Shelley : the divided self

Shelley's detractors since Hazlitt have noticed a division in the 'self' of his poems.

A central reasoning core fears the passions surrounding it and distrusts the language expressing it.

A few of his admirers offer an alternative view of the poems as symbolical pointers to a non-linguistic reality transcending passion; most miss the point, justifying their admiration by referring to the poems' systems of thought.

This reading of Shelley's major poems and critical prose finds the adverse case more convincing.