What do you think?
Rate this book
Shelley: Selected Poems
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) was one of the major Romantic poets and wrote what is critically recognised as some of the finest lyric poetry in the English Language. In this volume, the editors have selected the most popular, significant and frequently taught poems from the six-volume Longman Annotated edition of Shelley’s poems. Each poem is fully annotated, explained and contextualised, along with a comprehensive list of abbreviations, an inclusive bibliography of material relating to the text and interpretation of Shelley’s poetry, plus an extensive chronology of Shelley’s life and works. Headnotes and footnotes furnish the personal, literary, historical and scientific information necessary for an informed reading of Shelley’s richly varied and densely allusive verse, making this an ideal anthology for students, classroom use, and anyone approaching Shelley’s poetry for the first time; however the level and extent of commentary and annotation will also be of great value for researchers and critics.
- GenresPoetry
900 pages, Hardcover
First published February 12, 2015
1 person is currently reading
7 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 10, 2023
It’s a 5-star review for what it is, and a 1-star for what it should be.
*Shelley: selected poems* is the culmination of the annotated poets project that began with volume 1 in 1989, with volumes 5 and 6 soon to be released. This is a scholarly exercise for scholars. I am not a scholar, but I have v 1-4, which serve their purpose as being citation-central for future academic discussion of Shelley’s work.
I will certainly fork out the several hundred dollars each for the next 2 volumes, and will enjoy following the footnote rabbit holes there in.
The new selected poems is a condensed version of the 6-volume academic project. It is not - very not - a presentation of Shelley’s best poems.
The ‘scholarly apparatus’ completely dominates. Why? When that has already been accomplished in the 6-volume enterprise.
No poet fares worse under these conditions than Shelley. Firstly, he’s brainier than anybody. Blake and Christina Rossetti are humongously smart, but their lexicon is much narrower.
Then there’s the unique diversity and precision of Shelley’s lyrical form. *The Mask of Anarchy* is in ballad quatrains; *Adonais* is 9-line stanzas, with the first 8 iambic pentameters, and the ninth a hexameter. *Ode to the west wind* is five sonnets each with 12 terza rima lines, followed by a rhyming couplet.
And then there’s *Prometheus Unbound*. Whoa! Long lines with complex rhymes followed by short lines with simple ones. If there is a more technically and thematically ambitious poem in English, I don’t know of it.
You cannot - cannot - properly experience these poems without seeing their shape on the page.
Then there is what the footnotes and analysis has pushed aside. *The Cenci* deals with justifiable homicide in domestic violence. It coins the phrase ‘hushed up’ when the Catholic hierarchy agree to cover up for the Count. *Peter Bell the Third* hilariously pokes fun at the pomposity of Wordsworth and Southey, and at Shelley’s own pretensions and, as Mary Shelley said - has so much of him.
Then there’s *Hellas.* ‘Lyrical drama’ is not so much a form, as an enterprise: *Queen Mab,* *Laon and Cythna,* and *Prometheus*.
After translating *Cyclops* by Euripides, Shelley tried the enterprise again, this time adhering to the Greek tragedy form - one location, the time of the action is the time of the performance.
Another omission is *Ode to Liberty* which again, from my perspective, has so much of him in it.
It’s not as horrendous and stupid as it used to be, but still there is a reluctance to engage with Shelley’s politics.
I hope this volume is followed by another, soon, which puts the experience of the reader first.
Until that happens, the Norton edition - *Shelley’s Poetry and Prose* published in 1977, is still the best.
*Shelley: selected poems* is the culmination of the annotated poets project that began with volume 1 in 1989, with volumes 5 and 6 soon to be released. This is a scholarly exercise for scholars. I am not a scholar, but I have v 1-4, which serve their purpose as being citation-central for future academic discussion of Shelley’s work.
I will certainly fork out the several hundred dollars each for the next 2 volumes, and will enjoy following the footnote rabbit holes there in.
The new selected poems is a condensed version of the 6-volume academic project. It is not - very not - a presentation of Shelley’s best poems.
The ‘scholarly apparatus’ completely dominates. Why? When that has already been accomplished in the 6-volume enterprise.
No poet fares worse under these conditions than Shelley. Firstly, he’s brainier than anybody. Blake and Christina Rossetti are humongously smart, but their lexicon is much narrower.
Then there’s the unique diversity and precision of Shelley’s lyrical form. *The Mask of Anarchy* is in ballad quatrains; *Adonais* is 9-line stanzas, with the first 8 iambic pentameters, and the ninth a hexameter. *Ode to the west wind* is five sonnets each with 12 terza rima lines, followed by a rhyming couplet.
And then there’s *Prometheus Unbound*. Whoa! Long lines with complex rhymes followed by short lines with simple ones. If there is a more technically and thematically ambitious poem in English, I don’t know of it.
You cannot - cannot - properly experience these poems without seeing their shape on the page.
Then there is what the footnotes and analysis has pushed aside. *The Cenci* deals with justifiable homicide in domestic violence. It coins the phrase ‘hushed up’ when the Catholic hierarchy agree to cover up for the Count. *Peter Bell the Third* hilariously pokes fun at the pomposity of Wordsworth and Southey, and at Shelley’s own pretensions and, as Mary Shelley said - has so much of him.
Then there’s *Hellas.* ‘Lyrical drama’ is not so much a form, as an enterprise: *Queen Mab,* *Laon and Cythna,* and *Prometheus*.
After translating *Cyclops* by Euripides, Shelley tried the enterprise again, this time adhering to the Greek tragedy form - one location, the time of the action is the time of the performance.
Another omission is *Ode to Liberty* which again, from my perspective, has so much of him in it.
It’s not as horrendous and stupid as it used to be, but still there is a reluctance to engage with Shelley’s politics.
I hope this volume is followed by another, soon, which puts the experience of the reader first.
Until that happens, the Norton edition - *Shelley’s Poetry and Prose* published in 1977, is still the best.
June 24, 2023
I've really enjoyed a review of PB Shelley's poetry for my course in the Romantic Poets. Shelly is an atheist who uses the linguistic framework of Christianity to articulate a spiritual presence. Nature has a sound but half its own and there is a secret strength of things that governs thought.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews