ABSTRACT
Yeats had exaggerated the very real similarities between himself and Shelley to a point
where Shelley became almost unrecognizable; then in what seemed an afterthought, Yeats
indicated his awareness of their differences, though the differences, he insisted, were a
failing in Shelley. Shelley's flaw, his "lack of faith" and failure to construct his own
religion, is the main burden of Yeats's later essay. In an attempt to add weight to his
imaginative theory Yeats had stressed too greatly their similarities in his earlier essay; in
"Prometheus Unbound" Yeats exaggerates and distorts the differences between himself and
Shelley.
