Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Anecdote Biography of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Bysshe Shelley. Every poet, even the humblest, differs in some respects from the majority of mankind, - at any rate, he is more in'ipressionable than his prosaic brethren, and more easily in?uenced by the spirit which possesses him. The outward facts of his life are easily ascertained, and their arrangement in an orderly manner requires no great skill. What requires the greatest skill is the detection and interpretation of the Spiritual facts of his life, the motives which actuated him, which guided him to goodness, and which drove him to evil 5 the angelic impulses by which he soared, the demoniac impulses by which he sank, - ih a word, the thorough understanding of his heart, his mind, his genius. The ideal poetic biographer, when he comes, will be a poet who is more than a poet. He does not exist at present. What does exist is the average biographer, whose self-imposed mission is to convince his readers that his hero was either the best or worst of men. Yesterday he was Dr. Griswold, to-day he is Mr. Ingram, to-morrow he will be - who? It is difficult to say who in the case of Shelley.
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