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Hymn To Intellectual Beauty - College Essay

Hymn To Intellectual Beauty

In "", Shelley describes his realisation of the power of human intellect. In seven carefully-constructed stanzas, he outlines the qualities of this power and the e ect it has had on him, using the essential themes of Romantic poetry with references to nature and the self.
In the first stanza, the concept of the "unseen Power" – the mind – is put forward, and Shelley states his position on the subject. Throughout the stanza, extensive use is made of profluent similes. "As summer winds… | Like moonbeams… | Like hues… | Like clouds… | Like memory…"; these intangible elements of nature and, significantly, memory (which here is a human quality) is aiming to create ...

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awesome and intense status.
The second stanza is a question Shelley asks of the Power. Lines 2 and 3 are particularly important, as it is where he says the Beauty (another form of the Power) "shine[s] upon | …human thought". On line three, the question is posed to Beauty: "where art thou gone?" However, he recognises the futility of such a question with lines 4–8, which are a series of even more rhetorical questions. At the same time, he asks why it is that humanity remains disinterested in worshipping or deifying the human intellect, which he believes is the reason for our "scope | For love and hate, despondency and hope". Of course, the impact of nature is intense, as is shown by the ongoing figurative language involving it: "Ask why sunlight not for ever | Weaves rainbows o’er yon mountain-river". This shows how Shelley sees a divine being as integral in nature. And yet, he is despondent because humanity will not worship it.
Stanza ...

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Hymn To Intellectual Beauty. (2005, July 25). Retrieved January 11, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hymn-To-Intellectual-Beauty/30615

"Hymn To Intellectual Beauty." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 25 Jul. 2005. Web. 11 Jan. 2026. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hymn-To-Intellectual-Beauty/30615>

"Hymn To Intellectual Beauty." Essayworld.com. July 25, 2005. Accessed January 11, 2026. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hymn-To-Intellectual-Beauty/30615.

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 7/25/2005 06:23:18 PM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1248
Pages: 5

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