For language is arbitrarily produced by the imagination and has relation to thoughts alone; but all other materials, instruments and conditions of art, have relations among each other, which limit and interpose between conception and expression. The former is as a mirror which reflects, the latter as a cloud which enfeebles, the light of which both are mediums of communication. –“A Defence of Poetry,”
Percy Bysshe Shelley
What is the central idea in this passage?
Language, unlike other forms of expression, comes from the imagination.
Language is very similar to other forms of art.
Other art forms are more closely linked to the human imagination.
Other art forms come from the same creative process as poems.