An Introduction to Percy Bysshe Shelley

An Introduction to Percy Bysshe Shelley (珀西·比西·雪莱) O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" This is a famous verse from the <Ode to the West Wind>. So today I will give an introduction to the author Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets who rebelled against English politics and conservative values. He is regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. He drew no essential distinction between poetry and politics, and his work reflected the radical ideas and revolutionary optimism of the era. He was also famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron.

Shelley was born on August 4, 1792, at Field Place,into an aristocratic family.Shelley attended Syon House Academy and Eton School in 1804 . In 1810 Shelley entered the Oxford University . While the next year he was expelled from the college for publishing The Necessity Of Atheism, which he wrote with Thomas Jefferson .

Four months after being expelled, the 19-year-old Shelley eloped to Scotland with the 16-year-old Harriet Westbrook. The pair spent the following two years traveling in England and Ireland, distributing pamphlets and speaking against political injustice.

However, Shelley was increasingly unhappy in his marriage to Harriet. In1814, Shelley abandoned Harriet, now pregnant with their son Charles and he ran away to Switzerland with Mary, the daughter of the philosopher and anarchist William Godwin.

After their return to London, Harriet drowned herself and their two children were sentenced to Harriet's father ,which broke Shelley's heart. Then he married Maria and have a son and daughter but unfortunately died later.

When they made a second trip to Switzerland. He spent the summer with Lord Byron at Lake Geneva.They both rented neighboring houses there. Regular conversation with Byron had an invigorating effect on Shelley's output of poetry. In 1818 the Shelleys moved to Italy, where Byron was residing. In 1819 they went to Rome and in 1820 to Pisa. In 1822 the Shelley household moved to the Bay of Lerici. There Shelley began to write The Triumph Of Life.

In July, 1822,less than a month before his 30th birthday,Shelley drowned during the stormy return voyage after he welcomed Leigh Hunt .The body were burned on the beach in the presence of Byron and Hunt.Shelley was later buried in Rome , which is his ideal place to rest.