Ans. To Shelley, the poet is not a mere artist. He is a divine harp through which the Cosmic Power makes music for mankind. He is a reformer as well as a prophet spreading messages with a view to bringing about revolutionary changes in human history. He coin- poses verse not directed by people but of his own accord. This idea a poet and his function has got revealed in the poem “To a Skylark”. The poet, according to Shelley, remains unknown behind the light of his own thought but always pours out his heart of his own accord. He composes his poems spontaneously without being ordered by the people of the world, and the time comes when those people of the world who had paid no attention to his lofty messages, ultimately understand the thoughts of the poet and begin to sympathize with him:
“Like a Poet hidden
In the light of thought,
Singing hymns unbidden,
Till the world is wrought
To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not:”
For Shelley, the poet is a reformer too. He is a prophet whose aim is to bring about revolutions through his poetic messages. This is why he implores the skylark, Shelley’s metaphor for poetic express ion, to inspire him with its joy and happiness so that the “harmonious madness” flows from his lips making the world listen to him with rapt attention.
