"With Byron in Italy."—McMahan.
"Essays in Criticism."—Arnold.
"Byron and Byronism in America."—Leonard.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
(1792–1822)
Shelley was from his earliest youth equally distinguished by poetic gifts of the highest order and by a reckless and ungovernable disposition. After thorough preliminary education, he was sent to Oxford, where he displayed rare literary talent, but from which he was expelled for publishing a tract on "The Necessity of Atheism."
After eloping with the sixteen-year-old daughter of a retired tavern-keeper, Harriet Westbrook, whom he married in Scotland, he led a wandering life for a time until his financial position was improved upon his coming of age in 1813. By this time he and his wife had become estranged, and Shelley eloped with Mary Godwin and settled on the Continent. Two years later his wife committed suicide by drowning, and when Shelley attempted to secure the custody of his two children, it was denied him. Shelley now left England for good, visited one Italian city after another, and finally settled down at Pisa. Keats, Byron, and Hunt were among his close friends. "Adonais" is an elegy to Keats's memory.
His poems may be divided into two classes. In the first class we have his three long poems, "Queen Mab," "The Revolt of Islam," and "Prometheus Unbound," each an attempt to apply the revolutionary principles of the period. In these he displays a progressive improvement, appearing at his best in "Prometheus Unbound."