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Updated: May 12, 2025
The cold phrases of kindly Horace Smith show that he had not comprehended "Prometheus Unbound"; and Shelley whimsically complains that even intelligent and sympathetic critics confounded the ideal passion described in "Epipsychidion" with the love affairs of "a servant-girl and her sweetheart."
This Shelley had already acknowledged in the "Hymn;" and this he emphasizes in these words: "The error consists in seeking in a mortal image the likeness of what is, perhaps, eternal." The fragments and cancelled passages published in Forman's edition do not throw much light upon "Epipsychidion." The longest, entitled "To his Genius" by its first editor, Mr.
All the poets appearing in Shelley's verse, the heroes of Rosalind and Helen, The Revolt of Islam, Adonais, Epipsychidion and Prince Athanase, share the disposition of the last-named one: Naught of ill his heart could understand, But pity and wild sorrow for the same.
Far different in character is Epipsychidion , a rhapsody celebrating Platonic love, the most impalpable, and so one of the most characteristic, of all Shelley's works. It was inspired by a beautiful Italian girl, Emilia Viviani, who was put into a cloister against her will, and in whom Shelley imagined he found his long-sought ideal of womanhood.
Shall we look? I have them all here, you know. Oh all! Mrs. Don't you believe me now? Ventnor. Good heavens! How I must have repeated myself! But then you were so very deaf. Mrs. No no; wait! I want to find your answer to the one I was just reading. Ventnor. What did you think? Mrs. I thought it was the one in which you quoted Epipsychidion Ventnor. Mercy! Did I quote things?
To Mary she complains of a certain coldness, but certainly this could not be brought to the charge of Shelley, who was now inspired to write his Epipsychidion. To him Emilia was as the Skylark, an emanation of the beautiful; but to Mary for a time, during Shelley's transitory adoration, the event evidently became painful, with all her philosophy and belief in her husband.
Thus Shelley's love-songs are just what might be expected. If he does strain to the moment of ingress into the divine being, it is to swoon with excess of bliss, as at the end of 'Epipsychidion', or as in the 'Indian Serenade': Is the assertion contained in this last line universally true? Perhaps. At any rate it is true of Shelley.
Although "Adonais" is not so utterly beyond the scope of other poets as "Prometheus" or "Epipsychidion," it presents Shelley's qualities in a form of even and sustained beauty, brought within the sphere of the dullest apprehensions. Shelley, we may notice, dwells upon the ART of the poem; and this perhaps, is what at first sight will strike the student most.
Instead of remaining true to the conception of Beauty expressed in the "Hymn," Shelley "sought through the world the One whom he may love." Thus, while his doctrine in "Epipsychidion" seems Platonic, it will not square with the "Symposium." Plato treats the love of a beautiful person as a mere initiation into divine mysteries, the first step in the ladder that ascends to heaven.
It was as a great poetic artist, not as a great poet, that the author of 'Prometheus' and 'The Cenci', of 'Julian and Maddalo', and 'Epipsychidion' was finally to rank in Mr. Browning's mind. The whole remains nevertheless a memorial of a very touching affection; and whatever intrinsic value the Essay may possess, its main interest must always be biographical.
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