Percy Bysshe Shelley, Epipsychidion

Mark Sandy (University of Durham)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.06: English Writing and Culture of the Romantic Period, 1789-1837.
Vol. editors: Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Daniel Robinson (Widener University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1821

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

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Shelley's autobiographical

Epipsychidion

, as the published Advertisement for the poem acknowledges, drew creatively upon Dante's celebration of eternal, constant, love,

Vita Nouva

, and the biblical Song of Solomon. This personal record of honest and dishonest love that unfolds during the course of Shelley's narrative also derives its ideal structure for these amorous revelations, in part, from another Dantean work that Shelley had translated,

Convivio

. Much of the poetic material which, eventually, formed the published version of

Epipsychidion

was produced at the same time that Shelley was, frenetically, composing lines for two other narrative poetic fragments centred on Italian subjects (entitled ‘Ginerve' and ‘Fiordispina'). Although a substantial portion of the verse moulded into…

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1140 words

Citation: Sandy, Mark. "Epipsychidion". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 August 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5313, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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