A Defence of Poetry
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1821, published 1840
- Form
- Essay
- Language
- English
- Length
- Short · 40 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Demanding3 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendThe Major WorksOxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 2009Includes the Defence with the poems it defends.
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Written in 1821 in reply to Thomas Love Peacock's essay The Four Ages of Poetry, which had argued that poetry was obsolete in an age of science, and published after Shelley's death. Shelley argues that poetry in the broad sense, the imaginative making of order, underlies language, law, religion and science, and that poets have been the founders of civil society. Poetry enlarges the sympathetic imagination, which is the instrument of moral good. It closes by calling poets the unacknowledged legislators of the world.
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The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns A Defence of Poetry are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.