...the way and the limits.' This is precisely what Shelley says of poetry: 'The mind in creation is like a fading coal, which some invisible influence, like...inconstant wind, awakens to transitory brightness. . . . When composition begins, inspiration is already on the wane.' Or Shakespeare's: 'Thence comes...

...passage in Shelley's Defence of Poetry. He says: " A man cannot say, 'I will compose poetry'—the greatest poet even cannot say it; for the mind in creation is like a fading coal, which some invisible influence, like an inconstant wind, awakes to transitory brightness....

...poet cannot say ; for the mind in creation is like a burning coal, which some irresistible influence awakens to transitory brightness. This power arises from within, like the colour of a flower which dims and changes as it is developed ; and the poet cannot tell beforehand either of its approach or...

...science to imagination and inspiration. And yet even now many people appear to agree with Shelley that " poetry is not like reasoning, a power to be exerted...inconstant wind, awakens to transitory brightness." 2 To look for the origin of poetic illumination in a spirit outside the borders of intelligence has...

...written more nobly or with better warrant than Shelley. "The mind," he wrote in the Defence of Poetry — the mind in creation is as a fading coal, which some...inconstant wind, awakens to transitory brightness ; the power arises from within, like the colour of a flower which fades and changes as it is developed,...

...and fire from those eternal regions where the owl-winged faculty of calculation dare not ever soar? Poetry is not like reasoning, a power to be exerted...brightness; this power arises from within, like the color of a flower which fades and changes as it is developed, and the conscious portions of our natures...

...fire from those eternal re^ gions where the owl-winged faculty of calculation dare not ever soar ? Poetry is not like reasoning, a power to be ^exerted...which some invisible influence, like an "inconstant wind7~awakens to transitory brightness : this power arises from within, like the colour of a flower...

...thought its tribute brings Of waters. Again, in The Defense of Poetry he says, The mind in creation is a fading coal, which some invisible influence, like...brightness ; this power arises from within, like the color of a flower which fades and changes as it is developed, and the conscious portions of our nature...

...fire from those eternal regions where the owl- is winged faculty of calculation dare not ever soar? Poetry is not like reasoning, a power to be exerted...influence, like an inconstant wind, awakens to transitory bright- 20 ness ; this power arises from within, like the colour of a flower wich fades and changes...

...and fire from those eternaKregions where the owl-wirTged faculty Of calcuration dare not* ever soar ? Poetry is not like reasoning, a power to be exerted...The greatest poet even cannot say it ; for the mind jftiflrcat"vn 's qg -° fading rnal, whirVi snrr^e invisible, jnfllipnr«^ IjVp nn-4ttconsfanT "wind,...