Today in History, July 8, 1822
Today in History, July 8, 1822--
Percy Bysshe Shelley, English romantic poet (Prometheus unbound), drowns at 29
Percy Bysshe Shelley was the Son of an English nobleman, but was a republican and proud supporter of the American Revolution. He became England's greatest Modern Poet, (in my view) and through his collaboration and friendship with John Keats, who died very young of TB, upheld the standard of beauty and profundity of English language Poetry. Shelley was the Husband of Mary Wollstencraft, the Authoress of Frankenstein.
During Shelley's life, his great Poems included " Ode to the West Wind", "Ozymandias", and the "Revolt of Islam", as well as the aforementioned "Prometheus Unbound".
He was a fierce opponent of King George III, admirer of Benjamin Franklin, (whose Kite and Electricity experiments he tried as a teenager in school at Eton) , and wrote pamphlets in support of Catholic Emancipation, (though he was an Atheist) as a show of opposition to the arbitrary Policies of the Anglican Church. He also supported Irish Independence.
He was forced into exile in Italy after he left his first wife and children for Mary Wollstencraft, who was a founder of the feminist movement in England. Mary's Father, Wiliam Godwin was a Radical, who opposed the population theories of Thomas Malthus. Malthus argued that poverty and famine were the result of overpopulation, and were Nature's way of restoring the balance. Godwin believed Malthus was a fraud, and became a mentor for Shelley.
Shelley's death was suspicious, because of his political activities, and he may have been targeted. When he died, his friend Lord Byron recovered his body and burned it on the beach, and while doing so, ripped Shelley's heart out and sealed it inside a nearby Wall in a ritualistic fashion.
Here is one of my favorites, totally relevant today, about an ancient King who destroyed his own Kingdom, and all that remains of him is a destroyed Statue.
"Ozymandias"
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley, English romantic poet (Prometheus unbound), drowns at 29
Percy Bysshe Shelley was the Son of an English nobleman, but was a republican and proud supporter of the American Revolution. He became England's greatest Modern Poet, (in my view) and through his collaboration and friendship with John Keats, who died very young of TB, upheld the standard of beauty and profundity of English language Poetry. Shelley was the Husband of Mary Wollstencraft, the Authoress of Frankenstein.
During Shelley's life, his great Poems included " Ode to the West Wind", "Ozymandias", and the "Revolt of Islam", as well as the aforementioned "Prometheus Unbound".
He was a fierce opponent of King George III, admirer of Benjamin Franklin, (whose Kite and Electricity experiments he tried as a teenager in school at Eton) , and wrote pamphlets in support of Catholic Emancipation, (though he was an Atheist) as a show of opposition to the arbitrary Policies of the Anglican Church. He also supported Irish Independence.
He was forced into exile in Italy after he left his first wife and children for Mary Wollstencraft, who was a founder of the feminist movement in England. Mary's Father, Wiliam Godwin was a Radical, who opposed the population theories of Thomas Malthus. Malthus argued that poverty and famine were the result of overpopulation, and were Nature's way of restoring the balance. Godwin believed Malthus was a fraud, and became a mentor for Shelley.
Shelley's death was suspicious, because of his political activities, and he may have been targeted. When he died, his friend Lord Byron recovered his body and burned it on the beach, and while doing so, ripped Shelley's heart out and sealed it inside a nearby Wall in a ritualistic fashion.
Here is one of my favorites, totally relevant today, about an ancient King who destroyed his own Kingdom, and all that remains of him is a destroyed Statue.
"Ozymandias"
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
