Named source · 1821–1840

A Defence of Poetry Quotes by Percy Bysshe Shelley: Context & Meanings

2 quotations linked to A Defence of Poetry by or associated with Percy Bysshe Shelley, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

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Percy Bysshe Shelley’s A Defence of Poetry, written in 1821 and published posthumously in 1840

Topics and ideas

Poetry, imagination, sympathy, moral perception, cultural influence and Shelley’s argument that poets indirectly shape the language and possibilities of society.

Edition and date context

1821–1840

Dates represented in this collection: 1840 · 1821. Individual quotation notes provide the most specific context for a passage.

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Primary / edition source · en.wikisource.org ↗

Represented passages

2 quotations with source context and meaning

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“Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Meaning & context

Shelley argues that imaginative writers can reshape moral language, social possibility and public feeling without holding formal legislative office.

Source details

A Defence of Poetry, written 1821 and first published posthumously in 1840; Wikisource transcription. This is the essay’s concluding sentence and summarizes Shelley’s historical literary theory about poetry’s indirect cultural and political influence, not literal legislative authority.

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“The great instrument of moral good is the imagination; and poetry administers to the effect by acting upon the cause.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Meaning & context

Shelley treats imagination as the capacity that lets a person move beyond a narrow private viewpoint and enter the pains and pleasures of others, with poetry strengthening that sympathetic faculty.