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Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822. Born into an aristocratic family 1810: Accepted into Oxford College 1811: Expelled for publishing The Necessity of Atheism 1813: Published an atheistic poem, “Queen Mab”. Eloped with 16-year old Harriet Westbrook
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Born into an aristocratic family • 1810: Accepted into Oxford College • 1811: Expelled for publishing The Necessity of Atheism • 1813: Published an atheistic poem, “Queen Mab”
Eloped with 16-year old Harriet Westbrook • 1814: Met Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and traveled abroad with her and her stepsister, Claire Clairmont • 1816: Harriet drowned herself, Shelley married Mary, and their son William was born (busy year). Byron, a friend, had an affair with Claire. Later, Shelley himself supposedly did as well.
July 8, 1822: Shelley’s small boat, the Ariel, sank, killing him. According to legend, his body was burned but his heart remained intact. • Mary, his wife, published his posthumous works.
Themes “Mont Blanc”: The Transience of Life, the Power of Nature
The glaciers creep/ Like snakes that watch their prey, from their far fountains/ Slow rolling on…
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757): The Sublime: definition p. 39: "Astonishment ...is the effect of the sublime in its highest degree; the inferior effects are admiration, reverence and respect." Sources of the Sublime: Terror Obscurity Power Privation: Vacuity, Darkness, Solitude & Silence Vastness Infinity (Succession and Uniformity; the "artificial infinite" as well as natural infinity) Difficulty Magnificence Light Color Suddenness Feeling Pain
“Ode to the West Wind” “Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is…”