This blog is part of an assignment for the paper 103 - Litrature of The Romantics,
Sem - 1, 2023.
"In the Shadows of Genius: Tracing the Footsteps of Percy Bysshe Shelley"
Table of Contents:-
Personal Information
Assignment Details
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
Percy Bysshe Shelley – Early Life
First Writings and University
Political, Religious and Ethical Views
Conclusion
References
Personal Information:-
Name:-Chavada Nanda
Batch:- M.A. Sem 1 (2023-2024)
Enrollment Number:-5108230012
E-mailAddress:-nandachavada@gmail.com
Roll Number:- 23
Assignment Details:
Topic:-"In the Shadows of Genius: Tracing the Footsteps of Percy Bysshe Shelley"
Paper & subject code:- 103 - Literature of the Romantics & 22394
Submitted to:- Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, MKBU, Bhavnagar
Date of Submission:- 01 December,2023
Abstract :
here, The life, works, and ideologies of Percy Bysshe Shelley, a prominent Romantic poet. It delves into his early life, education, vegetarianism, his major works, political, religious, and ethical views. Shelley's notable works such as "Ozymandias," "Ode to the West Wind," and "The Mask of Anarchy" are highlighted, along with his relationships, including his marriage to Mary Shelley. The narrative culminates with Shelley's untimely death in a boating accident and the unique circumstance of his heart's resistance to cremation.
Keywords:
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Romantic poet, early life, education, vegetarianism, political views, religious views, notable works, Mary Shelley, death, boating accident, heart, cremation.
"In the Shadows of Genius: Tracing the Footsteps of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was a Romantic poet and is regarded as one of the greatest English poets of all time.
Percy Bysshe Shelley – Early Life
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on 4 August 1792 at Field Place, Broadridge Heath, near Horsham, West Sussex, England.
He was the eldest of seven children, born to Sir Timothy Shelley (1753–1844), a Whig Member of Parliament for Horsham from 1790 to 1792 and for Shoreham between 1806 and 1812, and his wife, Elizabeth Pilfold (1763–1846), the daughter of a successful butcher.
His younger siblings were John (1806–1866), Margaret (1801–1887), Hellen (1799–1885), Mary (1797–1884), Hellen (1796–1796, died in infancy) and Elizabeth (1794–1831). His childhood was very happy, and he was particularly close to his mother and his sisters. As a young boy, he was encouraged to hunt, fish and ride.
Shelley’s second wife was Mary Shelley, famous for her novel Frankenstein. Together, the couple had four children, and Shelley fathered at least two other children with his first wife. He died in a boating accident in 1822, at the age of 29.
"In the Shadows of Genius: Tracing the Footsteps of Percy Bysshe Shelley"
His vegetarianism has been said to be very modern, especially as he argued for it’s health benefits, the alleviation of animal suffering, the inefficient use of agricultural land involved in farming, and the economic inequality resulting from the commercialization of animal food production. Shelley even inspired the founding of the Vegetarian Society in England (1847).
Education:
Shelley was sent to a day school run by the vicar of Warnham church at the age of six, where he displayed an impressive memory and gift for languages.
At ten years old, he enrolled at the Syon House Academy of Brentford, Middlesex, where his cousin Thomas Medwin was a pupil. Shelley was very unhappy here, being subjected to bullying and suffering from nightmares and hallucinations. He was particularly interested in science, often experimenting with gunpowder, acids and electricity.
In 1804, two years later, Shelley entered Eton College. He was bullied here too, and often displayed violent rages that earned him the nickname “Mad Shelley”. His interest in science continued, somewhat dangerously, and led him to giving an electric shock to a master, blowing up a tree stump with gunpowder and attempting to raise spirits with occult rituals.
His poems contained the melodious quality of Romanticism and a different point of view towards the nature than Wordsworth had. While he did not achieve fame in his lifetime, his radical views on politics, religion and social topics ensured his poetry was recognized following his death, and has influenced many poets since, including Browning, Hardy and Yeats.
First Writings and University
Towards his senior years at Eton, Shelley gained a reputation as a classical scholar. In his last term, he wrote his first novel Zastrozzi, and developed a small following among fellow students.
In October 1810, Shelley enrolled in University College, Oxford in October 1810. Just prior to this, Shelley completed Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire (written with his sister Elizabeth), the verse melodrama The Wandering Jew and the gothic novel St. Irvine; or, The Rosicrucian: A Romance (published 1811).
At Oxford, he attended only a few lectures, instead preferring to stay in his room conducting science experiments. It was at university that he met Thomas Jefferson Hogg, who became his closest friend. Hogg influenced Shelley’s views, and he developed strong radical and anti-Christian views. These views were dangerous in the reactionary political climate during Britain’s war with Napoleonic France, and Shelley’s father warned him against Hogg’s influence.
Shelley did not listen to his father’s advice, and in the winter of 1810–1811, published a series of anonymous political poems and tracts: Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson, The Necessity of Atheism (written in collaboration with Hogg) and A Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things. Shelley mailed The Necessity of Atheism to all the bishops and heads of colleges at Oxford. He was then called to appear before the college’s fellows, including the Dean, George Rowley.
