What is the poem The wisdom of Shelley about?

The poem “The Wisdom of Shelley” by George Santayana is a commentary on the life and philosophy of the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The poem explores Shelley's pursuit of knowledge, his love of nature, and his belief in the power of imagination to transform the world. Santayana admires Shelley's idealism but also critiques his lack of practicality and his tendency to withdraw from the world.

The poem consists of five stanzas, each exploring a different aspect of Shelley's life and work. In the first stanza, Santayana describes Shelley's quest for knowledge, comparing him to a "drunken bee" flitting from one flower to another. In the second stanza, he praises Shelley's love of nature and his ability to see the beauty and wonder in the natural world. In the third stanza, he celebrates Shelley's belief in the power of imagination and his commitment to social reform. In the fourth stanza, he critiques Shelley's lack of practicality and his tendency to withdraw from the world. In the fifth and final stanza, he sums up Shelley's philosophy, arguing that Shelley believed that the only true reality was the "ideal world" and that the physical world was merely a "shadow" of the ideal.