History of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley

History of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley

 

 

         Percy Bysshe Shelley 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as amongst the finest lyric poets in the English language. A radical in his poetry as well as his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition for his poetry grew steadily following his death. Shelley was a key member of a close circle of visionary poets and writers that included Lord Byron; Leigh Hunt; Thomas Love Peacock; and his own second wife, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.

Shelley is perhaps best known for such classic poems as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, Music, When Soft Voices Die, The Cloud and The Masque of Anarchy. His other major works include long, visionary poems such as Queen Mab (later reworked as The Daemon of the World), Alastor, The Revolt of Islam, Adonaïs, the unfinished work The Triumph of Life; and the visionary verse dramas The Cenci (1819) and Prometheus Unbound (1820).

His close circle of admirers, however, included some progressive thinkers of the day, including his future father-in-law, the philosopher William Godwin. Though Shelley's poetry and prose output remained steady throughout his life, most publishers and journals declined to publish his work for fear of being arrested themselves for blasphemy or sedition. Shelley did not live to see success and influence, although these reach down to the present day not only in literature, but in major movements in social and political thought.

Shelley became an idol of the next three or four generations of poets, including important Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite poets such asRobert Browning and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He was admired by Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, W. B. Yeats, Karl Marx, Upton Sinclair and Isadora Duncan.^[3] Henry David Thoreau's civil disobedience was apparently influenced by Shelley's non-violence in protest and political action. One saying of his is: "I love snow and all forms of radiant frost."

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born at Field Place, near Horsham in Sussex on August 4, 1792. He was the oldest son of Timothy Shelley, M.P., and Elizabeth Pilfold Shelley. He was born into an aristocratic family.

In 1822, Percy Shelley spent the summer sailing on the Bay of Lerici. A sudden storm struck the "Ariel," on July 7; and, his body and the bodies of two other men washed up 10 days later. There has been some controversy, and debate, surrounding the nature of his death.

Upon the discovery of Shelley's body, his remains were cremated on the beach. The ashes wer buried in Rome. His heart was eventually buried in Bournemouth.

Percy Bysshe Shelley received his education at Syon House, Eton and University College, Oxford. He was called "Mad Shelley," and he was expelled from Oxford when he and his friend published "The Necessity of Atheism."

Percy Bysshe Shelley eloped to Scotland with Harriet Westbrook (16) in 1811, the year that he was expelled from Oxford. The couple's relationship did not last long. Harriet gave birth to two children, Ianthe and Charles, but the she committed suicide in 1816.

With the death of his first wife, Shelley was free to marry his second wife, Mary Shelley, with whom he'd conducted an affair since she ran away to France, in 1814, with him at the age of 16.