Shelly’s poem ‘The poet’s dream’

 Shelly’s poem ‘The poet’s dream’

I request readers to read the poem from the above link first and then only my review. Thanks.

Shelly’s poem ‘The poet’s dream’

Only in late Nineteenth century ‘Vers libre’, the pioneering form of free verse emerged in French literature . Poetry of other languages came up with their versions of free verses, modern verses. Today meter and rhyming are not a must anymore. Nevertheless, during the classical era or modern era as well, innate richness, imaginary situation or world, powerful expression and above all creativity remain the benchmarks of a good poem. The strengths or uniqueness of a poet is reflected in his poems. ‘The poet’s dream’, Shelly’s poem is straight and simple. There is no need to elaborate on the meaning of the poem. But we choose to read this even today because Shelly in this poem paints the poet and his world. Shelly highlights three features of a poet’s unique world:

1.Shapes haunt his thought’s wilderness

2.He might be so lost in observing an ambience that he might transcend the object and go into a trance.

3.He might create forms more real than living man!

A poet’s thoughts and his visualizations are too abstract. That is what Shelly means by “Shapes haunt”.

A poet is lost in his imaginary world and these visualizations in an imaginary world create such a powerful poetry that the reader is able to relate to it as he does with the real world.

Poets rarely share with us what is the making of a poet or poem. The reason is the attempt might end up diluting a transcendental process to a small step of creative imagination. So, when they attempt their choice words and expressions make the reader understand the weird and mystic world of a poet. This poem is one.