Many advantages accompanied his birth; but he spurned them all.The qualities that struck one immediately was a gentle and cordial goodness that was visible in his warm affection and sympathetic behavior. The other was, eagerness and ardor with which he was attached to the cause of human happiness and improvement.
His conversation was marked by happy abundance, the beautiful language in which he clothed his poetic ideas and philosophical notions. He looked on political freedom as the direct agent to effect the happiness of mankind. Thus any new-sprung hope of liberty inspired a joy and an exultation more intense and wild than he would have felt for any personal advantage. He had been the victim of the state of feeling inspired, by the reaction of the French Revolution right from youth. It cannot be wondered that a nature as sensitive, as impetuous, as generous as his, should apply his entire force to fight for others the evils of those systems from which he himself had suffered.
Shelley’s reputation altered in his lifetime. While he was alive, he was judged as much for the notoriety of his way of life and rumors about him as on the evidence provided by his then published work. His literary notoriety was provoked by three works : The Necessity of Atheism, Queen Mab, and The Cenci. In 1811, Shelley and T J Hogg were expelled from Oxford for issuing a pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism, which challenged the authorities in the University and the Bishops of the Church of England to prove the existence of God. In 1813, Queen Mab was printed but his name was not put on the title page and distributed only to sympathetic persons, Shelley realized that the poem with its long prose-notes attacking the monarchy, armies, the social order, religion and meat eating was dangerously radical.
The Shadow Across The Centuries
Alongside his moral reputation as, to quote the anonymous reviewer of Adonais in 1821, Shelley was credited with a considerable
lyrical gift and it was probably this aspect that led Wordsworth to opine, "Shelley was one of the best artists of us all, I mean in workmanship of style."
In 1861, Palgrave’s Golden Treasury, the most influential and reprinted anthology over the century, granted Shelley a special prominence for his short poems. He emerged as a prime example of the romantic genius. In a lecture in 1865, the renowned critic Matthew Arnold pronounced – "It always seemed to me that the right medium for Shelley’s genius would be the sphere of music, not of poetry; the medium of sounds he can master, but to master the more difficult medium of words he had neither intellectual force enough nor sanity enough." T S Eliot, despite his declaring a growing admiration for The Triumph of Life, deemed Shelley to be a poet suited to juvenile tastes. In 1936, Shelley was dismissed by many British academics as poetically vulgar and inadequate.
For Shelley, his short lyrics were often occasional or even private pieces, often left in a finished condition and he over and again stressed his view of himself as a poet of ideas whose ambitions can best be seen in his longer poems. Walter Bagehot contrasted him with Byron : "As it was the instinct of Byron to give in glaring words the gross phenomena of evident objects, so it was that of Shelley to refine the most inscrutable with the curious nicety of an attenuating metaphysician."
Prometheus Unbound was one of the world’s sacred books and in his regard for Alastor, The Witch of Atlas and The Triumph of Life, he anticipated the notion of quest which is so central to more recent commentators such as Harold Bloom, Peter Butter,
M H Abrams, and Earl Wasserman. Since World War II, critics have taken Shelley’s reading of philosophers and scientists much more seriously in a hugely influential essay Shelley’s Urbanity (1952) that the poet had a sophisticated mind, trained in thinking and literary modes.
Karl Marx saw Shelley as one of the main inspirations to the Chartist movement and through that to the development of socialist thinking in Britain. In 1884, George Bernard Shaw acknowledged Shelley’s influence. Leavis did praise The Mask of Anarchy and gradually the satirical and comical as well as the solemn poems have come to be properly appreciated. Since the publication of Shelley’s Prose, edited by David Lee Clark, in 1954 and The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley edited by Frederic L Jones in 1964 and considerable work on the text over the past 20 years, it has been easier to have a fuller view of him.
Language, according to Shelley, is endlessly colored by the assumptions and training of the user. In a letter to Leight (Leigh) Hunt in 1819, he writes about his choice of language in his poem Julian And Maddalo br />
"I have employed a certain familiar style of language to express the actual way in which people talk with each other whom education and a certain refinement of sentiment have placed above the use of vulgar idioms. I use the word vulgar in its most extensive sense : the vulgarity of rank and fashion is as gross in its way as that of poverty, and its terms can’t equally expressive of bare conceptions, and therefore equally unfit for poetry."
