Shelley wrote in a defence of poetry that poets are "the heirophants [priests] of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present . . poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." he expresses the same bold claim in the poem "ode to the west wind" when he says,

if even / i were as in my boyhood, and could be / the comrade of thy wanderings over heaven . .

a heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed / one too like thee: tameless, and swift . .

be thou, spirit fierce, / my spirit! be thou me, impetuous one!

be through my lips to unawakened earth / the trumpet of a prophecy!