Percy Bysshe Shelley

I was born the son of a successful squire in 1792 and studied at Eaton College and Oxford. In 1811, however, my friend Thomas Hogg and I, published a pamphlet called The Necessity of Atheism which the conservative antisecularists at the university disapproved of. They attempted to make me revoke my authorship of this pamphlet however I refused. This was enough to end my education as I was expelled from Oxford.

After this liberating event I met my first love, Harriet Westbrook, and we moved to the Lake District of England. Here, I became friends with William Godwin and was influenced by his progressive socialist philosophy. This inspired me to write my first serious work, Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem.

Harriet’s company drew tiresome. I was convinced she had only married me for my money and social class. I craved more intellectual company. This drew me further towards William Godwin and eventually Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin.

Mary and I travelled France and Switzerland together for months in 1814. Eventually we returned home, avoiding creditors and roughing it financially. At this point in time I was deeply influenced by the works of Wordsworth and wrote one of my most famous poems, Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude.

In 1816, having a more stable financial situation due to the death of my grandfather, Mary and I travelled to Switzerland where we met Lord Byron. We rented a house next to one another on Lake Geneva where he inspired the creation of my works Hymn to Intellectual Beauty and Mont Blanc. I married Mary the same year after the suicide of my previous wife Harriet.

I left England in 1818 with the destination of Italy to see Lord Byron. It was in this period of my life that I created most of my great poetry such as Adonis, Ode to the West Wind, Ozymandias, and To a Skylark. Less than a month from my 30th birthday, in 1822, I was sailing in my schooner, Don Juan, when a storm caught me off guard and resulted in my accidental death.

I am remembered for lyrical poetry, and radical social and political views.

"The world should listen then, as I am listening now." - To a Skylark

Works Cited
“SHELLEY Percy Bysshe” Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. 2009. Ebsco Host.
“Percy Bysshe Shelley” Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press. Ebsco Ho