Defense of Poetry

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Is Shelley's imagery splendid? If not splendid, it is at least generally beautiful, and bears an obvious resemblance to that of his poetry. Many of his illustrations are drawn from light, fire, the wind, music, birds, and flowers. It would be an agreeable and instructive task to make a collection of his metaphorical phrases, to trace his indebtedness to the Bible and other classics, and to spell out the character of his genius in the light of his similes, but we cannot afford our selves the indulgence in this place.