However, he refused to answer questions about whether he was the author of the pamphlet, and was expelled from Oxford on 25 March 1811, along with Hogg. When Shelley’s father heard of the expulsion, he threatened to cut all contact with Shelley unless he agreed to return home and study under tutors appointed by him. Shelley refused, and his relationship with his fathered suffered as a result.
“O world, O life, O time! On whose last step I climb,
Out of day and night, A joy has taken flight;”
Shelley’s best known works include "Queen Mab" (1813): Early philosophical poem. "Ozymandias" (1818): Renowned sonnet on transience. "Prometheus Unbound" (1820): Major lyrical drama. "Adonais" (1821): Elegy for John Keats. "A Defence of Poetry" (1821): Influential essay on poetry's role. As well as poetry, he wrote prose fiction and essays on political, social, and philosophical issues
Political, Religious and Ethical Views :
Political :
Shelley had radical political views and was influenced by thinkers such as Rousseau, Paine, Godwin, Wollstonecraft, and Leigh Hunt. He was an advocate for republicanism, parliamentary reform, the extension of the franchise, freedom of speech, an end to aristocratic and clerical privilege, more equal distribution of income and wealth, and Catholic Emancipation. Because of these views, he was placed under government surveillance at certain times.
His most famous political work was the poem Queen Mab, which included extensive notes on political themes.
Religious :
Shelley was an atheist and saw organized religion as inextricably linked to social oppression. He was influenced by the materialist arguments in Holbach’s Le Systems de la nature. Many of his works had to be edited before publication to reduce the risk of prosecution, and his pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism was withdrawn from sale soon after publication following a complaint from a priest. Another famous piece of work, Queen Mab includes criticisms of priesthood, Christianity and religion in general.
Violence :
Shelley was an advocate for nonviolence and believed that violent protests would increase the prospect of a military despotism. His thoughts on this were largely based on his reflections on the French Revolution and rise of Napoleon. However, he did support the 1820 armed rebellion against absolute monarchy in Spain, and the 1821 armed Greek uprising against Ottoman rule. Shelley’s poem “The Mask of Anarchy” explores his nonviolent views.
“A passionate dream, a straining after impossibilities,
a record of fond conjectures,
a confused embodying of vague abstraction.”
Shelley’s poetry soon gained a wider audience in radical and reformist circles. Queen Mab became popular with Owenists and Chartists, and Revolt of Islam influenced poets sympathetic to the workers’ movement such as Thomas Hood, Thomas Cooper and William Morris.
On 1 July, Shelley and Edward Williams sailed in Shelley’s new boat the Don Juan to Livorno where Shelley met Leigh Hunt and Byron in order to make arrangements for a new journal, The Liberal. After the meeting during his years in Italy. In 1819 he published his historical tragedy The Cenci and a poem against political tyranny, The Mask of Anarchy, inspired by the Peterloo Massacre. The publication of Prometheus Unbound in 1820 included many of the shorter lyric poems for which he is now best known, such as “Ode to the West Wind,” “The Cloud,” and “To a Sky-Lark.” Adonais, Shelley’s elegy for John Keats, and the autobiographical Epipsychidion were published in 1821. Hellas, inspired by the Greek struggle for independence from Turkey, was published in 1822, and was the last of Shelley’s works to appear in his lifetime.
On 8 July 1822, Shelley’s boat was caught in a storm and he was drowned in the Bay of Spezia, along with his friend Edward Ellerker Williams and the cabin boy. Shelley’s body washed up on shore ten days later, and was buried nearby; the following month it was exhumed and burned. His ashes are buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome. Mary and Percy Florence returned to England in 1823, where she fought to publish Shelley’s works, an endeavor in which Sir Timothy thwarted her until 1839. She continued to write until her death in 1851.
Death:
On 8 July, Shelley, Williams and their boat boy sailed out of Livorno for Lerici. A few hours later, the Don Juan and its inexperienced crew were lost in a storm.
The vessel, an open boat, had been custom-built in Genoa for Shelley. Mary Shelley declared in her "Note on Poems of 1822" (1839) that the design had a defect and that the boat was never seaworthy. In fact the Don Juan was overmasted; the sinking was due to a severe storm and poor seamanship of the three men on board.
Shelley’s badly-decomposed body washed ashore at Viareggio ten days later and was identified by Trelawny from the clothing and a copy of Keats's Lamia in a jacket pocket. On 16 August, his body was cremated on a beach near Viareggio and the ashes were buried in the Protestant Cemetery of Rome.
Shelley’s Heart:
When Shelley’s body was cremated on the beach, his “unusually small” heart resisted burning, possibly due to calcification from an earlier tubercular infection. Trelawny gave the scorched heart to Hunt who preserved it in spirits of wine and refused to hand it over to Mary. He finally relented and the heart was eventually buried either at St. Peter’s Church, Bournemouth or in Christchurch Priory.
References :
Percy Bysshe Shelley - Poems, Books & Life - Biography, www.biography.com/authors-writers/percy-bysshe-shelley. Accessed 23 Nov. 2023.
“Percy Bysshe Shelley.” English History, Accessed 23 Nov. 2023., https://englishhistory.net/poets/percy-bysshe-shelley/.
No comments:
Post a Comment