Poet as legislator

The theme of poet as legislator reached its peak in the Romantic era,^[1] epitomised in Shelley's view of poets as the 'unacknowledged legislators of the world'.^[2][3]

However the concept had a long prehistory in Western culture, with classical figures like Orpheus or Solon being appealed to as precedents for the poet's civilising role.^[4]