The foundation of Shelley’s ambition as a poet was moral. In the Dedication to the Revolt of Islam he writes of his spiritual coming-of-age.
"I do remember well the hour which burst
My spirits sleep a fresh May – dawn it was,
When I walked forth upon the glittering grass,
And wept, I knew not why; until there rose
From the near schoolroom, voices, that, alas !
Where but one echo from a world of woes –
The harsh and grating strife of tyrants and of foes."
This is not to say that all of his poetry is pragmatic, designed to persuade the reader to accept a scheme of thought.In the preface to Prometheus Unbound he appears to contradict himself within four sentences when he acknowledges that he has a passion for reforming the world but declares that "Didactic poetry is my abhorrence; nothing can be equally well expressed in prose that is not tedious and gratuitous in verse." Shelley does not suggest that poetry is the only means to moral behavior. He does not seek to limit poetry to the fictional presentation of human situations with which the reader can sympathize; rather, he wants poetry to enlarge the reader’s capacity to feel and think beyond his or her immediate circumstances.
In the preface to The Revolt of Islam he writes about his own training, remarking that "There is an education peculiarly fitted for a poet, without which genius and sensibility hardly fill the circle of their capacities. The terms he uses to describe the creative process are of a vehicle or instrument for a superior force; he speaks of a coal being set alight, of seeds being propagated, of musical instruments being played on, of mirrors being filled with images. For example in Mont Blanc, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, The Witch of Atlas and Adonais, inspiration is associated with the divine and the language used by Shelley is derived from religion. In fact, poetry for him seems to operate as a substitute for a discredited religion; the snag is that this divinity touches mankind, including the poet in an inconsistent way. Certainly, in the reactionary climate of his time Shelley saw the true poet as antagonistic and seditious to the orthodoxies of the establishment. Arnold described Shelley as ‘A beautiful and ineffectual angel.’
He died, and the world showed no outward sigh. But his influence over mankind, though slow in growth, is fast augmenting. His spirit gathers peace in its new state from the sense that though late, his exertions were not made in vain and in the progress of the liberty, he so fondly loved.
His death left a big void among those who knew him. It is our best consolation to know that such a pure-minded and exalted being was once among us – although the intolerant in their blindness poured down anathema, the Spirit of Good, who could judge the heart, never rejected him.
The Distinguished Boy
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born with a silver spoon in mouth. A heir apparent of Sir Timothy Shelley, he was destined to become a lord like his father and grandfather. But the child grew up to become a revolutionary. Radically opposite to conventionality, Shelley contributed in the field of English literature with the same fervor.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on August 4, 1792. He was the eldest son of Sir Timothy and Elizabeth Shelley. While a child his father became the region’s representative in parliament. Shelley also an heir to a rich estate called Field Place acquired by his grandfather. The newborn was of slight built and as he advanced in age, he developed a delicate look which made him look girlish.
Education
Six year old Shelley was put under the tutorage of Rev Mr Edwards to learn Latin. The teacher enjoyed teaching this pupil with excellent memory and good grasping power. His base of Latin prepared by Mr Edwards helped Shelley a lot in his further education.
Shelley was brought up in privileged circumstances, attending Syon House Academy in 1802 when he was 10. Shelley was a better companion to younger girls rather than boys of his age. He learned various subjects like geography, astronomy and languages like French and Latin. His Syon House days were a different experience for the youngster. He was not used to usual boyish sports and was not quite amiable by nature. The worst part was the punishments imposed upon him. It was a strange experience for a boy raised in aristocracy. He became an easy prey for the senior bullies and underwent punishments executing their orders. His only solace was his cousin Tom Medwin, who studied at the same school. Even at that tender age, Shelley's tilt towards romanticism was quite apparent. His interests varied from fairies to fighting, spirits to volcanoes. For study, he found the class-work very easy and therefore tedious. But what he hated the most were the dance-lessons. He enjoyed reading and gazing out of his window and drawing the pine trees in his notebook. Back home on vacations, he would suddenly feel completely in command and would entertain his younger sisters with mysterious and melodramatic stories. He was much fascinated by electricity and tried to catch it by flying a kite.
At Eton
At 12 he was enrolled at Eton in 1804, where he remained for six years as an exceptionally brilliant student. He attracted attention with his careless dressing, stringless shoes and by not wearing hat at all. He was not a popular student, was rather known as 'Shelley the atheist' or 'mad Shelley'. He normally ignored these comments and continued his own way. But at his boiling point, he was reported to have stabbed a boy with a fork. He lived in a world of his own, often believing his make believe stories to be true.
