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''Epipsychidion'' is a major poetical work published in 1821 by Percy Bysshe Shelley. 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", and ''psychidion'', "little soul". ==Background== Countess Teresa Viviani, the daughter of the governor of Pisa, was nineteen years old. Her father had placed her in the Convent of Saint Anna. The Saint Anna Church and Convent had been established in 1406, while the church was finished in 1426, by the Order of the Benedictine Nuns. 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 requested 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. The work consists of 604 lines written for Teresa Viviani, whom Percy Bysshe Shelley met while she was "imprisoned" by her family in a convent near Pisa, Italy, in 1820. The theme of the work is a meditation on the nature of ideal love. Shelley advocates free love, 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:〔Symonds, John Addington, ''Percy Bysshe Shelley'', English Men Of Letters, edited by John Morley. London: Macmillan, 1878.〕 "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 in the "Poetical Works" in 1839, both editions. The Bodleian Library has a first draft of "Epipsychidion", "consisting of three versions, more or less complete, of the "Preface ()", 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."〔Locock, C.D. ''Examination of the Shelley manuscripts in the Bodleian Library''. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1903, page 3.〕 Shelley informed his publisher Charles Ollier that he wanted "Epipsychidion" to be circulated only to the ''sunetoi'', the initiated, the cognoscenti, the enlightened, the "esoteric few".〔(Lauritsen, John. "Homoeroticism in ''Epipsychidion''". 2008. )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Epipsychidion」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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