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C: PERCY BYSSHE SHELLY

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After F.W. Shilstone

Shelly was one of the great English lyric poets who
experimented with many literary styles and had a lasting influence on
many later writers.
Shelly was born on August 4, 1792, in Sussex into a wealthy
and politically prominent family. He had a stormy career at Eton
College and Oxford University, from which he was expelled in 1911
for writing a pamphlet.
In 1811, Shelly eloped with 16-year-old Harriet Westbrook, the
daughter of a former London coffee house owner. He abandoned her
in 1814 and ran away with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, the
daughter of a political philosopher whose liberal ideas greatly
influenced Shelley. Though they said they did not believe in
marriage, Shelly and Mary Godwin were married in 1816, after
Harriet drowned herself. They had three children, two of whom died
in infancy.
Shelly believed the Irish were being oppressed by their English
rulers and tried to rouse the Irish to rebel against English in his
pamphlets and poems. In 1816, Shelley and his wife became close
friends with Lord Byron. Their friendship led to an ongoing exchange
of ideas.
After March 1818, Shelly went into exile in Italy. There he
wrote a series of important works, including The Cenci, Prometheus
Unbound, The Witch of Atlas, Epipsychidion, Hellas.
On July 8, 1822, Shelly drowned while sailing near Livorno,
Italy.
Shelley’s poems are emotionally direct, but difficult to
understand intellectually. Much of his poetry is openly
autobiographical. He wrote about the role of imagination as a spiritual
guide, his decision to devote his life to the pursuit of ideas, his hopes
for humanity’s redemption, conflicts between infinite desire and the
inability to realize it. He asserts that poets sow the seeds of future
reforms but do not themselves live to witness their realization.
***

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Друкується за виданням The World Book Encyclopedia. London: World
Book Inc., 1994. Vol.17, p. 391. Abridged and adapted.

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