Tom O' Brien
Tom O’ Brien introduces Percy Bysshe Shelley as a romantic poet who is not entirely sane. Shelley had ideas of defending the arts against narrow minded utilitarianism, meaning people who no longer care about what nature has to offer. The utilitarianism's care about big business and money and only look at gross domestic product. Shelley’s prose poem “The Defense of Poetry” states his ideas about mixing education and art together. He strongly believed that art was one of the greatest things a child could know. Schools began teaching children science and math to promote factories and business, while the schools stopped promoting the creativity. Educators asked “Do the arts have to offer of comparable educational value?” To Shelley the answer was yes, but to modern day engineers and educators the answer was no. Even though Shelley appreciated art, he did take science seriously to a certain extent. After his wife created the horror story “Frankenstein” they realized that science could also be very destructive to mankind. Science could literally create a monster. A friend of Percy Shelley claimed there was two cycles in the history of the arts. The “bronze” age was a time where literature was in a more primitive form. Then there was Neoclassicism in literature, which was a way to create visual arts. After the neoclassicism period, a new age of literature was made. Romanticism was claimed as the new age of “brass”. Shelley explained that art contributes to society and social progress. It lets other see a different view point and learn in new ways. He claimed that whatever purified the affections and adds spirit to sense is very useful. “Arts are supremely useful because they can perhaps heal the disconnect between technical and human process” Percy Shelley quoted. He strongly believed that there was a gap growing between human beings and the natural world. He claimed that science and industrialization did not match for the social well being for all. Shelley’s rhetoric questions are still relevant to this day, such as “smart growth” in our time. He is talking about the movements in environmental science and life quality.
I believe that O’ Brien added the rhetoric question about “smart growth” because it’s still relevant to this day. Shelley worried about the destiny of mankind in his day, and the future. Has our social growth gone downhill since Percy Shelley’s time? If Shelley was able to see our society’s growth, I think that he would have mixed emotions. Our society has continued to use machines, but our factories are better managed. In our modern day, we have the science to create Eco-friendly products, bio degradable bags and better cars. Shelley would probably be more satisfied with our new inventions, but the contradicting part is that science helped innovate our new products. When budgets cuts hit a school, the first things to go are sports, music and art programs. Just like Shelley, I also disagree with that fact that schools are cutting programs that help children express themselves. A educational system should never have to cut any programs. While children are in school every day forced to learn about the Pythagorean Theorem or the Vietnam War, students have nothing to look forward to except another day learning something that has absolutely no interest to them. With any kind of sport or art program, a child has the chance to be free and just be themselves. When an educator asked if art had the same education value as other subjects, Percy agreed. I like that O’ Brien added this quote because it shows Percy Shelley’s true feelings toward the educational system. O’ Brien wrote a great article that reflects Shelley’s views in an interesting way because he used quotes that explained his personality well. Though he mainly talked about Shelley’s views on art, he also explained a little bit on his positive views of science. It showed me that even thought he was a Romantic poet; he knew that science was needed to an extent. Science is an important part of society, and it always will be, but so is art and literature. Tom O’ Brien portrayed Percy Bysshe Shelley ‘s view’s in a respectable way that shows why he was such a great poet of his time and till this day.
-Lauryn Hartung
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