Back to Poem

Robert N. Essick, commenting on lines 112-23, notes that the many, consecutive images of Emily "take on a momentum of their own, impelled by a rapid and heterogeneous multiplication without explicit return to the 'she' who initiates the sequence" (166). Yes, the language deviates from Shelley's plan, which was to use language to get to the ontological essence of Emily; the several apostrophes, however, indicate his inability to accomplish this task.

Essick, Robert N. "'A Shadow of Some Golden Dream': Shelley's Language in Epipsychidion" Papers on Language & Literature. 22.2 (1986): 165-175.

Send Your Comments