays, yet nothing entirely new and both the language and content are a little out of date.
January 12, 2021
I have no idea what to rate this nor what I should say about his essays. I went into this knowing a little about Percy, and he interested me greatly so I thought I would give his essays a try and they didn't disappoint. He presents his ideas nicely and I found myself agreeing with quite a few things (when I wasn't struggling with what on earth he was going on about, because it was the 1800s and the way they worded things confuses me sometimes). It was a good read if you're interested in Percy!
May 19, 2024
After being a self proclaimed poetry skeptic, Shelly may have converted me on this essay alone. Beautiful description of how poetry engages with imagination, time, morality, truth, etc. “Poetry defeats the curse which binds us to be subjected to the accident of surrounding impressions”
July 7, 2024
Oito ensaios sobre temas diversos com uma leitura fluida e textos com boas finalizações. Gosto de como Sheley disserta mas não tenta elaborar uma solução, porém deixa seus posicionamentos claros. Foi uma grata surpresa encontrar esse livro fininho em uma prateleira de livraria.
June 14, 2021
The freedom of women produced the poetry of sexual love. Love became a religion, the idols of whose worship were ever present
January 30, 2023
I particularly enjoyed learning about the theory of Romanticism.
Want to read
December 17, 2023Areopagus
April 6, 2024
Omg he is so full of himself, still love and somewhat agree with him but please someone calm him down already
January 24, 2026
poetic magic!
A remarkable achievement of poetic philosophy and explanation. Shelley in a class of his own in terms of classical poetry and thought.
A remarkable achievement of poetic philosophy and explanation. Shelley in a class of his own in terms of classical poetry and thought.
Read
November 6, 2010fading coal, spirit of the age...
"poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world."
"poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world."
April 14, 2015
"Poetry is indeed something divine." and "Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted." - Well, that says pretty much all about it, doesn't it?
December 28, 2014
Although he's not famous for his philosophical stances, it's interesting to see how British empiricism and continental idealism were deeply intertwined in his thoughts.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews