Percy B. Shelley
Life (1792 –1822)
Married to 16-year-old Harriet Westbrook. Some years later he ran away with Mary Godwin, daughter of William Godwin.
In 1818 Shelley and Mary left London and settled in Italy.
Studied at Oxford University from which he was expelled because of a radical pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism.
Died in 1822 drowned during a storm, while sailing near Livorno.
Born in Sussex in 1792.
Main works
1819 The Cenci, a verse tragedy.
1820 Prometheus Unbound,a lyrical drama dealing with the theme of intellectual rebellion, the desire for spiritual liberty and the belief that evil would be overcome by the power of love
1819 Ode to the West Wind.
1821 A Defence of Poetry, an unfinished essay concerning the importance of poetry.
1817 The Revolt of Islam,
a revolutionary poem about the power of love.
Themes
restless spirit
refusal of social conventions
and political oppression
faith in a better future
He believed in freedom and love, which he regarded as the remedies for the faults and evils of society.
Through love man could overcome any political, moral and social conventions.
.
Poetry
Nature
It provides the poet with beautiful images, such as the wind, and symbols for the creation of his cosmic schemes.
The favourite refuge from the disappointment and injustice of the ordinary world.-> The interlocutor of the poet’s melancholy dreams and of his hopes for a better future.
It is a beautiful veil that hides the eternal truth of the Divine Spirit.->pantheistic religion
Unlike Wordsworth, it is not the real world.
Poet
the expression of imagination
understood as revolutionary creativity, capable of changing the reality of an increasingly material world
prophet
Titan challenging the cosmos
His task is to help mankind to reach an ideal world where freedom, love and beauty replace tyranny, destruction and alienation.
1820 To a Skylark
1821 Adonais, an elegy written in honor of John Keats
Style
Wide range of metricand stanzaic forms
1813 Queen Mab, poem that express his philosophy of life
1811 The Necessity of Atheism, radical pamphlet that challenge the existence of God
visionary : use of images and symbols
Great musicality on lines
Religion was an instrument to enslave fellow-creatures.