Difference between revisions of "Percy Bysshe Shelley"
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| − | '''Percy Bysshe Shelley''' was born August 4, 1792 in [[Sussex]], [[England]]. He drowned in a storm while traveling from Livorno to Lerici in his schooner on July 8, 1822. Shelley was one of six great early nineteenth | + | '''Percy Bysshe Shelley''' was born August 4, 1792, in [[Sussex]], [[England]]. He drowned in a storm while traveling from Livorno to Lerici in his schooner on July 8, 1822. Shelley was one of the six great English [[poet]]s of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries later dubbed the High [[Romantic]]s (the others being [[William Blake|Blake]], [[William Wordsworth|Wordsworth]], [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge]], [[George Gordon, Lord Byron|Byron]] and [[John Keats|Keats]].) |
| − | Shelley was anti-religious and a skeptic his whole life and promoted a poetic program | + | Shelley was anti-religious and a [[skeptic]] his whole life and promoted a poetic program similar to Blake's, in which the individual imagination is the sole authority on matters of truth. His [[play]] in verse ''Prometheus Unbound'' explores his interest in a renewed imaginative and creative life in the story of [[Prometheus]]. In critic [[Harold Bloom]]'s reading, the play's characters Prometheus, Asia, Jupiter and Demogorgon bear resemblances to the psychic constructs of other writers including Blake, [[William Butler Yeats|Yeats]] and [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]].<ref>Harold Bloom, ''The Visionary Company: A Reading of English Romantic Poetry'', New York: Cornell UP, 1971, pp. 90-91.</ref> |
| − | + | Other major poems written by Shelley include "Ozymandias", ''Alastor'', "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty", "Mont Blanc", "Ode to the West Wind", "The Witch of Atlas", ''Epipsychidion'', "Adonais: An [[Elegy]] on the Death of John Keats", and "The Triumph of Life". | |
| − | + | Shelley's "Essay on Christianity" attempts to read Jesus as an ethic philosopher whose great teachings have been corrupted by the institutional religion called Christianity. | |
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| − | [[Category:Poets | + | ===References=== |
| + | <references /> | ||
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| + | {{DEFAULTSORT:Shelley, Percy Bysshe}} | ||
| + | [[Category:Poets]] | ||
[[Category:Atheists]] | [[Category:Atheists]] | ||
Revision as of 14:55, October 1, 2009
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born August 4, 1792, in Sussex, England. He drowned in a storm while traveling from Livorno to Lerici in his schooner on July 8, 1822. Shelley was one of the six great English poets of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries later dubbed the High Romantics (the others being Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron and Keats.)
Shelley was anti-religious and a skeptic his whole life and promoted a poetic program similar to Blake's, in which the individual imagination is the sole authority on matters of truth. His play in verse Prometheus Unbound explores his interest in a renewed imaginative and creative life in the story of Prometheus. In critic Harold Bloom's reading, the play's characters Prometheus, Asia, Jupiter and Demogorgon bear resemblances to the psychic constructs of other writers including Blake, Yeats and Freud.[1]
Other major poems written by Shelley include "Ozymandias", Alastor, "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty", "Mont Blanc", "Ode to the West Wind", "The Witch of Atlas", Epipsychidion, "Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats", and "The Triumph of Life".
Shelley's "Essay on Christianity" attempts to read Jesus as an ethic philosopher whose great teachings have been corrupted by the institutional religion called Christianity.
References
- ↑ Harold Bloom, The Visionary Company: A Reading of English Romantic Poetry, New York: Cornell UP, 1971, pp. 90-91.