Shelley got outlet to his curiosity in science at Eton. He experimented with chemicals and once almost poisoned himself. During a vacation, he constructed a steam engine which blew up during the experiment. His interest diverted to metaphysics and magic too. He used to wait all night through for ghosts. He learned special ways of raising ghosts and experimented them alone at midnight.
He was a voracious reader and enjoyed reading even on some forced gaming trips. He normally spent his pocket money to buy books and scientific toys. He devotedly read Gothic romances and thrillers. He also discovered the works of William Godwin and embraced the ideals of the French Revolution.
At Eton, Shelley found his union with muse. His budding creativity found way in form of verses. During his Eton years, he wrote and published his Gothic novel Zastrozzi, that voiced his own heretical and atheistic opinions through the villain Zastrozzi. By the time he left Eton, he was an author and loved his work.
At Oxford
In 1810, Shelley went to Oxford University, where he enlisted his fellow Thomas Jefferson Hogg as a disciple, but after a year, the University expelled both for refusing to admit Shelley’s authorship of The Necessity of Atheism – a pamphlet that attacked the idea of compulsory Christianity.
In 1813, he published his first major poem – Queen Mab. In England he met William Godwin, a British philosopher. He also wrote articles for The Examiner on political subjects.
First Love
At the age of 19, Harriet Grove, Shelley's cousin, was an exceptionally beautiful girl. He was madly in love with her and compared her with Madonna of Raphael. She was rather naive. They corresponded quite regularly with recorded 44 letters form Shelley and 20 from Harriet during 1809. They used to enjoy blissful togetherness at Field Place. The girl was brought up in typical Catholic atmosphere, while Shelley delved in revolutionary thoughts. Somehow, the Groves and Shelleys came to the conclusion that the marriage of two was quite improbable. This did not deter Shelley as he continued to write hopeful letters. He disliked Christianity for taking away his sweetheart. Sometime later, Harriet got married to a country gentleman and the affair came to an end.
Marriage With Harriet Westbrook
Shelley got acquainted with Harriet Westbrook, daughter of a coffeehouse keeper through his friend Thomas Jefforson Hogg. During 1811, slowly the acquaintance transformed into strong feeling. He felt more of a rescuer rather than a lover, as Harriet was put under restrictions. Once, Harriet was caught reading one of Shelley's letters and Timothy Shelley was summoned to her school. Harriet was allowed to continue her study but she was looked down upon. This made her decide to leave the school. Shelley decided to rescue her from her confinement and they eloped one day. He married her despite his anti-matrimonial views. This was a terrible scandal and his father never forgave him. He immediately stopped all the allowances due to Shelley. He moved to Ireland where he made revolutionary pamphlets on politics – A Declaration of Rights. Harriet gave birth to their first child Elizabeth Ianthe in 1813.
Mary Godwin
Shelley admired William Godwin's writings and developed friendship with him and his family. Mary Goldwin was a beautiful daughter who inherited the word-trade from her father. In 1814, Shelley fell in love with Mary Godwin. This greatly upset Harriet and William Godwin. The lovers were again and again pleaded not to meet and put an end to the unwelcome affair. This frustrated Shelley so much that he threatened to commit suicide. He, Mary and her cousin Claire eloped, against Godwin’s objections in 1814. For the next year they traveled across Europe. He continued his involvement in politics. Returning to England, he produced Alastor or The Spirit of Solitude in 1816, which anticipated his later important work. Shelley and Mary met the British poet Lord Byron. At that time Shelley wrote two short poems Hymn to Intellectual Beauty and Mont Blanc. Meanwhile, Harriet gave birth to their son Charles. When Shelley and Mary returned, she was pregnant and soon gave birth to a girl-child who died within a few weeks. In early 1816, Mary gave birth to their son William. The same year, in November, Harriet Shelley's deadbody was found from Hyde Park's Serpentine. She was quite depressed because of the Mary-Shelley affair and she was believed to have committed suicide. Soon, Mary and Shelley decided to get married and they exchanged vows on December 30, 1816.
Shelley was also supposed to be attracted to Chaire. This was a matter of distress between the husband and wife.
