Hymn to Intellectual Beauty (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Percy Bysshe Shelley
- First Published: 1817
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Art or artists, Ghosts or apparitions, Spiritual life or spirituality, Beauty, Spiritualism, Intellect, Aesthetics, Thought or thinking
The Poem
“Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” is written in seven twelve-line stanzas with an abbaaccbddee rhyme scheme. The word “intellectual” means nonmaterial, and “intellectual beauty” refers to an “unseen Power” that shines on “human thought or form.” As a mental phenomenon, intellectual beauty is an ideal that transcends “This various world,” which it visits like an “awful shadow.” The poem’s religious attitude toward this power is reflected in the use of the word “hymn” in the title.
In the first stanza, the speaker of the poem...
[The entire page is 1514 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
See Also
