Shelley’s Hymn to Intellectual Beauty as a Romantic Poem

Mysticism – Mysticism is an another aspect of Shelley’s romanticism in the poem. In the poem, he tries to be philosophically understand the idea of a mystical experience he had during his childhood and concluded that the “Spirit of Beauty” unify itself into the entities of natural world which can give a sense of pleasure, joy , happiness and Shelley highlighted that this spirit can even make any person feel “omnipotent” and “immortal”. This experience is something which the poet tried to comprehend through rationality since Shelley was a rational poet. His romanticism explores the philosophical musing of the mind which the poet perceive from the external objective world.

Organic Unity– The organic unity is different in each and every poetic romanticism. Shelley tries to project organic unity between natural world and the mystical experiences. The poem clearly transcends the unification of Spirit of Beauty with the natural world. It is the human senses that feels the aspects of natural world where the presence of mystical attribution gives happiness and a sense of pleasure for human kind. This is a kind of interrelationship between man and nature and the grandeur element of natural world under the channels of mystical traits can give man the ever lasting moments of life , joy and peace which Shelley believes that death itself will be a “dark reality” if it do not exist.

Supernaturalism – The poem also reflects the supernatural experiences rather than the realm of existence. Shelley is trying to philosophically translate the experiences of mystical Spirit of Beauty. He highlights that mortal human consciousness tries to reason and explore the entities of “Demon, Ghost , and Heaven” to express their thoughts on the Spirit of Beauty but the Spirit itself has the potential to give all the knowledge of truth of an “unquiet dream”. This “unquiet dream” is a reflection of the mysterious unconscious realm which man tries to explore.

Process of Recollection– Shelley has also followed Wordsworthian romanticism in the poem. There is a recollection of the conscious childhood memories in the poem where Shelley tries to bring forth suggesting that when he was in search of the dead souls in the caves during his childhood , he felt a mystical experience which struck him a level of “ecstasy” and hence he devout to the Spirit ever since he feels joy and happiness. This in turn has given him a sense of freedom and liberty to enjoy life since he has dedicated his life to the Spirit of Beauty.

Imagination– Shelley’s poem is also romantically imaginative. However, his imagination is philosophical and rational at the same time where he tries to bring forth organic unity of nature and mysticism as well as invokes a sense of musings in the mind of the readers. The sensual world that he depicted has a major implications to address such philosophical attributes of Spirit of Beauty embodying the natural world. The recollection of imaginative childhood days in search for the souls and reasoning the experiences of those days also reflects the philosophy of self-realization of unknown mysteries that exist within the dimensions of natural world itself.

Shelley Adonais as a Pastoral Elegy

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