Ruskin 's perception of Shakespeare 's and Shelley 's 'particularization of flowers' in their work recalls his observation that
we must read Shelley, to learn how to use flowers, and Shakspeare (sic) to learn to love them. In both writers we find the wild flower possessing soul as well as life, and mingling its influence most intimately, like an untaught melody, with the deepest and most secret streams of human emotion.' ( Works, 1.158)
Ruskin paised Shelley's sensitivity to the beauty of flowers and Shakespeare's accuracy in describing them, feeling that the latter's imagination was able to penetrate 'the very inmost soul of every flower.' ( Works, 25.393; 4.255-6)