This study interprets and evaluates Shelley's poem Epipsychidion and assumes that although the poem is an individual whole, it is a demonstration of Shelley's poetic consciousness, centered around his conceptions of the imagination and of love. The author investigates how the poem deals with Shelley's vision of 'love's rare Universe.' Verma analyzes the influences of Dante's Vita Nuova and Plato's Symposium on the poem and on the poet's vision of 'love's rare Universe.' Through a study of the imagination and 'the woman' (the epipsyche) in Shelley's work, Verma argues that Epipsychidion is an anagogic allegory like Dante's Vita Nuova, but also a poetic discourse on love like Plato's Symposium. This evaluation of the quality of Shelley's vision in light of his relation to Plato, Dante and Neoplatonism, will show readers that Shelley's quest and his discourse on love are moral and spiritual. This study, one of the only book-length studies of Shelley's poem, will appeal to students in advanced courses and graduate seminars. General readers of Shelley and Romantic literature everywhere will also want to have a copy of this thorough and perceptive analysis.
