Philosophical ideas in Percy

Bysshe Shelley’s works

Golubkovich Anna, 310217 gr.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822

Percy Bysshe Shelley was the most

revolutionary romanticist in English literature.
Like Byron, he came of an aristocratic family
and like Byron he broke with his class at an
early age.
He was born at Field Place, Sussex. His father
was a baronet. Shelley was educated at Eton
public school and Oxford University.
An independent spirit

– In Oxford he wrote a pamphlet The Necessity of

Atheism for which he was expelled from the
University. His father forbade him to come
home. Shelley had an independent spirit, and he
broke with his family and his class forever. He
traveled from one town to another, took an
active part in the Irish liberation movement and
at last left England for Italy in 1818. There he
wrote his best poetry. Shelley’s life was mainly
spent in Italy and Switzerland, but he kept up
ties with England.

Field Place, Sussex

 Death

– In 1822 the poet was drowned.

When his body was washed ashore
he was cremated by Byron and his
other friends. His remains were
buried in Rome. The inscription on
his tomb reads:
Percy Bysshe Shelly
Cor Cordium
Cor Cordium = the heart of hearts.
‘The Drowned Man’: Edward Onslow Ford’s Monument to Percy Shelley
The ideas of liberty, equality and
fraternity
– Like Byron, Shelley was devoted to the
ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity.
He believed in the future of mankind.
He never lost faith in the power of love
and good will. He thought that if men
were granted freedom and learned to
love one another they could live
together happy. This hope fills his first
poems Queen Mab (1813), The Revolt
of Islam (1818) and his later poetic
drama Prometheus Unbound.
Queen Mab

– The plot of the poem Queen

Mab is symbolic. Queen Mab, a
fairy, shows the past, present and
future of mankind to a beautiful
girl. Queen Mab shows the ideal
society of the future where men
are equal, free and wise.
The Revolt of Islam

– The Revolt of Islam is a romantic

and abstract poem, but it is a
revolutionary one. Shelley
protested against the tyranny of
religion and of the government,
gave pictures of the
revolutionary movement for
freedom and foretold a happier
future for the whole of mankind.
 Prometheus Unbound

– In Prometheus Unbound Shelley gives the Greek myth his

own interpretation. He sings of the struggle against
tyranny. The sharp conflict between Prometheus and
Jupiter (the chief of the Roman gods) is in the center of
the drama. Prometheus is bound to a rock by Jupiter for
stealing fire from the gods and giving it to mankind. The
huge spirit Demogorgon, representing the Creative
Power, defeats Jupiter and casts him down. Prometheus
is set free and reunited with his wife Asia (Nature). The
fact that Jupiter is dethroned symbolizes change and
revolution. Now the mind of man can look forward to a
future which is “good, joyous, beautiful and free”.
– When Shelley got news that the workers of
Manchester had been attacked by
government troops, his indignation was
aroused, and he immediately wrote the
poems The Masque of Anarchy and Song to
the Men of England. In the first part of the
poem The Masque of Anarchy the
procession of horrible masks may be
regarded as an allegorical picture of the
then rulers of England. In the second part
the poet sings the men of England their
strength and future victory. He calls on them
to rise against their human leeches.
 – On the morning of 16 August 1819, an immense
crowd poured into Manchester, perhaps the largest
the town had ever seen. They came in an orderly
and peaceful fashion. Banners bearing slogans
such as “Liberty and Fraternity” and “Taxation
without Representation is Unjust and Tyrannical”
flapped in the breeze, and bands played patriotic
tunes including Rule Britannia and God Save the
King. It was a fine and sunny day.
– On they came in cheerful mood; organised
contingents from Bolton and Bury; 6,000 marching
from Rochdale and Middleton; others from
Saddleworth and Stalybridge; 200 women dressed
in white from Oldham, together with families
bringing their children and picnics with them.

The people were expecting speeches and a good day out. What they were not anticipating was violence, carried out by troops
sent in to disperse them, so aggressively that 18 people would be killed and more than 650 injured in the bloodiest political
clash in British history. What happened at St Peter’s Field would become known as the Peterloo Massacre – a name coined by a
local journalist named James Wroe in punning reference to the Battle of Waterloo four years earlier.
Song to the Men of England 

– In his great lyric Song to the Men

of England Shelley calls upon the
workers to take up arms in their
own defense. This poem and other
revolutionary poems of his became
the popular songs of the workers.
Lyrical poems devoted to nature and
love
– Shelley is also known as the author of many
Shelley is also known as the author of many
lyrical poems devoted to nature and love.
He was sure that the world and nature are
ever changing, ever developing to higher
forms. He was very fond of nature, he wrote
of the clouds, and of the wind, and of the
high snow-covered mountains. Yet above all
other things he loved the sea. Among his
nature poems are The Cloud, To a Skylark,
Ode to the West Wind, Winter and many
others.
– Shelley’s poetry is musical, deeply sincere,
and original in form.
– Shelley lived a short life. He was only twenty-nine when he died. But the people
of England did not forget the poet who had been their champion and friend.
Shelley’s entire life and art were devoted to struggle against oppression and
tyranny in every form.

The end.