Working at the height of the Romantic Era, Percy Bysshe Shelley set the standard for literature of the period. Consistently using the conventional comparisons between humans and nature, Shelley in his poetry emphasizes man’s ability to remove himself from the commonplace and initiate change, and...
In his impassioned paean “Ode to the West Wind”, Percy Bysshe Shelley focuses on nature’s power and cyclical processes and, through the conceit of the wind and the social and political revolution prompted by the Peterloo massacre of August 1819, examines the poet’s role therein....
Wordsworth said that ‘poetry is passion, it is the history or science of feeling’. In conjunction with Shelley’s quote, this is a bold statement to make. Not only does Wordsworth name poetry as the ‘science’ of emotion –creating an authorial sense of logic –but also...
When we dive into the world of poetry, few works resonate as profoundly as Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind.” This poem is not just a piece of literature; it’s a reflection of the human spirit’s struggle against the forces of nature and...
The idea of Romanticism has changed over many years as mentioned by Jerome McGann in his work Rethinking Romanticism by stating that ‘The contrast of Romanticism that dominated 1945-80 seemed to be equally startling.’ Thus the concept of Romanticism is a prevalent idea in William...
The poems “Ozymandias” by Percy Shelley and “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning are very different. However, they do have something in common – both poems are representations of their power. “Ozymandias” represents power as poem shows that human life is insignificant compared to the...
“ Made-to-order essay as fast as you need it Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences + experts online Get my essay The poem Ozymandias by Percy Shelly and My Last Duchess by Robert Browning are very different. However, they do have...
Without a doubt Faiz and Shelley require the all-inclusive community to stay against the abuse and comprehend their vitality. They require the mistreated to rise against the persecution and the abominable mishandle. They influence them to understand that they have an indistinguishable right from the...
Percy Shelley uses defamiliarization in “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” as a tool to dismantle religious belief systems. Defamiliarization is a literary technique used to make that which is known and familiar appear different and new. Viktor Shklovsky argues that one’s perceptions became habitual, and it...
Percy Shelley’s sonnet “Ozymandias” (1818) is, in many ways, an outlier in his oeuvre: it is short, adhering to the fourteen line length of most traditional sonnets; its precise language, filled with concrete nouns and active verbs, contrasts against the circuitous, abstract language of “O...
Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Get a personalized essay in under 3 hours!
Expert-written essays crafted with your exact needs in mind
“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;/ Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” (10) demands the pedestal of the statue of the previously named ancient ruler. Out of context a casual passerby of the king’s shattered sculpted likeness might infer that Ozymandias was...
Amongst the ideas presented in the poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples, the theme of isolation is prominent. Although Coleridge’s poem departs from Romantic stylistic tendencies, it exemplifies many of the ideas which defined the era, while...
Allegorical literature is employed by many great philosophers to explain the basic tenets of their philosophies. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato used the famous cave allegory to explain how the human mind interprets the ideal material world. The teachings of Jesus Christ in the Bible...
“And he has bought / With his sweet voice and eyes, Made-to-order essay as fast as you need it Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences + experts online Get my essay from savage men, / His rest and food.” – Percy...
Revolution was a key idea to the philosophy of the Romantic writers, whether it be social, cultural or aesthetic. It is in the poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley, however, that the most overt revolutionary political statements are made while Frankenstein, the masterpiece novel by his...
Throughout several of his poems, Percy Bysshe Shelley celebrates mutability and takes comfort in the fact that change is inevitable. In “Mutability,” Shelley suggests that constant change is positive because it means that no ill feeling can ever last too long. While one cannot be...
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Born
4 August 1792
Died
8 July 1822
Occupation
Poet, dramatist, essayist, novelist
Literary monement
Romanticism
Quotes
“Our sweetest songs are those of saddest thought.”
“The more we study, the more we discover our ignorance”
“No more let life divide what death can join together.”
“Poets and philosophers are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”
Date
4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822
Activity
Percy Bysshe Shelley was an English Romantic poet whose passionate search for personal love and social justice was gradually channeled from overt actions into poems that rank with the greatest in the English language.
Works
Among his best-known works are "Ozymandias" (1818), "Ode to the West Wind" (1819), "To a Skylark" (1820), and the political ballad "The Mask of Anarchy" (1819). His other major works include the verse drama The Cenci (1819) and long poems such as Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude (1815), Julian and Maddalo (1819), Adonais (1821), Prometheus Unbound (1820), Hellas (1822), and his final, unfinished work, The Triumph of Life (1822).
Themes
Shelley in his poems deals primarily with the themes like free love, atheism, Christianity and vegetarianism. Romanticism's major themes — restlessness and brooding, rebellion against authority, interchange with nature, the power of the visionary imagination and of poetry, the pursuit of ideal love, and the untamed spirit ever in search of freedom — are also exemplified in his poetry.
Style
Percy Bysshe Shelly is one of the leading romantic poets. The poetic style of Shelley resembles the style of Romantic poets. To very extend, Shelly has imitated the style of William Wordsworth. Shelly employed powerful imagery and symbolism in his poetry.
Legacy
A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achievements in poetry grew steadily following his death and he became an important influence on subsequent generations of poets including Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, and W. B. Yeats.
Quotes
“I have drunken deep of joy,
And I will taste no other wine tonight.”
“Our sweetest songs are those of saddest thought.”
“Soul meets soul on lovers lips.”
“If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”
