Shelley: Selected Poetry (Poetry Library, Penguin)

Shelley's work has been criticized for its didacticism and undisciplined emotionalism. But essentially, he was a poet of ideas and in his search for truth and original human perfection, Shelley was inspired as much by the Greek poets and philosophers, particularly Plato, as by the radicalism of his own age. Above all, his great gift was his lyricism and his verse comes as near to music as poetry can.