P B Shelley

In 1811 Percy Bysshe Shelley married Harriet Westbrook, the daughter of a prosperous tavern-keeper. They had a daughter, and a son Charles.

In July 1814, before Charles was born, Shelley abandoned Harriet and eloped with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, best known for her Gothic novel, ‘Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus.’ He however kept on providing financial support to Harriet and the children.

In 1816 Harriet committed suicide. By now, she had been living with another man, abandoning her children in the care of her sister. Three weeks after the incident, Shelley married Mary Godwin. They had one son called Percy Florence Shelley, who became 3rd Baronet of Castle Goring.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on 4 August 1792 at Field Place, located near Broadbridge Heath, a village inHorsham district of West Sussex. His father, Sir Timothy Shelley, 2nd Baronet of Castle Goring, was a Member of Parliament and an associate of Duke of Norfolk.

His mother, Elizabeth Pilfold, came from a landowning family in Sussex. Percy was the eldest of the couple’s six children and had four sisters and a brother younger to him.

Percy started his education at home under Reverend Evan Edwards of nearby Warnham. Later in 1802, he was enrolled at Syon House Academy of Brentford, Middlesex.

In 1804, he shifted to Eton College. Here he refused to submit to fagging, a practice which required junior students to serve the senior boys as servants. As a result, hehad to undergo extreme physical and mental bullying at the hands of theolder boys.

Consequently, his academic performances began to suffer and he became more and more reclusive.However, he did develop an interest in science and used his knowledge to cause mischief, going to the extent of blowing up a tree with gunpowder in the school ground. Concurrently, he also started writing verses.

In 1810, Shelley published his first book,a Gothic novel titled ‘Zastrozzi.’It is possible that he had written it while studying at Eton. The book throws light on his early atheistic as well as heretical views, which he put in the mouth of the villain Zastrozzi.

In the same year, he also published his first poetry book, ‘Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire.’ These poems were written in collaboration with his sister Elizabeth while he was in Eton. It is believed that his father Sir Timothy Shelley initially patronized him a lot and helped in publication of his books.

In 1810, Shelley wrote another Gothic novel, titled ‘St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian: A Romance’, which was published in 1811. It was probably the first book that he had written while studying at Oxford.

Around the same time, Shelley had his fourth book, ‘Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson’, published. It was a collection of poems written in collaboration with Thomas Jefferson Hogg, with whom he had developed a close friendship.

Sometime now, healso took out a pamphlet, titled ‘Necessity of Atheism’ and had it circulated with the help of Hogg. Many critics suspect that its purpose was to antagonize and provoke the authority, for the title was more confrontational than the argument.

’Ode to the West Wind’, written in late 1819, is one of Percy B Shelley’sbest known works. In this poem, he called for a revolution that will bring in new order. The last line, ‘If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?’ is the ultimate words of hope that he wanted to convey to the suffering multitude.

His other well-known poems are ‘To a Skylark’, ‘Music, When Soft Voices Die’, ‘The Cloud’,‘The Masque of Anarchy’, and ‘Lines Written among the Euganean Hills.’ Among the dramas produced by Shelley, ‘Prometheus Unbound’ and ‘The Cenci’ are the most popular.