The Poetry of Percy Shelley

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley(1792-1822) was one of the leading romantic poets and a radical in politics. His personal life was tumultuous as his first wife died just five years into the marriage and his relationship with his talented second wife, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, was often fractious. Unadmired during his own short life, his poetry acquired an immortal reputation.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

224 pages, Paperback

Published May 15, 2018

About the author

Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, British romantic poet, include "To a Skylark" in 1820; Prometheus Unbound , the lyric drama; and "Adonais," an elegy of 1821 to John Keats.

The Cenci , work of art or literature of Percy Bysshe Shelley of 1819, depicts Beatrice Cenci, Italian noblewoman.

People widely consider Percy Bysshe Shelley among the finest majors of the English language. He is perhaps most famous for such anthology pieces as Ozymandias , Ode to the West Wind , and The Masque of Anarchy . His major long visionary Alastor , The Revolt of Islam , and the unfinished The Triumph of Life .

Unconventional life and uncompromising idealism of Percy Bysshe Shelley combined with his strong skeptical voice to make an authoritative and much denigrated figure during his life. He became the idol of the next two or three generations, the major Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, as well as William Butler Yeats and in other languages, such as Jibanananda Das and Subramanya Bharathy . Karl Marx, Henry Stephens Salt, and [authorm:Bertrand Russell] also admired him. Famous for his association with his contemporaries Lord Byron, he also married Mary Shelley, novelist.

Reviews

[Adam Roll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best poetry book I have read so far, even better than Keats. I keep thinking this is the perfect answer to those who don't like rhyme in poetry. Shelly uses rhyme better than any poet I have read, the rhyme adds, never takes from the poetry, absolutely stunning.

[Chelsea Roles · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Flourishing vine, whose kindling clusters glow
Beneath the autumnal sun, none taste of thee;
For thou dost shroud a ruin, and below
The rotting bones of dead antiquity.'

[Bernice Puleng Mosala · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shelley is obsessed with images of death and dying things, which makes reading his work a rather somber affair. I found the book tough to get through. He’s meticulous with his craft, often using poetic tools like rhyme, alliteration and similes, which made the book bearable in a technical sense. There are some poems that I liked in the collection, but I mostly underlined fragments rather than whole pieces. He was a good poet of his day but I don’t know if his poems carry the same weight in today’s day and age unfortunately.

[William Harrington · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found much of what Shelley has written here to be of interest. Note particularly " Oxymandius" and " The Mask of Anarchy". For being written in the 1800s, I was able to understand and appreciate much of it

[Gale · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this poet. His words grabbed at me right away. My favorite, I think.... ode to the west wind. I completely and utterly melted with this one.

But then there's Adonais...

[Andrew Corsini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shelley had a lot of great hits, but he also had some filler, too.

[Litfahan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think there's anything objectively wrong with Shelley's poetry, I just think it's kind of boring and uninteresting. Except for Ozymandias, best one in the collection by far.

[Isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice poetry.

[Ashton Harat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvelous selection of poems from my favorite poet.