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Questions and Answers
What is the main purpose of Shelley's essay?
What is the main purpose of Shelley's essay?
- To argue against the importance of poetry
- To praise the achievements of science and technology
- To describe the four ages of poetry
- To prove that poetry is essential and concerned with the permanent and the universal (correct)
What does Peacock argue about poetry in his essay?
What does Peacock argue about poetry in his essay?
- Poetry is only for the intellectuals
- Poetry has no place and no achievements in an age of science and technology (correct)
- Poetry is essential in an age of science and technology
- Poetry is only for the romantics
What is the principle of imagination, according to Shelley?
What is the principle of imagination, according to Shelley?
- The principle of analysis
- The principle of enumeration
- The principle of relation
- The principle of synthesis (correct)
What does Shelley compare reason to in his essay?
What does Shelley compare reason to in his essay?
What do poets do, according to Shelley?
What do poets do, according to Shelley?
What does Shelley say is the relationship between reason and imagination?
What does Shelley say is the relationship between reason and imagination?
According to Shelley, what is a poet's primary role in relation to language?
According to Shelley, what is a poet's primary role in relation to language?
What does Shelley mean by saying that language itself is poetry?
What does Shelley mean by saying that language itself is poetry?
What is the result of a poet communicating his perceptions to his society?
What is the result of a poet communicating his perceptions to his society?
What is the role of poets in relation to civil society, according to Shelley?
What is the role of poets in relation to civil society, according to Shelley?
What is the significance of a poet's vision of the future, according to Shelley and Wordsworth?
What is the significance of a poet's vision of the future, according to Shelley and Wordsworth?
What does Shelley mean by saying that poets 'behold the future in the present'?
What does Shelley mean by saying that poets 'behold the future in the present'?
What is the relationship between a poet's perceptions and his expression, according to Shelley?
What is the relationship between a poet's perceptions and his expression, according to Shelley?
What is the significance of a poet's ability to 'apprehend the true, the beautiful and the good', according to Shelley?
What is the significance of a poet's ability to 'apprehend the true, the beautiful and the good', according to Shelley?
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Study Notes
Shelley's Defense of Poetry
- Shelley responded to Thomas Love Peacock's essay, which argued that poetry has no place in an age of science and technology.
- Shelley asserts that poetry is essential, concerned with the permanent and universal, and that poets are the legislators of the world.
Reason and Imagination
- Shelley differentiates between two classes of mental action: reason and imagination.
- Imagination:
- Mind acting upon thoughts to color them with its own light
- Principle of synthesis
- Concerned with universal forms and similitudes
- Reason:
- Mind contemplating the relation between thoughts
- Principle of analysis
- Concerned with the relations of things and differences
- Shelley describes the relationship between reason and imagination as inseparable, with imagination being more comprehensive.
Poets and Poetry
- Poets are:
- Authors of language and music
- Qualified to see the true, beautiful, and good through imagination
- Use language to express what they perceive, giving them pleasure or "highest delight"
- Poetry:
- Language itself is poetry
- Poetry gives life to language, making it useful for human intercourse
- Poets are also:
- Institutors of laws
- Founders of civil society
- Inventors of the arts of life
- Teachers who draw people closer to the beautiful and true
- Prophets who behold the future and guide people towards order and moral laws
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