Percy Bysshe Shelley (4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822)
Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among the finest lyric poets of the English language. He is perhaps most famous for such anthology pieces as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, and The Masque of Anarchy.
Shelley’s poetry is loved, not only for its musicality, but for the almost luminous energy it contains. Shelley depicts dramatic natural forms, oceans, clouds, winds, darkness and glaring sunlight, which give glimpses of the visionary mind challenging the sufferings and longings of mankind. He is the poet of despair and hope. He depicts the winter storm but stresses his belief in a new beginning, a new spring. His life was intense, and this created deep emotional scars – the price he had to pay for his refusal to make compromises. He was born into a life of privilege, but chose alienation. In the end he sought exile among a small group of individuals who lived life on the outside of accepted standards. Shelley spent his last years in Italy, creating a series of masterpieces, and his life culminated in a storm whilst out sailing in his boat “Ariel”. He left a great poetic production, which covered a lot of topics from the metaphysical to the political. But Shelley is perhaps especially cherished for his transparent and vulnerable poems interpreting that most human of feeling – love. He became the idol of the next two or three generations of poets, including the major Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite poets Robert Browning, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, as well as William Butler Yeats . Famous for his association with his contemporaries John Keats and Lord Byron, he was also married to novelist Mary Shelley.
Poem: To Jane (To a Butterfly)
Poem: Love’s Philosophy (Love’s philosophy)
Poem: Rose Leaves (Love’s philosophy)
Poem: The Cloud (Love’s philosophy)
Poem: A Fragment:To Music (Love’s philosophy)
Poem: Lines (Love’s philosophy)
Poem: The Indian Serenade (Love’s philosophy)
Poem: When Passion’s Trance is Overpast (Love’s philosophy)
Poem: The Flower that Smiles Today (Love’s philosophy)
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