A critique and summary of Percy Bysshe Shelley's Hymn to Intellectual Beauty
In “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty”, Shelley describes his realisation of the power of human intellect. In seven carefully-constructed stanzas, he outlines the qualities of this power and the e ect it has had on him, using the essential themes of Romantic poetry with references to nature and the self.In the first stanza, the concept of the “unseen Power” – the mind – is put forward, and Shelley states his position on the subject. Throughout the stanza, extensive use is made of profluent similes. “As summer winds… | Like moonbeams… | Like hues… | Like clouds… | Like memory…”; these intangible elements of nature and, significantly, memory (which here is a human quality) is aiming to create the air of this Power as something beautiful that is at one with nature and yet is transient and somehow beyond human reach and grasp. Similes such as “Like hues and harmonies of evening” are used to state that this Power has an equilibrium, an intrinsic, inevitable concordance. The five similes in this stanza are all intangible; the first four are all an intrinsic part of the Romantic’s love of, and preoccupation with, nature. Through these similes Shelley constructs an image of the Power’s awesome and intense status.
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1208
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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