Frank Cook Frank Cook 16 MANUSCRIPT OF A CONVERSATION WITH SHELLEY by Frank Cook February 8, 1979 I was, this night, lying on my bed in a contemplative mood. The focus of my thoughts was upon an essay by Percy Bysshe Shelley titled "A Defence of Poetry" which was the subject of a critical analysis that I was writing. I had just completed the background reading and note taking, and had, subsequently, spent three or four hours in one of those stupors of thought which, from time to time, confuse my rhetorical skill. So, I was lying on the bed trying to fuse what I had read in general concerning Romanticism to what I had learned from Shelley's essay; at the same time I was searching for a theme to center my essay upon which would make Romantic thought and Shelley's claims applicable to the twentieth century. I tried laboriously to reason out the data that had been collected and to build a structure around which I could illuminate Shelley's enormous faith in the power of the imagination. As I was concentrating on this matter, it suddenly occurred to me that I was using the power of reason but it was ineffective, so I closed my eyes and reached out into the void with my imagination. I considered the use of my imagination, in this case as in all others, to be an act of extreme faith, and I honestly believed if I called upon Shelley to help me, that he would help me. But I thought that his help would come in the form of inspiration, which usually accompanies the journeys of my imagination. His help came, instead, in the form of a personal visitation to me by Shelley. I should not say that Shelley visited me, because it was I who travelled to Shelley. The blackness behind my closed eyes began to move toward me or so it seemed, because I was actually accelerating through the blackness. I saw a point of light and drew closer to it until I reached it and broke through a veil at which place my motion ceased and I stood face to face with Shelley. The entire content of the conversation between Shelley and myself follows: Shelley: You have asked for me by name and have unanchored your imagination. Here I am. Myself: This is hard to believe. I was, just a moment ago, asking questions as if I were asking them to you, as if I were speaking directly to you, and now I am with you. How is it so? Shelley: You possess the answer; look within yourself. Now, tell me why you came here and sought my counsel. Be succinct. Myself: Is it to be just an exchange then; me asking questions and you answering them? Or is it for some higher purpose? Shelley: Higher purpose! There is no higher purpose than that which involves the communion between you and me. You came to ask questions; you should ask them. I will answer. Myself: Well, the question I was pondering just before I came to you concerned how your message in "A Defence of Poetry" applies to the modern period. More specifically is a romantic belief in the power of the imagination realistic in the twentieth century? Shelley: You ask about being realistic. If you are realistic then you will realize that truth is diverse and you will recognize that truth is created by each individual's imagination. Romantic beliefs concerning the power of the imagination are realistic in the twentieth century. They are realistic because your era has favored the power of reason to illuminate most truth. Myself: The power of reason has been helpful to modern society, hasn't it? Shelley: The power of reason has had its place in every society. Reason circumscribes the imagination and gives it form, but imagination is the great source of power; that is the concept that modern society is losing. Myself: Then the concept is under the process of being lost, but it is not lost in total? Shelley: Is it lost to you? Myself: No. Shelley: Then it is not lost in total. The philosophy that was the base for Romanticism is still available to you and to your contemporaries. Myself: Which philosophy would that be? Shelley: Not any particular philosophy or school of thought. I speak of the philosophy which persons like yourself have created: a philosophy of the individual who believes in the divinity of man. Myself: Then each individual is both the need and the resource. Shelley: Yes. Myself: Are all of us intensely alone? Shelley: No, not alone. You have a resource outside of yourself. For example, Kant philosophized about the matter which you and I have been discussing. He said that 'Men may attain freedom through transferring the seat of authority for knowledge from the world without to the world within. Individual man, through the integrity and activity of the mind, has power to weave together impressions and so give to thought unity and validity.' Use Kant, and persons of his quality, as a resource. Myself: He speaks of the power of the mind used to create unity and validity in thought. Which power of the 17