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

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.”

12. 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
 The freedom represented in the wild
 Religion

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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

18. Q/A Session

19. Thank You