Beyond the Lines: Shelley's "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty"

Shelley’s “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty”—perhaps one of his greatest works—is a wonderfully Platonic exploration of the “One and the Many” paradox. Rather than treating beauty as a thing in-and-of itself, or something that can be simply pinned down using a system of perfect categories, Shelley recognizes a “Spirit of Beauty.” This “Spirit” manifests itse…