Shelley

In Percy Shelley’s poem “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty”, he writes about many abstract powers. Through his usage of similes, the reader is able to get a sense of what his relationships are with abstract thoughts, in particular Power and Beauty. We are especially able to get this feel by looking at Shelley’s infusion of mortal phenomena with these abstracts. The first abstract, Power, comes to us in Part I of this poem. Power, …

…driven” and ‘Music by the night-wind sent” we are able to see this view of Beauty’s changeability. Shelley seems to see both Power and Beauty as honorable and attractive, but also fleeting and much different from each other. Power seems to be a very mystical and it has taken over Beauty’s reign. Beauty is no where to be found by Shelley, but it is what he craves more than Power itself. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**