PERCY SHELLEY

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born 4th

August, 1792, at Field Place, near

Horsham, England…

1.ABOUT HIS LIFE…

He was born in England and he was the son of a

Member of Parliament. He was one of the major

English Romantic poets. When he was alive, he did

not achieve fame, but when he died, his fame grew.

Shelley was a key member of a close circle of

visionary poets and writers that included Lord

Byron; John Keats; Thomas Love Peacock; and his

own second wife, Mary Shelley, the author of

Frankenstein.

1.1 HIS MARRIAGES

In 1810, Percy Shelley went to University College

in Oxford. In 1811 he met and eloped to Edinburgh

with Harriet Westbrook and, one year later, went

with her and her older sister to Dublin, then to

Devon and North Wales, where they stayed for six

months into 1813. They married, and after one year,

in 1814. However, with the birth of two children,

their marriage collapsed and he eloped once again,

this time with Mary Godwin.

1.1.1 FIRST MARRIAGE

Harriet Westbrook was born on 1 August, 1795.

She was the first wife of Percy Shelley. The couple

eloped to Edinburgh. They married and after, they

had two children.

When Percy Shelley eloped with Mary Godwin,

she could not bear it, so she walked the short

distance from her lodgings to Hyde Park and

drowned herself in the Serpentine River. At the time

of her death she was just twenty-one years old.

1.1.2 SECOND MARRIAGE

Mary Wodwin, also know like Mary Shelley, was

the second wife of Percy Shelley. the couple travelled

to France, Switzerland and Germany before

returning to London where he took a house with

Mary on the edge of Great Windsor Park and wrote

Alastor (1816), the poem that first brought him fame.

In 1816 Shelley spent the summer on Lake Geneva

with Lord Byron and Mary Shelley, who had begun

work on Frankenstein.

1.2 PERCY’S DEATH

On 8 July 1822, less than a month before his 30th

birthday, Shelley drowned in a sudden storm while

sailing back from Leghorn (Livorno) to Lerici in his

schooner, Don Juan. He was returning from having

set up The Liberal with the newly arrived Leigh

Hunt. The name "Don Juan", a compliment to Byron,

was chosen by Edward John Trelawny, a member of

the Shelley–Byron Pisan circle. However, according

to Mary Shelley's testimony, Shelley changed it to

"Ariel".

2. POPULAR POEMS

A New National Anthem

A Roman's Chamber

A Serpent-Face

A Summer Evening Churchyard, Lechlade, G...

A Tale Of Society As It Is: From Facts, ...

Adonais

Alas! This Is Not What I Thought Life Was

Alastor: or, the Spirit of Solitude

3.1 PICTURES

Percy Shelley and his sign.

Percy Shelley writing Prometheus Unbound.

3.2 PICTURES

Percy Shelley’s grave in Rome, Italy

The funeral of Percy Shelley