…and summarize, explain the claim, note the strategies, and comment on our opinion of the claim’s validity.

Summary: Shelly expresses how he believes that the writes of today will be poets as great as those who have not existed since the time of religious liberty was struggled for. These people know the absolute truth of the world and transcend ordinary, everyday language to accomplish this. The best way to persuade someone to see a beneficial point of view is through poetry.

Claim: The claim is the poetry and poets contain the truth of the universe and they are omniscient

Claim’s Validity: The best way to persuade someone to see a beneficial point of view is through poetry. (“national struggle for civil and religious liberty. The most unfailing herald, companion, and follower of the awakening of a great people to work a beneficial change in opinion or institution, is poetry”) They are able to move people with their “electric life”, because they draw the ability, “power”, from their “own soul”, that is to say, the deep feelings and thoughts from within.

Rhetorical strategy:
• He constructs lengthy sentences to drive a point (semi-colons!)
• Metaphors
• Visual
• Persona: that of an educated person; uses sophisticated diction “hierophants”