Mastermind At Work
In 1817, he wrote the pamphlet – A Proposal for Putting Reform to the Vote Throughout the United Kingdom, in which he suggested a national referendum on electoral reforms and improvements in working class education. He also produced Laon and Cythna, a long narrative poem, which tells a symbolic tale of revolution. It was republished as The Revolt of Islam. At the same time, he wrote revolutionary political tracts signed The Hermit of Marlow. And the couple left England for the last time.
As Shelley’s health suffered due to change in climate, Shelley and Mary proceeded to Italy. They reached Milan in 1818. There, Shelley translated Plato’s Symposium and wrote his own essay On Love. He also wrote a poem Rosalind and Helen in which he imagines his destiny in the poet – reformer Lionel, who was imprisoned for radical activity.
During the remaining four years of his life, Shelley produced all his major works. Traveling and living in various cities of Italy, the Shelleys were friendly with British poet Leigh Hunt and Byron. Before his death in a boat accident, he published seven volumes of poetry : Rosalind and Helen, The Cenci; Prometheus Unbound; with Other Poems which contains The Cloud and Ode to the West Wind; Oedipus Tyrannus.
Many other poems were left in his notebooks like the Letter to Maria Gisbornem, The Witch of Atlas; The Triumph of Life; Posthumous Poems.
Sudden Exit
P B Shelley did not know to swim. But he loved sailing. This had proved fatal once when his boat turned down and escaped death by inches. But he could not fight the fate any longer. Shelley and a few friends decided to spend the summer of 1822 sailing on Bay of Lerici. A special boat was constructed and he named it Don Juan. On July 7, just 10 miles away form the shore, Don Juan was caught in storm. The boat could not survive against huge waves of Mediterranean sea. After his body was washed ashore near Viareggio 10 days later, it was cremated according to the dictates of Italian Law. His ashes were buried in a Protestant cemetery in Rome.
Many critics regard Shelley as the greatest of all English poets. They point especially to his lyrics, including the familiar short odes To a Skylark, To the West Wind, The Cloud. The effortless lyricism of these works is also evident in Shelley’s verse dramas The Cenci and Prometheus Unbound. His prose include a translation of The Symposium of Plato and his critical work A Defense of Poetry is equally skillful.
Byron wrote about Shelley’s death :
"There is another man gone about whom the world was ill-natured, and ignorantly, and brutally mistaken."
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY <1792-1822 >
Always enveloped by mysticism and controversy, Percy Bysshe Shelley lived a life of a rebel. Raising his voice against the conventionality and social injustice, this romantic poet expressed his religious and political views in broad daylight. Struggling against his own people, Shelley produced some of the most cherished verses of English literature.
He is often referred to as the 'Poet’s poet'. His passionate search for love and social justice was gradually channeled from overt actions into poems. The spirit of revolution and the power of free thought were his biggest passions in life.
Queen Mab, published in 1813, was his first major poem. A philosophical poem, it was the result of long serious work. The poem emerged from Shelley’s friendship with British philosopher William Godwin and it expressed Godwin’s freethinking socialist philosophy.
"How wonderful is death
Death and his brother sleep !"
Shelley represents the most interesting period of English literature and history. His romanticism has since been the inspiration and influence for generations.
August 4, 1792 Shelley born at Fieldplace, England.
1802-1804
Studied at Syon House Academy.
1804-1810
Studied at Eton.
1810
Took admission at Oxford but was expelled soon. Fell in love with his cousin Harriet Grove.
1810
His Gothic novels Zastrozzi and St. Irvyne published.
1811
Married Harriet Westbrook.
1812
Met William Godwin in London.
1813
Queen Mab published. Harriet gave birth to their daughter Elizabeth Ianthe.
1814
A Refutation of Deism published. Met and fell in love with Mary Godwin.
1815
Wrote Alastor.
1816
Wrote Mont Blanc. Mary gave birth to their son William. Harriet supposedly drowned herself in November. Mary and Shelley got married on December 30, 1816.
1817 Laon and Cythna published as The Revolt of Islam.
1818 Wrote On Love.
1820 Prometheus Unbound published.
1821 Wrote A Defense of Poetry and Hellas.
1822 Wrote The Triumph of Life.
P B Shelley died in a boat accident.
Queen Mab br />
It was Shelley’s first major poem, published in 1813. It was the result of his long serious work – a nine canto mixture of blank verse and lyric measures that attacks the evils of the past and present but ends with resplendent hopes for humanity when freed from these vices. It was totally a philosophical poem, emerged from William Godwin – the British philosopher, expressing Godwin’s free-thinking socialist philosophy, Shelley wrote :
"How wonderful is death,
Death and his brother sleep !"
