Shelley and the Sublime: An Interpretation of the Major Poems

by Angela Leighton

Overview

This book presents a major reassessment of Shelley's poetry. Whereas other criticism has stressed the philosophical and political concerns of his poetry in isolation, Angela Leighton argues that Shelley's philosophy and politics are presented as problems of poetic utterance and are this inseparable from his aesthetics. The author begins by tracing the origins of Shelley's poetic theory in eighteenth-century ideas of the sublime. She then discusses the effect of such a theory on the language of seven of Shelley's most important poems including 'Hymn to Intellectual Beauty', Prometheus Unbound, 'Ode to the West Wind', 'To a Skylark' and Adonais. In these poems the task of political change is expressed as the prerogative of the inspired poet, who desires to reunite the fallen language of poetry with the original impulse of inspiration that it supplants. This significant contribution to Shelley studies will interest all serious students of English Romantic poetry and aesthetics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521272025
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/01/1984
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.47(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; 1. The sublime in the eighteenth century; 2. Shelley: from empiricism to the sublime; 3. Scepticism and sublime power: 'Hymn to Intellectual Beauty' and 'Mont Blanc'; 4. The politics of creativity: Prometheus Unbound; 5. Inspiration and the poet's skill: 'Ode to the West Wind' and 'To a Skylark'; 6. Shelley's leisure for fiction: Adonais; 7. Sleepers in the oblivious valley: The Triumph of Life; Notes; Bibliography; Index.