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Percy Bysshe Shelley. A man bullied for his looks. This is Percy. This is Mary. Facts of Life. Bullied all through school and university Led to his obsession with reading, rumored to be 16 hours a day Unpopular with both students and teachers (he never attended class)
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Percy Bysshe Shelley A man bullied for his looks This is Percy This is Mary
Facts of Life • Bullied all through school and university • Led to his obsession with reading, rumored to be 16 hours a day • Unpopular with both students and teachers (he never attended class) • Published poetry and periodicals while still in school • Was expelled from school because of a poem he wrote
On the move • Moved away from England at 19 to get married ( to 16 year old Harriet). • Wanted an open marriage, but his wife wouldn’t allow it – moved to Ireland • Unhappy with his marriage, Shelley would leave his wife and child to visit friends • Fell in love with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, women’s rights activist
Influences • Abandons his pregnant wife and child to run away with Mary. They had only been married three years. • Deeply influenced by William Blake’s poetry • Met Lord Byron through Mary’s step-sister – both men influenced each other’s work • Shelley tried to gain custody of his children, whose mother had killed herself. He lost and they were given to foster parents
A tragic end • In 1822, Shelley and a friend went sailing off the northwestern coast of Italy. • A storm caught them by surprise, capsized the boat, and both men drowned. • Shelley was only 30 years old.
Messages of his poetry • Idealism • Nonconformity • Opposition to all injustice • Change the world through love, imagination, and poetry • Too radical for most romantics • Vegetarianism
