English
Essays: Sidney to Macaulay. The Harvard
Classics. 1909–14.
Introductory
Note
Percy Bysshe
Shelley
A SHORT sketch of the life of Percy Bysshe
Shelley will be found prefixed in his drama of the “Cenci” in the
volume of modern English Drama in the Harvard Classics.
The “Defence of Poetry” is by far the most important
of Shelley’s prose writings, and is of great value in supplementing
and correcting the picture of his mind which is given by his lyrical
poetry; for we can perceive from this brilliant piece of
philosophical discussion that Shelley had intellect as well as
imagination.
The immediate occasion of the essay was the
publication of Thomas Love Peacock’s “Four Ages of Poetry,” to which
Shelley’s work was originally a reply. In this, as in other notable
respects, the treatise is parallel with Sidney’s. In its present
form Shelley has eliminated much of the controversial matter; and it
stands as one of the most eloquent and inspiring assertions of the
“ideal nature and essential value of poetry.”
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