Percy Bysshe Shelley1792–1822Revenge is the naked idol of the worship of a semi-barbarous age.
A Defence of Poetry (1821)Gold is a living god and rules in scorn,
All earthly things but virtue.Queen Mab (1813), Canto V- Epipsychidion (1821), l. 595
- Queen Mab (1813), Canto I
Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.
A Defence of Poetry (1821)Ah, woe is me! Winter is come and gone,
But grief returns with the revolving year.Adonais (1821), St. XVIII- Adonais (1821), St. LII
- Mutability (1816), st. 4In context
Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.
A Defence of Poetry (1821)Kings are like stars — they rise and set, they have
The worship of the world, but no repose.Hellas (1821), l. 195Most wretched men
Are cradled into poetry by wrong;
They learn in suffering what they teach in song.Julian and Maddalo (1819), l. 543- A Defence of Poetry (1821)
- Ozymandias (1818)In context
- Queen Mab (1813), Canto III
- Adonais (1821), St. I
