Percy Bysshe Shelley

British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

Percy Bysshe Shelley was an influential English Romantic poet who was not recognized during his lifetime but later became an inspiration for many other poets. He wrote a variety of works, including poems, verse dramas, and political essays, but faced controversies and backlash for his radical views and nonconformist lifestyle.

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Family Info

Siblings

Helen Shelley

Margaret Shelley

John Shelley

Elizabeth Shelley

Spouses

Mary Shelley

Harriet Westbrook

Children

Ianthe Eliza Shelley

Charles Bysshe Shelley

William Shelley

Percy Florence Shelley

Clara Everina Shelley

Clara Shelley

About the Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelleywas an English writer who is considered as one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achievements in poetry grew steadily following his death, and he became an important influence on subsequent generations of poets, including Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, and W. B. Yeats. American literary critic Harold Bloom describes him as “a superb craftsman, a lyric poet without rival, and surely one of the most advanced sceptical intellects ever to write a poem.”

Shelley’s reputation fluctuated during the 20th century, but since the 1960s he has achieved increasing critical acclaim for the sweeping momentum of his poetic imagery, his mastery of genres and verse forms, and the complex interplay of sceptical, idealist, and materialist ideas in his work. Among his best-known works are “Ozymandias”and Hellas (1822), and the long narrative poems Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude (1815), Julian and Maddalo (1819), Adonais (1821), and The Triumph of Life (1822).

Shelley also wrote prose fiction and a quantity of essays on political, social, and philosophical issues. Much of this poetry and prose was not published in his lifetime, or only published in expurgated form, due to the risk of prosecution for political and religious libel. From the 1820s, his poems and political and ethical writings became popular in Owenist, Chartist, and radical political circles, and later drew admirers as diverse as Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi, and George Bernard Shaw.

Shelley’s life was marked by family crises, ill health, and a backlash against his atheism, political views, and defiance of social conventions. He went into permanent self-exile in Italy in 1818 and over the next four years produced what Zachary Leader and Michael O’Neill call “some of the finest poetry of the Romantic period”. His second wife, Mary Shelley, was the author of Frankenstein. He died in a boating accident in 1822 at age 29.

Frequently Asked Questions

Percy Bysshe Shelley was an English writer considered one of the major English Romantic poets. He was a radical in his poetry, political, and social views, though he did not achieve fame during his lifetime.

Some of Shelley’s best-known works include ‘Ozymandias’, ‘Ode to the West Wind’, ‘To a Skylark’, ‘Adonais’, and the philosophical essay ‘The Necessity of Atheism’. He also wrote verse dramas like The Cenci, Prometheus Unbound, and Hellas, as well as long narrative poems such as Alastor, Julian and Maddalo, and The Triumph of Life.

Shelley’s reputation fluctuated during the 20th century, but since the 1960s, he has achieved increasing critical acclaim for his sweeping poetic imagery, mastery of genres and verse forms, and the complex interplay of skeptical, idealist, and materialist ideas in his work.

As a radical in his political and social views, much of Shelley’s poetry and prose was not published during his lifetime due to the risk of prosecution for political and religious libel. However, his works later became popular in Owenist, Chartist, and radical political circles.

Shelley’s second wife was the author of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley. They had a close relationship, and Shelley’s life and work were significantly influenced by family crises, ill health, and the backlash against his atheism, political views, and defiance of social conventions.

Shelley died in a boating accident in 1822 at the young age of 29, while living in self-exile in Italy over the previous four years, during which time he produced some of the finest poetry of the Romantic period.

After his death, recognition of Shelley’s achievements in poetry grew steadily, and he became an important influence on subsequent generations of poets, including Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, and W. B. Yeats.

46 Quotes by Percy Bysshe Shelley

  1. 1.

    If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  2. 2.

    Change is certain. Peace is followed by disturbances; departure of evil men by their return. Such recurrences should not constitute occasions for sadness but realities for awareness, so that one may be happy in the interim.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  3. 3.

    Twin-sister of Religion, Selfishness.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  4. 4.

    When my cats aren’t happy, I’m not happy. Not because I care about their mood but because I know they’re just sitting there thinking up ways to get even.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  5. 5.

    The pleasure that is in sorrow is sweeter than the pleasure of pleasure itself.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  6. 6.

    Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  7. 7.

    History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  8. 8.

    Tragedy delights by affording a shadow of the pleasure which exists in pain.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  9. 9.

    Obscenity, which is ever blasphemy against the divine beauty in life, is a monster for which the corruption of society forever brings forth new food, which it devours in secret.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  10. 10.

    Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  11. 11.

    Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil. When all men are good and wise, government will of itself decay.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  12. 12.

    The man of virtuous soul commands not, nor obeys.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  13. 13.

    There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  14. 14.

    We look before and after, And pine for what is not; Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught; Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  15. 15.

    Revenge is the naked idol of the worship of a semi-barbarous age.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  16. 16.

    First our pleasures die – and then our hopes, and then our fears – and when these are dead, the debt is due dust claims dust – and we die too.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  17. 17.

    Familiar acts are beautiful through love.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  18. 18.

    A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  19. 19.

    The soul’s joy lies in doing.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  20. 20.

    In a drama of the highest order there is little food for censure or hatred; it teaches rather self-knowledge and self-respect.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  21. 21.

    The more we study the more we discover our ignorance.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  22. 22.

    Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  23. 23.

    War is the statesman’s game, the priest’s delight, the lawyer’s jest, the hired assassin’s trade.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  24. 24.

    Love is free; to promise for ever to love the same woman is not less absurd than to promise to believe the same creed; such a vow in both cases excludes us from all inquiry.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  25. 25.

    Is it not odd that the only generous person I ever knew, who had money to be generous with, should be a stockbroker.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  26. 26.

    Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  27. 27.

    I have drunken deep of joy, And I will taste no other wine tonight.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  28. 28.

    Man has no right to kill his brother. It is no excuse that he does so in uniform: he only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  29. 29.

    Soul meets soul on lovers’ lips.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  30. 30.

    Poetry is a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, which consumes the scabbard that would contain it.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  31. 31.

    Music, when soft voices die Vibrates in the memory.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  32. 32.

    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.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  33. 33.

    When a thing is said to be not worth refuting you may be sure that either it is flagrantly stupid – in which case all comment is superfluous – or it is something formidable, the very crux of the problem.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  34. 34.

    O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  35. 35.

    There is no real wealth but the labor of man.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  36. 36.

    Man’s yesterday may never be like his morrow; Nought may endure but Mutability.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  37. 37.

    Reason respects the differences, and imagination the similitudes of things.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  38. 38.

    Fear not for the future, weep not for the past.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  39. 39.

    A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  40. 40.

    I think that the leaf of a tree, the meanest insect on which we trample, are in themselves arguments more conclusive than any which can be adduced that some vast intellect animates Infinity.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  41. 41.

    Only nature knows how to justly proportion to the fault the punishment it deserves.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  42. 42.

    Death is the veil which those who live call life; They sleep, and it is lifted.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  43. 43.

    Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  44. 44.

    The great instrument of moral good is the imagination.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  45. 45.

    Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)

  46. 46.

    All of us who are worth anything, spend our manhood in unlearning the follies, or expiating the mistakes of our youth.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley

    British Romantic poet (1792-1822)