The most notable illustration of this phase of Shelley's thought is
_The Revolt of Islam,_ wherein the poets, Laon and Cythna, are put
to death by the priests, who regard them as their worst enemies.
Burns, also, took a certain pleasure in unorthodoxy, and later poets
have gloried in his attitude.
Swinburne, in particular, praises his daring, in that he
Smote the God of base men's choice
At God's own gate.
[Footnote: _Burns._]
Young poets have not yet lost their taste for religious persecution. It
is a great disappointment to them to find it difficult to strike fire
from the faithful in these days. Swinburne in his early poetry denounced
the orthodox God with such vigor that he roused a momentary flutter of
horror in the church, but nowadays the young poet who craves to manifest
his spiritual daring is far more likely to find himself in the position
of Rupert Brooke, of whom someone has said, "He imagines the poet as
going on a magnificent quest to curse God on his throne of fire, and
finding--nothing."
The poet's youthful zest in scandalizing the orthodox is likely,
however, to be early outgrown.
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