This article examines how Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The Revolt of Islam (1818) embodies the multiple layers of his attitudes toward British society. It argues that the work epitomizes his concepts of revolution, its ironic repercussions, and the values of poetry. The Revolt of Islam develops Shelley’s initial remarks on the need for gradual reformation as revealed in his prose of 1812-7 by contending that unexpected outcomes might occur contrary to the desire to revolt against tyranny. The paper interrogates Shelley’s cautionary reaction to revolutions and his development of the function of poetry as a means of exemplifying aspects of love and hope in people’s mindsets, which enable them to feel liberation from political and religious oppression. Indeed, Shelley interweaves prophetic voices into his poem and prefigures the underlying ideas of his later works including his prose and A Defence of Poetry. (Changwon National University)