From Shelley’s “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty,” I think we can affirmatively say there exists a pattern within the Romantic poetry we’ve read of this idea of the “spirit of beauty.” Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelly all write about this idea of a spirit within/having to do with nature—something beyond nature itself that incites joy within humans and teaches them something intangible they cannot learn elsewhere. However, I thought the differences in Shelley’s idea of this spirit were noteworthy: specifically his personification of the spirit and the idea it has a mind of its own that can pick and choose when it wants to show itself.
For Coleridge, the spirit of beauty does not stem from nature, but actually from humans themselves. Though humans may see and feel the spirit of beauty by looking at and interacting with nature, the joy they feel stems from their own minds. For Wordsworth, it’s a bit more complicated, but certainly not the same as Shelley’s idea of the spirit.
Shelly personifies the spirit, addressing it by name. Shelly says the spirit exists beyond humans, though “It visits with inconstant glance / Each human heart and countenance.” The spirit does not exist within the human soul as it does for Coleridge, but instead is its own being. Shelly asks the spirit “where art thou gone?/ Why dost thou pass away and leave our state,/ This dim vast vale of tears, vacant and desolate?” In doing so, he gives the spirit agency—it is not about humans feeling the spirit of beauty by finding it within themselves, or even finding it within nature, but instead it is the spirit’s choice of when it wants to visit the human heart. Similarly to Coleridge, he states that feeling the spirit of beauty causes humans to either feel incredible happiness or misery depending on whether or not the spirit is with them.
Shelly also differs from Coleridge and Wordsworth in describing how nature at different times seems to have the spirit of beauty or not: “The day becomes more solemn and serene / When noon is past; there is a harmony / In autumn, and a lustre in its sky / Which through the summer is not heard or seen.” Shelley implies the spirit is around at different times of day, as well at different times of the year—the spirit is more easily felt later in the day, and the sky has a certain luster in autumn. While we see different descriptions of nature depending on the circumstances of the time in other poems, we never get the implication of different levels of that spirit of beauty depending on them, as we do in “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty.”
The difference in how these poets convey a sense of spirit differently is so fascinating! I wonder if it comes from their religious/secular beliefs? It’s also interesting how some poets portray this spirit as a bird, perhaps having some angelic attributes due to the bird’s coloring or actions.
I also see similarities to Judeo-Christian prophets being visited by the Holy Spirit, and even divorcing the artistic meaning from the religious one, I’m sure that, to some extent, there is an overarching pun here on the etymology of “inspiration.” I haven’t been paying much attention to this specifically, but do any of these poets make clear mention of what makes poets distinct? In other words, why does this spirit of beauty seem to visit some more than others?