Prometheus Unbound
Format: Paperback
ISBN13: 9780217037839
Paperback|9780217037839
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Overview
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II. A STUDY OF THE MYTH. The student who tries to translate the fleeting symbolism of the drama into a logical sequence of abstract truths will be grievously disappointed. Such a translation is impossible. The union of soul and form, meaning and expression, is too close to be severed. It has to be seized, not by the analytical reason, but by an intuition akin to that of the poet. We are tempted to describe the myth in Shelley's own dazzling words'. ? Child of light thy limbs are burning Through the vest which seems to hide them, As the radiant lines of morning Through thin clouds, ere they divide them; And this atmosphere divinest Shrouds thee wheresoe'er thou shinest. To conceal while it reveals is always the characteristic of the myth. The drama transports us to the very confines of the world of sense, where material semblance trembles into spiritual truth; but the limit is never quite crossed, the reticence of the image is never forfeited. As dew-stars glisten, then fade away, gleams of spiritual meaning flash and vanish through the poem. The imagination everywhere suggests what the intellect cannot define. We must acknowledge another reason for the obscurity of many passages in the Prometheus. The drama is uneven both in form and thought; and one is sometimes tempted to linger in search of hidden depth of meaning, when true wisdom would recognize a passage as impenetrable simply because shallow. It is because of this twofold difficulty in logical interpretation that many, even among the lovers of Shelley, give up the attempt to trace the evolution of any theme, and enjoy the drama simply as a succession of shining pictures and lovely melodies. Yet in reality the drama is a highly organized whole, conceived with the greatest care and with e...
| ISBN-13 | 9780217037839 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217037836 |
| Weight | 0.47 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.32 In |
| List Price | $19.99 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 136 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
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