Shelley

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Born Tanyrallt, near Tremadoc, North Wales: 1812, a radical young fellow, Percy Shelley was expelled from Oxford University in 1811 when he published The Necessity of Atheism. His early poems advocated social reform, reflecting the influence of the philosophical writings of William Godwin.

He fell in love with Godwin's daughter Mary, who later gained fame as the author of Frankenstein. After Shelley's first wife committed suicide in 1816, Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin were married. Shelley was lost at sea in 1822, while sailing off the coast of Italy.

A Brief Introduction

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on August 4, 1792, at Field Place, near Horsham in Sussex, into an aristocratic family. His father, Timothy Shelley, was a Sussex squire and a member of Parliament. Shelley attended Syon House Academy and Eton and in 1810 he entered the Oxford University College.

In 1811 Shelley was expelled from the college for publishing The Necessity Of Atheism, which he wrote with Thomas Jefferson Hogg. Shelley's father withdrew his inheritance in favor of a small annuity, after he eloped with the 16-year old Harriet Westbrook, the daughter of a London tavern owner. The pair spent the following two years travelling in England and Ireland, distributing pamphlets and speaking against political injustice. In 1813 Shelley published his first important poem, the atheistic Queen Mab.

The poet's marriage to Harriet was a failure. In 1814 Shelley travelled abroad with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, the daughter of the philosopher and anarchist William Godwin (1756-1836). Mary's young stepsister Claire Clairmont was also in the company. During this journey Shelley wrote an unfinished novella, The Assassins (1814). Their combined journal, Six Weeks' Tour, reworked by Mary Shelley, appeared in 1817. After their return to London, Shelley came into an annual income under his grandfather's will. Harriet drowned herself in the Serpentine in 1816. Shelley married Mary Wollstonecraft and his favorite son William was born in 1816.

Shelley spent the summer of 1816 with Lord Byron at Lake Geneva, where Byron had an affair with Claire. Shelley composed the Hymn To Intellectual Beauty and Mont Blanc. In 1817 Shelley published The Revolt Of Islam and Ozymandias appeared in 1818. Among Shelley's popular poems are the Odes To the West Wind and To a Skylark and Adonais, an elegy for Keats.

In 1818 the Shelleys moved to Italy, where Byron was residing. In 1819 they went to Rome and in 1820 to Pisa. Shelley's works from this period include Julian And Maddalo, an exploration of his relations with Byron and Prometheus Unbound, a lyrical drama. The Cenci was a five-act tragedy based on the history of a 16th century Roman family, and The Mask Of Anarchy was a political protest which was written after the Peterloo massacre. In 1822 the Shelley household moved to the Bay of Lerici. There Shelley began to write The Triumph Of Life.

To welcome his friend Leigh Hunt, he sailed to Leghorn. During the stormy return voyage to Lerici, his small schooner the Ariel sank and Shelley drowned with Edward Williams on July 8, 1822. The bodies were washed ashore at Viareggio, where, in the presence of Lord Byron and Leigh Hunt, they were burned on the beach. Shelley was later buried in Rome.

Index to poems

1. Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats
2. Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude
3. And like a Dying Lady, Lean and Pale
4. Archy's Song from Charles I (A Widow Bird Sate Mourning)
5. Art thou pale for weariness
6. The Cloud
7. England in 1819
8. Epipsychidion
9. The Fitful Alternations of the Rain
10. Hellas: Chorus
11. Hymn of Pan
12. Hymn to Intellectual Beauty
13. The Indian Serenade
14. Julian and Maddalo
15. A Lament
16. Lines: The cold earth slept below
17. Lines: "When the Lamp Is Shattered"
18. Lines Written among the Euganean Hills
19. Lines Written in the Bay of Lerici
20. Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni
21. Music when Soft Voices Die (To --)
22. Mutability
23. Ode to the West Wind
24. One Sung of thee who Left the Tale Untold
25. Ozymandias
26. Prometheus Unbound
27. Queen Mab: Part VI
28. The Question
29. Song: Rarely, rarely, comest thou
30. Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples
31. Time
32. Time Long Past
33. To ----
34. To a Skylark
35. To Jane: "The Keen Stars Were Twinkling"
36. To Night
37. To the Moon
38. The Triumph of Life
39. The Two Spirits: An Allegory

Index to prose

1. Defence of Poetry: Part First (1821)

Shelley