28 pages 56 minutes read

Percy Bysshe Shelley

A Defence of Poetry

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1840

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Essay Analysis

Analysis: “A Defence of Poetry”

In “A Defence of Poetry,” Shelley forces readers to examine their definition of poetry. He claims that poetry is “the expression of the imagination” (5). With this definition, Shelley prompts readers to view poetry as a wellspring that produces everything else, making its importance to society easily recognizable. By encompassing all imaginative works, poetry becomes vital to life.

After broadening the idea of poetry, Shelley goes deeper and distinguishes between his definition of poetry as all works of imagination and the traditional view of poetry: “[P]oetry in a more restricted sense expresses those arrangements of language, and especially metrical language” (10-11). The poetry of Shelley and his contemporaries falls within that narrow definition with arrangements of language and meter. According to Shelley, the classic form of poetry is greater than all other works of imagination because poetry is true imagination. Poetry is the act of taking words, which are not physical, tangible objects, and creating something new. Thus, creating something out of nothing is a higher form of art.

Shelley goes on to say that poetry is not a creation of will; it is a faculty of imagination.

Related Titles

By Percy Bysshe Shelley

Study Guide

logo

Adonais

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Adonais

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Study Guide

logo

Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Study Guide

logo

Mont Blanc

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Study Guide

logo

Mutability

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Mutability

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Study Guide

logo

Ode to the West Wind

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ode to the West Wind

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Plot Summary

logo

Prometheus Unbound

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Prometheus Unbound

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Study Guide

logo

Queen Mab

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Study Guide

logo

The Masque of Anarchy

Percy Bysshe Shelley

The Masque of Anarchy

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Study Guide

logo

The Triumph of Life

Percy Bysshe Shelley

The Triumph of Life

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Study Guide

logo

To a Skylark

Percy Bysshe Shelley

To a Skylark

Percy Bysshe Shelley