The Unseen Poet
Throughout his poetry, Shelley commends the poet, saying that he is a man who uses his imagination to create a unity in all things. While he highly values the role poets play in the world, he also believes that the greatest poets share their wisdom while remaining unrecognized and undistinguished in society. In A Defense of Poetry, Shelley briefly argues that poets should be like nightingales, offering their art to the world while staying hidden from view.
The Power of Poetry
Like many Romantic poets, Percy Shelley believes has the utmost faith in the power of poetry; this he makes obvious in the opening paragraphs of A Defense of Poetry. Shelley then describes the poet’s role in shaping society. Although he asserts that poems are images of life itself, Shelley believes no one, including the poet himself, is completely aware of the power of poetry.
Shelley maintains that poets write mostly for future generations. In their own lifetimes, poets are often unseen, unrecognized, and under-appreciated. This is not, however, seen as a negative. The wisdom of the poet is no less impressive simply because it is not appreciated during that poet’s life. The message spread through the poetry is what is important, not the individual poet.
A poet, Shelley writes, is a nightingale who sings in the darkness. A poet is not a bold, egotistical man whose quest is to have all other men view the world as he does. In Shelley’s opinion, a great poet causes his readers to feel authentic emotions and sympathize with a poem’s characters; readers then recognize not the poet who led them to feel these emotions but the poem’s significance itself. Unlike many poets of his day, Shelley is content to be a hidden cause of his readers’ moral and ethical improvements.
Percy Shelley's Wish
By willingly avoiding the spotlight, Shelley is like the concealed bird in his ode “To a Sky-Lark.” In this poem, written twenty years before A Defense of Poetry, Shelley commends the sky-lark, who offers much beauty and pleasure to men while remaining undetected. The poem ends with Shelley’s wish for the bird to teach him to be half as joyous as the bird seems to be.
Two decades later, this wish seems to be granted, and its result comes in the form of A Defense of Poetry. Shelley, like the sky-lark, has spread a beautiful message – that poetry can bring harmony and unity to the world. Like the sky-lark, he cares not that his art is appreciated while he himself remains unacknowledged. What should give a poet pleasure, he believes, is knowing his poetry has aided men in finding meaning and harmony in the world.
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