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Shelley not only composed
many outstanding poems, but also wrote a famous critic article, which makes
him great as a critic: A Defence of Poetry（1821）. It is a poetic
criticism react to
Peacock’s The Four Ages of Poetry. Peacock states
that poetry, although played an important role in educating the residents of
primitive society, may inevitably decline with the progress of civilization,
and finally lose its educational function in a society dominated by ration.
In this article, Shelley mildly criticizes Peacock’s propose, at the same
time, he publics his own understanding towards poetry. According to Shelley,
the influence of poetry becomes less and less, even powerless as the advance
of civilization. However, it does not mean that poetry itself becomes
powerless; in fact it is the false of civilization, which materializes
people’s spiritual life and makes them less and less creative. Poetry is a
very significant factor in the spiritual life of society, and the
civilization requires it:
“The great secret of morals is love; or a going out of our own nature, and
an identification of ourselves with the beautiful which exists in thought,
action, or person, not our own. A man to be greatly good, must imagine
intensely and comprehensively, he must put himself in the place of another
and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his
own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination; and poetry
administers to the effect by acting on the cause.”
Besides, he considered that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the
world.”
A Defence of Poetry can be divided into two parts. Part one is about the
history of poetry: its origin and development. Second part, because of
Shelley’s unexpected death, is unfinished. In second part, the situation of
that time was emphasized. It is an outstanding declaration of the second
generation of Romantic Movement, which points out that the vital task of art
is the reformation of reality. This critical writing is the consequence of
Shelley’s long way of probe in aesthetics and the theories of poetry.
Shelley’s lyric powers and romantic biography have until recently obscured
Shelley’s most enduring qualities as a writer: his intellectual courage and
originality; his hatred of oppression and injustice; and his mischievous,
sense of humour. He was widely read on the classics, philosophy, and
contemporary science. His essays are highly intelligent, and his political
pamphlets are both angry and idealistic. However, Shelley’s weaknesses as a
writer are also apparent: rhetorical abstraction, intellectual arrogance,
and moments of intense self-pity. However, in summing up him, among the
English Romantics, Shelley was an undoubted major figure: a poet of volcanic
hope for a better world and of fiery aspirations.
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