Poetry and Metonymy: Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Poetical Revolution

Abstract

In this essay I would like to argue that, while in Italy, Percy Bysshe Shelley not only reached his poetic maturity, but also expanded his aesthetic theory in such a way that it might constitute a sort of bridge system, able to reconcile Shelley’s empiricism with his idealism, together with his political and poetic goals. I believe that the aim of this theory, which can be described as holistic, was to fill the gap between art and society in an era of mercantilist ruthlessness and philosophical pessimism.