Shelley and the Apprehension of Life (Cambridge Studies in Romanticism, Series Number 101)

Percy Bysshe Shelley, in the essay 'On Life' (1819), stated 'We live on, and in living we lose the apprehension of life'. Ross Wilson uses this statement as a starting point to explore Shelley's fundamental beliefs about life and the significance of poetry. Drawing on a wide range of Shelley's own writing and on philosophical thinking from Plato to the present, this book offers a timely intervention in the debate about what Romantic poets understood by 'life'. For Shelley, it demonstrates poetry is emphatically 'living melody', which stands in resolute contrast to a world in which life does not live. Wilson argues that Shelley's concern with the opposition between 'living' and 'the apprehension of life' is fundamental to his work and lies at the heart of Romantic-era thought. Cover Shelley and the Apprehension of Life Series Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction chapter one Poetry and the theory of life Shelley’s ‘lyricised science’? True theory/living death Thought of life Triple brass chapter two Living losing life The curse of this life The mist of familiarity The politics of custom chapter three Mere wheels of work The sale of human life They do not repine Life as punishment Conditioned life chapter four Happier forms The non-existent universe Forms more real Poetry’s radical hybridity The lives of trees Here, oh hear! chapter five Sounds of air Apprehension and the poet Peacock’s prudent omissions Sounds of air The pain of change, the change of pain chapter six Poetry and the life of theory Untheorised attention Process of erosion Dante’s hail, Shelley’s rain Bacon’s leap The intervention of excitement The living line Coda Notes Introduction 1 Poetry and the theory of life 2 Living losing life 3 Mere wheels of work 4 Happier forms 5 Sounds of air 6 Poetry and the life of theory Coda Bibliography Index Series Establishes Percy Bysshe Shelley's View Of Poetry As 'living Melody' And Sets It Within The Wider Context Of Romantic-era Thought. Introduction -- Poetry And The Theory Of Life -- Living Losing Life -- Mere Wheels Of Work -- Happier Forms -- Sounds Of Air -- Poetry And The Life Of Theory -- Coda. Ross Wilson. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Set within the wider context of Romantic poetry and the opposition between 'living' and 'embracing life', this book encompasses the whole range of Percy Bysshe Shelley's work, published and unpublished, to show that poetry is, for him, an art form that embodies the most basic questions of life.