Epipsychidion, Dante, and the Renewable Life

Abstract

One of the great paradoxes of literary history is the veneration of the self-professed atheist Percy Bysshe Shelley for Dante Alighieri, to Shelley, uniquely among his contemporary readers, the master poet who codified for medieval Europe a dramatic, totalized Christian mythology and a moral universe centered on the transformative power of love. Since this is a poetic discipleship that, like a lodestone, has attracted my concerted attention on several occasions and over almost four decades, a brief rehearsal of, and perspective on, those previous pursuits will establish a context for the present inquiry.

The poetry of Dante may be considered as the bridge thrown over the stream of time, which unites the modern and ancient world.

—A Defence of Poetry¹