Hymn to Intellectual Beauty

"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" is a poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816 and published in 1817.

Composition and publication

"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" was written during the summer of 1816 while Percy and Mary Shelley stayed with Lord Byron near Lake Geneva. Percy Shelley sent a finished copy of the poem to his friend Leigh Hunt who immediately lost it. Shelley was therefore forced to create another finished draft of the poem and resend the poem. It was eventually published in Hunt's "Examiner" on 19 January 1817. [Reiman and Fraistat 2002 p. 92] After the initial publication, Percy Shelley corrected lines 27 and 58 but made no other changes. A second finished version was discovered in December 1976 in the "Scrope Davies Notebook"; it was written in Mary Shelley's hand and contained many differences from the first published edition.Reiman and Fraistat 2002 p. 93]

Poem

"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" is an 84-line ode that was influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's novel of sensibility "Julie, or the New Heloise" and William Wordsworth's "". Although the theme of the ode, glory's departure, is shared with Wordsworth's ode, Shelley holds a differing view of nature: [Bloom 1993 p. 290] :The awful shadow of some unseen Power:Floats though unseen among us, - visiting:This various world with as inconstant wing:As summer winds that creep from flower to flower. -:Like moonbeams that behind some piny mountain shower,:It visits with inconstant glance:Each human heart and countenance; (Lines 1–8)

The second stanza begins with the narrator addressing Intellectual Beauty::Spirit of Beauty, that dost consecrate:With thine own hues all thou dost shine upon:Of human thought or form, - where are thou gone?:Why dost thou pass away and leave our state,:This dim vast vale of tears, vacant and desolate? (Lines 13–17)

But he is not answered, as he reveals in stanza three::No voice from some sublimer world hath ever:To sage or poet these responses given -:Therefore the name of God and ghosts and Heaven,:Remain the records of their vain endeavour, (Lines 25–28)

The fourth stanza reveals three values::Love, Hope, and Self-esteem, like clouds depart:And come, for some uncertain moments lent.:Man were immortal, and omnipotent,:Didst thou, unknown and awful as thou art,:Keep with thy glorious train firm state within his heart. (Lines 36–41)Shelley replaces the third of the Christian values, faith, with self-esteem, which signifies respect for the human imagination. According to the narrator, we have only temporary access to these values and can only attain them through Intellectual Beauty: [Bloom 1993 p. 290] :Thou messenger of sympathies,:That wax and wane in lovers's eyes-:Thou - that to human thought art nourishment,:Like darkness to a dying flame!:Depart not as thy shadow came,:Depart not - lest the grave should be,:Like life and fear, a dark reality. (Lines 42–48)

In stanza five, he reveals::While yet a boy I sought for ghosts, and sped:Through many a listening chamber, cave and ruin,:And starlight wood, with fearful steps pursuing:Hopes of high talk with the departed dead. (Lines 49–52)The words he speaks, possibly referring to Christian doctrines, brought him no response. It was not until he mused on life that he was able to experience a sort of religious awakening and learn of Intellectual Beauty:Bloom 1993 p. 292] :Sudden, thy shadow fell on me;:I shrieked, and clasped my hands in extacy! (Lines 59–60)

Once he learns of Intellectual Beauty, he makes a vow, which begins stanza six::I vowed that I would dedicate my powers:To thee and thine - have I not kept the vow?

Stanza seven continues with the vow::Thus let thy power, which like the truth:Of nature on my passive youth:Descended, to my ownward life supply:Its calm - to one who worships thee,:And every form containing thee,:Whom, Spirit fair, thy spells did bind:To fear himself, and love all human kind. (Lines 78–84)The narrator breaks from the Wordsworthian tradition by realizing that Intellectual Beauty, and not manifestations of it in nature, is what should be worshipped. The imagination, and not nature, is connected to truth, and the narrator realizes that he should revere his own imagination and the imagination of others. [Bloom 1993 pp. 292–193]

Variations

The first published edition varies from both the copy found in the "Scrope Davies Notebook" copy of the poem and the original manuscript draft in terms of language and philosophical view. [O'Neill 2002 p. 618]

Themes

Shelley's understanding of Beauty, as an ideal and universal aspect and not in the common understanding of the word as an aesthetic judgment of an object, was influenced by his knowledge of Plato's writings. Although Plato believed that Beauty should slowly be sought after in degrees of it until you can achieve true Beauty and this process is possible through dialectic, Shelley believed that Beauty could be found through its earthly manifestations and can only be connected to through the use of the imagination. The origins of Shelley's understanding of Beauty and how to attain it can be found within "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty". The poem's theme is Beauty, but Shelley's understanding of how the mind works is different from Plato's: Plato believes that Beauty is a metaphysical concept that is derived from reason and Shelley believed that philosophy and metaphysics could not reveal truth and that an understanding of Beauty was futile. Instead, Beauty could only be felt and its source could not be known. [Pulos 1985 pp. 38–40, 42]

Notes

References

* Bloom, Harold. "The Visionary Company: A Reading of English Romantic Poetry". Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993.
* O'Neill, Michael. "Shelley's Lyric Art" in "Shelley's Prose and Poetry", 2nd ed., Ed. Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat, 616–626. New York: Norton and Co., 2002.
* Pulos, C. E. "Scepticism and Platonism" in "Percy Bysshe Shelley", Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985.
* Reiman, Donald H. and Fraistat, Neil. "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" in "Shelley's Prose and Poetry", 2nd ed., Ed. Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat. New York: Norton and Co., 2002.