A Defence of Poetry

Morality is the distinction between the principles guiding right and wrong. In “A Defence of Poetry,” Shelley argues that poetry is moral because it takes a person out of their worldview and allows them to imagine another reality. Poetry creates empathy by producing kindness, and it discourages bad behaviors by showing the disastrous consequences of evil decisions.

Shelley defines poetry two different ways in “A Defence of Poetry.” Broadly interpreted, poetry is any work of imagination: “Poetry, in a general sense, may be defined to be ‘the expression of the imagination’” (5). In his first definition, Shelly says that any work of imagination is poetry. Narrowly interpreted, poetry is a form of art with the standard conventions commonly associated with it: “But poetry in a more restricted sense expresses those arrangements of language, and especially metrical language, which are created by that imperial faculty, whose throne is curtained within the invisible nature of man” (11). Shelley uses the term’s two definitions interchangeably throughout his essay, but readers must rely on context to decide which definition of poetry he is referring to.

In the first paragraph of “A Defence of Poetry,” Shelley differentiates between the “two classes of mental action” (4): reason and imagination. He defines reason as the “mind contemplating the relations borne by one thought to another, however produced” (4). Under this interpretation, reason draws conclusions from the contemplation of multiple thoughts. Reason does not investigation how the thoughts came into being, but it analyzes them and tries to draw conclusions.

Reason was the king of the Enlightenment Age. Shelley does not discount reason; he merely believes that imagination is superior. He reacts against the notion that exact formulas can determine universal truth.