Percy Bysshe Shelley, master poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley was a poet from the English Romantic period and is considered by many to be the most lyrical poet of the era. Best known for the anthologies Ode to the West Wind, Ozymandias, To a Skylark and The Masque of Anarchy, Shelley was also capable of long visionary poetry such as Adonais, Alastor, The Revolt of Islam, Prometheus Unbound and The Triumph of Life (although this last work remained unfinished after Shelley died). The unconventional lifestyle that he led showed clearly in his work, which was often uncompromising in its stance and delivered in a compelling tone.
While Shelley's idealism may have no doubt made him more than his share of critics, far more held his considerable literary skills in high regard. At least three generations of poets and writers have laid claim to some measure of influence from Shelley and to this day he remains a relevant and formidable literary presence.
His influence has been acknowledged by many of the important poets from the Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite periods such as Lord Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne and William Butler Yeats. Even non-English speaking poets drew inspiration from Percy Bysshe Shelley, among them Subramanya Bharathy and Jibanananda Das. Other notable Shelley admirers included George Bernard Shaw and Karl Marx.
A contemporary of John Keats and Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, like these two, would die at an early age.
Shelley's wife was the almost equally celebrated novelist, Mary Shelley who was responsible for one of the most read novels of all time, Frankenstein. Percy himself wrote the foreword to this novel.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on August 4th, 1792 to Sir Timothy Shelley and Elizabeth Pilfold. He received his earliest education at home in Sussex under the tutorship of Reverend Evan Edwards. When he was ten years old, Shelley entered the Syon House Academy at Brentford where his classmates constantly subjected him to the most extreme forms of bullying.
Shelley was somewhat feminine in appearance and this along with his aristocracy earned him a steady stream of abuse. This treatment would continue throughout Shelley's stay at Syon House Academy until he attended the University College in Oxford on April 10th, 1810.
Percy Bysshe Shelley's performance at Oxford was spotty at best; it is said that he only attended one lecture at the University and instead spent most of his waking hours reading, up to sixteen hours a day! Not surprisingly, he was also unpopular with the students, as well as the teachers, here, although he did strike up a close personal friendship with Thomas Jefferson Hogg.
While at Oxford Shelley published his first work entitled Zastrozzi, a graphic novel. He also published a collection of poems with his sister Elizabeth, entitled Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire as well as releasing several verses of a somewhat risqué nature called Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson with help from his Thomas Hogg.
Percy Bysshe Shelley died on July 8th, 1822 during a storm at sea.
Original Authors: Doods Pangburn
Edit Update Authors: M.A.Harris
Updated On: 21/07/2008
