Hymn to Intellectual Beauty by Percy Bysshe Shelley

MA English, 2nd semester, Minhaj University Lahore

1. Presented to Ms Kashifa Khatoon Presented by Iqra Mushtaq

2. Hymn to Intellectual Beauty by Percy Bysshe Shelley

3. Biography: Percy Bysshe Shelley ( 1792–1822) Poet, Playwright, Author Wife : Harriet (House Wife) Mary Shelley (the author of Frankenstein, published 1818 ) Children: Percy Florence, Clara Everina , William Friends:  John Keats, Leigh Hunt, Lord Byron

4. Early Life Shelley left home at age of 10 to study at Syon House Academy, after two years, he enrolled at Eton College. In the fall of 1810, Shelly entered University College, Oxford but unfortunately expelled. Famous Poems: Ozymandias , Ode to the West Wind, Adonais XLII

5. Form of the Poem The poem consists of seven long stanza. The poem has a regular rhyming scheme and the iambic rhyming empathetic in the poem. The first four line and the twelve line of each stanza follow pentameter and the fifth line written in hexameter the sixth to eleven lines written in tetrameter. The rhyming scheme is A B B A A C C B D D E E . The first four lines and twelve line have syllables. Fifth line has sixth syllables. Line six to eleventh have four syllables.

6. Summary One Stanza 1  - Introduction of the unseen, inconstant and mysterious Power. Stanza 2,3,4  - Personification in form of Spirit of BEAUTY; questioning extremes of human emotion; call for the spirit to stay and lighten life. Stanza 5,6  : Personal involvement in search for the spirit; dedication to expression of same through life and art, to free world from  dark slavery. Stanza 7  : Invocation of spirit's power for personal and universal need.

7. Summary Two The speaker says that the shadow of an invisible Power floats among human beings, occasionally visiting human hearts, manifested in summer winds, or moonbeams, or the memory of music, or anything that is precious for its mysterious grace . Addressing this Spirit of Beauty, the speaker asks where it has gone, and why it leaves the world so isolated when it goes, why human hearts can feel such hope and love when it is present, and such despair and hatred when it is gone . He asserts that religious and superstitious notions, ”Demon , Ghost, and Heaven", are nothing more than the attempts of mortal poets and wise men to explain and express their responses to the Spirit of Beauty, which alone, the speaker says, can give “grace and truth to life’s unquiet dream.” Love, Hope, and Self-Esteem come and go at the whim of the Spirit, and if it would only stay in the human heart forever, instead of coming and going unpredictably, man would be “immortal and omnipotent.” The Spirit inspires lovers and nourishes thought; and the speaker implores the spirit to remain even after his life has ended, fearing that without it death will be “a dark reality.”

8. Theme The poem's major theme is Beauty, but Shelley's understanding of how the mind works is different because he believed that philosophy and metaphysics could not reveal truth and that an understanding of Beauty was useless. Instead, Beauty could only be felt and its source could not be known . The power of the imagination and emotions versus rational thought, relishing in, rather than seeking answer to the unknown. The love of the simplicity of nature T he freedom represented in the wild Religion

9. Analysis In the opening stanza of the poem, the speaker relates the invisible power to the natural things which provide joy. Those things are summer, winds, flowers, moonbeams, harmonies of evening, and starlight. He says that these things are mere smiles and they are beautiful in their appearance but they are mysterious. If there is no intellectual virtue, these things which enchant bring gloominess and grief. The poet is trying to point out that intellectual beauty is highly fleeting and it often argued by the poets. He says that many people seek shelter in religion to understand the world. According to him all these efforts are vain, so, one should explore his own heart to find the answer.

10. Analysis con. Shelley describe his religion experience which he had during his youth. He says that they were useless prayers or magic. In the fifth stanza of the poem, the poet presents his atheist and philosophical critique. According to him, the ways which religion suggests lead to dark slavery. He believe that if we are able to grasp the true understanding of the natural world, we will be emancipated from darkness, even beyond the reach of the poet. In the concluding part of the poem, the speaker recognize the serenity of the day after the noon has past and autumn approaches.

11. Major Ideas About The Poem… Hymn To Intellectual Beauty, written in the summer of 1816 and published in 1817, is Shelley's attempt to shape abstraction and define the Spirit of Beauty, the awful Loveliness, which to him was worthy of worship . This metaphor refers to the poet’s life: he thinks he is past the dawn of youthful misunderstanding and is even past the midpoint of realizing the difference between superstition and knowledge.

12. Major Ideas About The Poem…con In the last two lines of the poem the poet describes intellectual beauty as a spirit which has fascinating powers. According to him, knowledge surprising and frightening. He concludes that human have not been able to understand that love and peace come through understanding of nature. The poem has both dark and joyful images. There are various allusions to nature and superstitions, though them he wants to distinguish between the true and false knowledge.

13. References https:// www.biography.com/people/percy-bysshe-shelley-9481527 https:// owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-Hymn-To-Intellectual-Beauty-by-Percy-Bysshe-Shelley https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyILQqldlZ8

14. Q/A Session

15. Thank You