A Poet By Percy Shelley

A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds – Shelley (sparknotes Percy Shelley). Percy Bysshe Shelley was born August 4, 1792 in Broadbridge Heath, England. He was the eldest son of Timothy Shelley, a Member of Parliament, and Elizabeth Shelley (Bio “Percy Bysshe Shelley”). He was very respected by all five of his younger siblings and even by the maids that worked for his family. Since he did stand in line to inherit not only his grandfather’s considerable estate but also a seat in parliament (“Academy of American Poets”). Shelley grew up during the Victorian Age that included artistic, intellectual and literary movements that molded many peoples’ lifestyles. The Romantic Age was the starting point for many well-known poets we know today such as William Wordsworth and Geoffrey Chaucer. Artists and poets during this period also respected nature and saw nature as life itself and giving it meaning in their works. These men were extremely popular during the early 1800’s, around when Percy really began to feel a connection with himself and some of the great poets in his time. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s works including Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind and The Masque of Anarchy express Shelley’s infatuation for nature’s beauty and also displays his passion for a less restrained society and his craving for other individual freedoms.

As a child Percy was carefree and independent going wherever he pleased and exploring his surroundings. He learned to fish and hunt in the meadows encompassing his home, he often surveyed the rivers and fields with his cousin and close friend Thomas Medwin. “…insanity hung as by a hair suspended over the head of Shelley” (“Percy Bysshe Shelley”). At the age ...

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...orthy to understand his messages and help him continue to plant his seeds or ideas even after he is long gone. Shelley became reviled in England which caused him to emigrate and spend his final four years of life in Italy (Kirsch). On July 8, 1822 Percy Bysshe Shelley was found dead after presumably drowning while sailing to go visit some friends (“Percy Bysshe Shelley“).His body, cast on the shore, was burned in the presence of Byron and another radical, Leigh Hunt, and the ashes were buried in the Protestant cemetery just outside the wall of Rome (Fletcher). Some people believe that he was murdered by an enemy who didn’t except his political beliefs. His works will continue to live on through the ages and will be passed down generation to generation in hopes of achieving what Percy so desperately sought after, the death of oppression, depression and discrimination.