If all poets have their psychic season, Shelley belongs to the very late stormy autumn and the very early frosty spring. His is a time of transitions: of high winds, wild hopes and freezing regrets. Both poetically and politically, it is an equinoctial world: restless, dangerous, brimming, beautiful and often cruel. This is the season of the Alastor-poet's long pursuit, of Prometheus chained to his rock (pierced by 'moon-freezing crystals'), of Julian's evening ride with Count Maddalo, of the Wild West Wind, the breath of Autumn's being.

LRB 16 October 1980 | PDF Download