Epipsychidion

Epipsychidion is a major poetical work published in 1821 by Percy Bysshe Shelley. 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" f...