''Epipsychidion'' is a major poetical work published in 1821 by

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...

. The work was subtitled ''Verses addressed to the noble and unfortunate Lady Emilia V, now imprisoned in the convent of''. The title is Greek for "concerning or about a little soul", from ''epi'', "around", "about"; and ''psychidion'', "little soul".

Background

Countess Teresa Viviani, the daughter of the governor of

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

, was nineteen years old. Her father had placed her in the Convent of

Saint Anna According to apocrypha, as well as Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's na ...

. Shelley had visited her several times and had corresponded with her briefly. After the work was published by Charles and James Ollier in London, Shelley asked them to withdraw it. One possible concern was that readers would interpret the poem biographically. Shelley referred to it as "an idealized history of my life and feelings". The poem contains autobiographical elements, consisting of 604 lines written for Viviani, whom Shelley met while she was "imprisoned" in 1820. The theme of the work is a

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, "discursive thinking", achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditat ...

on the nature of ideal love. Shelley advocates

free love Free love is a social movement that accepts all forms of love. The movement's initial goal was to separate the State (polity), state from sexual and romantic matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery. It stated that such issues we ...

, criticising conventional marriage, which he described as "the weariest and the longest journey". ''Epipsychidion'' opens with an invocation to Emilia as a spiritual sister of the speaker. He addresses her as a "captive bird" for whose nest his poem will be soft rose petals. He calls her an angel of light, the light of the moon seen through mortal clouds, a star beyond all storms. In a letter of 18 June 1822, Shelley described the work: ''Epipsychidion'' was composed at Pisa, in January and February 1821, and was published anonymously in 1821 by Charles and James Ollier, London. The poem was included by

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ( , ; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of science fiction# ...

in the ''Poetical Works'' in 1839, both editions. The

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

has a first draft of ''Epipsychidion'', "consisting of three versions, more or less complete, of the 'Preface dvertisement; a version in ink and pencil, much cancelled, of the last eighty lines of the poem; and some additional lines which did not appear in print". Shelley informed his publisher Charles Ollier that he wanted ''Epipsychidion'' to be circulated only to the ''sunetoi'', the initiated, the

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