Prometheus Unboundbr />
It was the milestone of Shelley’s poetic achievement written in 1820. It was written after he had been chastened by ‘sad reality’, but before he began to fear that, he had failed to reach the audience. It was a lyrical drama –
"Death is the veil which those who live call life :
They sleep, and it is lifted."
In Prometheus Unbound Shelley inverts the plot of The Lost Play by Aeschylus in a poetic masterpiece that combines supple blank verse with a variety of complex lyric measures. In Act I, Prometheus, tortured on Jupiter’s orders for having given mankind the gift of moral freedom, recalls his earlier curse of Jupiter and forgives him.
"I wish no living thing to suffer pain."
By eschewing revenge, Prometheus, who embodies the moral will, can be reunited with his beloved Asia. Her love prevents him from becoming another tyrant when Jupiter is overthrown by the mysterious power known as Demogorgon. Act II begin with her descent into the depths of nature to confront and question. Act III depicts that overthrow of Jupiter and the union of Asia and Prometheus. They retreat to a cave from which they influence the world through ideals embodied in the creative arts. The end describes the resurrection of both society and the natural world. Act IV opens with joyful lyrics by spirits. Finally Demogorgon returns to tell all creatures that, should the fragile state of grace be lost, they can restore their moral freedom, through these "spells" br />
"To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than Death or Night;
To decay power which seems Omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates;
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates…"
Adonaisbr />
Adonais was a handsome youth loved by Aphrodite, Goddess of love. While she was absent he was killed by a wild boar. Aphrodite pleaded with the gods that he be restored to life and he was eventually allowed to live in the world for half of the year. He came to be associated with the cycle of the seasons and was worshipped as a God of fertility who resurrected with each spring. The name ‘Adonai’ in Hebrew means ‘Lord’ and Shelley does not feel bound to any one meaning. The name ‘Adonais’ is pronounced with four syllables.
"He hath awakened from the dream of life –
’Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep
With phantoms an unprofitable strife,
And in mad trance, strike with our spirit’s knife
Invulnerable nothings.
Hellasbr />
The lyrical drama was dedicated to Prince Mavrokordatos, a Greek exiled to Pisa, who became friendly with Shelley.
Hellas is modeled on The Persians by Aeschylus, a play about the defeat by the Greeks of the Persian Army under Xerxes. The drama is set in Constantinople and envisages the defeat of the Turks as the cycle of history moves forward inevitably. The extract below is the final chorus of the play spoken by captive women.
"Life may change but it may fly not;
Hope may vanish, but can die not;
Truth be veiled, but still it burneth;
Love repulsed – but it returneth !"
•Argument
Concerning God, freewill and destiny; of all that earth has been or yet may be, all that vain men imagine, or believe, or hope can paint, or suffering may achieve, we descanted.
•Change
Life may change but it may fly not; Hope may vanish, but can die not; Truth be veiled, but still it burneth; Love repulsed – but it returneth.
•Hope
Cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay.
•Leaders and Leadership
To be omnipotent but friendless is to reign.
•Poetry and Poets
Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.
•Revenge
Revenge is the naked idol of the worship of a semi-barbarous age.
•Study
The more we study, the more we discover our ignorance.
•Generosity
It is not odd that the only generous person I ever knew, who had money to be generous with, should be a stockbroker.
•Tyranny
Rulers, who neither see, nor feel, nor know but leech – like to their fainting country cling, till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow, a people starved and stabbed in the untilled field.
•Critics and Criticism
Reviewers, with some rare exceptions, are a most stupid and malignant race. As a bankrupt thief turns thief-taker in despair, so an unsuccessful author turns critic.
•Famine
There was no corn – in the wide marketplace all loathliest things, even human flesh, was sold; They weighed it in small scales – and many a face was fixed in eager horror then; his gold the miser brought; The tender maid, grown bold through hunger, bared her swarmed charms in vain.
•Dressing
The beauty of the internal nature cannot be so far concealed by its accidental gesture but that the spirit of its form shall communicate itself to the very disguise and indicate the shape it hides from the manner in which it is worn. A majestic form and graceful motions will express themselves through the most barbarous and tasteless costume.
br />
