Shelley and Plato’s Symposium: the poet’s revenge*

Abstract

Neoplatonic interpretation of the dialogue. These same factors, however, also contribute to the translation's unique sensitivity to the rhythm of Plato's prose and the counterplay within the dialogue of abstract ideas and concrete detail. Shelley's translation succeeds largely because he does not attempt simply to reproduce Plato's particular balance of abstract against concrete, but rather substitutes instead his own, Neoplatonic, sense of the counterpoint of the ideal and the physical. *I would like to express my gratitude to an anonymous reviewer of this article and to Professor Wolfgang Haase for his painstaking work and many valuable suggestions and contributions.