Kirsch on Shelley

Adam Kirsch has a perceptive review of Ann Wroe's new book Being Shelley--he manages to say a lot of shrewd things about Shelley while still leaving an appetite for the book itself (and for Shelley's poetry). Kirsch writes of Shelley's radical politics, which he held quite sincerely and which informs his poetry. I wonder if it was of Shelley that Alfred de Vigny was thinking when he said "The poet searches the stars for the route which shows us the finger of God."

Avenging Angel: Books: The New Yorker