A pillar of English Romanticism, Percy Bysshe Shelley is widely regarded as one of the finest lyric poets of English literature. His writing is characterized by the inclusion of themes, including the pursuit of ideal love, the value of proximity to nature, the pursuit of freedom, and resistance against authority.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born near Horsham, Sussex, England in 1792 to a privileged family. As the eldest son of six children, Shelley was expected to inherit his grandfather’s estate as well as his seat in Parliament. Beginning at age twelve, he attended Eton College for six years, where he was bullied and taunted with nicknames including “Shelley the atheist” and “Mad Shelley” due to his controversial beliefs. Shelley began to use his love of poetry and his passion for writing as a form of escapism from the mistreatment. He published his first work, Gothic novel Zastrozzi in 1810, and used the perspective of villain Zastrozzi to express his own atheistic opinions. Shelley also published a pamphlet of verse titled “Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson” in collaboration with fellow student Thomas Jefferson Hogg, as well as Original Poetry; by Victor and Cazire in collaboration with his sister Elizabeth. Shelley began attending Oxford University in 1810, but was expelled in his first year due to the circulation of a controversial pamphlet, “The Necessity of Atheism.”

At nineteen, Shelley married Harriet Westbrook, and the couple moved to the Lake District of England, where Shelly was able to focus on his writing. There, he published his first long work, Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem, which was largely influenced by Shelley’s friendship with William Godwin and his Socialist views. Shelley also got to know Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft’s daughter, Mary. Mary and Shelley started an affair and “eloped” in 1814. The couple traveled to Lake Geneva where they spent time with poet Lord Byron and discussed topics ranging from poetry to the supernatural. At Byron’s suggestion, they each wrote tales about ghosts, and Mary’s became the famous Gothic novel Frankenstein. In 1816, Harriet Shelley seemingly committed suicide and Shelley and Mary Godwin were legally married.

In 1817, Shelley completed his twelve-canto romance-epic poem Laon and Cythna, which was controversial in nature due to its references to incest and its criticism of religion. Shelley’s printer and publisher suppressed the poem, and it was reissued as The Revolt of Islam in 1818. The couple then left England for Italy where Shelley would primarily remain for the remainder of his life. Over the next four years, Shelley completed some of his most lengthy works, including The Masque of Anarchy which was a response to the 1818 Peterloo Massacre. From 1818-1819, Shelley wrote what is widely considered to be his masterpiece, Prometheus Unbound (1820), which was published with some of his famous short poems, including “To a Skylark” and “Ode to the West Wind.” In the work, Shelley utilized the rebellious mythological figure of Prometheus as a symbol of the soul of a man reaching his highest potential. After completing Prometheus Unbound, he wrote the verse tragedy, The Cenci, which is based on a sixteenth-century Roman case of patricide and incestuous rape. He also wrote a number of revolutionary political tracts over this four year period, which he signed “The Hermit of Marlow.”

In 1822, just prior to his thirtieth birthday, Shelley drowned in a storm during an attempt to sail from Leghorn to La Spezia, Italy. Though he did not achieve a large degree of fame during his lifetime, Shelley’s literary reputation continued to evolve and expand after his death. Today, he is considered to be one of the most major Romantic poets of the English language.

“Love’s Philosophy”

Percy Bysshe Shelley

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