A Defence of Poetry - Percy Shelley

Russell Stoll – 1B

Percy Shelley’s “In Defence of Poetry” was completed in 1812. This essay focuses on the role of poetry and the poet in society; more specifically, it’s Shelley’s explanation of why poets are incredible, divine, super-human beings on which all of civilization and human existence relies. (This is surely a shocking point of view, since Shelley himself is a poet.) Makdisi has placed it in the Criticism section of our syllabus because it centers on Shelley’s criticism of reason. Shelley believes that imagination is the key ingredient of what makes poets such integral, productive characters, and thus this piece revolves around Shelley making the argument for why imagination is superior to reason. Because of this central argument, I believe that “Defence of Poetry” is extremely relevant to the theme of “self and imagination.”

“Defence of Poetry” can broken into three main arguments: 1) Why imagination is superior to reason. 2) Why poetry is necessary to promote civilization. 3) What makes a poet.

1) Why imagination is superior to reason:
This part makes up the bulk of the piece, and Shelley spends a lot of time explaining several different grounds for why imagination is better than reason. In Shelley’s opening paragraph, he sets up his argument with a series of analogies: “Reason is to Imagination as the instrument to the agent, as the body to the soul, as the shadow to the substance.” For Shelley, imagination is superior to reason because imagination enables us to explore and to form new relationships. Essentially, imagination allows us to play, and it is this capability of play that establishes us as human. Shelley’s example for the embodiment of imagination is a child at play.

2) Why poetry is necessary to promote civilization:
Shelley believes that poetry tells us how to love ourselves and others. Because of this love connection, as brought about by the words of poets, we are able to understand each other and together bring about change in the world. For Shelley, poetry is not susceptible to the will of “I” or “me;” we cannot force poetry, it is forced on us. Therefore, poetry’s power to impose itself upon us is what drives us to connect, and ultimately transform society and help it evolve. Shelley believes that poetry is the only way for us to reach the divine.

3) What makes a poet:
In this essay, Shelley goes to great lengths to define what a poet is. For Shelley, the poets are the ones who love the most intensely; poets are heroes, prophets, the most moral, and in a sense Messianic. When Shelley uses the word “poet,” what he is really saying is “artist.” Poets are not just writers and authors: poets can be musicians, dancers, architects, sculptors, painters, law-makers, founders of civil society, inventors, and teachers. Basically, Shelley believes that anyone who fully employs their imagination is a poet. According to Percy Shelley, “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”

On a side note, something kind of cool to think about that is relevant to the idea of law-makers being poets: laws as metaphors. Ideas like "All men are created equal," and "All men have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are really just metaphors that have became widely accepted over time. This is one example of how Shelley saw poets as "legislators of the world," and how poetry really does directly affect civilization. Before this, I had never really thought of laws as poetry, but now I find this concept rather fascinating.

(E-mail me at rstoll@ucla.edu with queries, questions, qualms, etc. Fare well, fellow students)