ABSTRACT
The Revolt of Islam' was begun in April, and finished on September 23. In his preface to it Shelley proclaimed his moral purpose. He sought to enlist the harmony of metrical language, the ethereal combinations of the fancy, the rapid and subtle transitions of human passion, all those elements which essentially compose a poem, in the cause of a liberal and comprehensive morality. 'The Revolt of Islam' is immature in everything except the versification. Shelley is a master of the Spenserian stanza, which in 'The Revolt of Islam' moves more swiftly than the 'Faerie Queene', and has a richer and more complicated music. It has been said that Shelley's poetry is too poetical, and certainly 'The Revolt of Islam' is too poetical for a narrative poem. The story is smothered by the poetry and sacrificed to the poet's tastes.
