The English Romantic Period in literature featured a towering group of excellent poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats. If we add in forerunners Burns and Blake, we have perhaps an unmatchable collection of writers for any era. Of these, Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the brightest and best, coupling a giant intellect with a highly emotional and impetuous nature. He was always a champion of liberty, but was largely ignored when he tried to promote political and social reform. He...

“Would Julia of Strobazzo’s heart was reeking on my dagger!”From the asthmatic urgency of its opening abduction scene to the Satanic defiance of the villain’s departure “with a wild convulsive laugh of exulting revenge”, this first of Shelley’s Gothic novelettes recycles much sensational boyhood reading and also points to some of his more mature concerns.It is the ego-driven pursuit of passionate extremes, revenge included, which consigns figures like Zastrozzi and the murderous Matilda to an isolation which is socially destructive as well as self-annihilating...

The Masque of Anarchy was Shelley's response to the Peterloo massacre at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, where 18 died and hundreds were injured, after Hussars charged into a rally for parliamentary reform. Written in Italy in 1819, the poem was not published until 1832, ten years after Shelley's death. This reading is from the first published edition with the addition of three words that were inserted in full only in later additions ('Eldon' in Stanza IV and 'Bible' and 'Sidmouth' in Stanza VI). The poem is preceded by Leigh Hunt's preface to the 1932 edition and followed by Harry Buxton Forman's 1887 lecture on the poem to the Shelley Society.

LibriVox volunteers bring you eight recordings of "To A Skylark." This is the Fortnightly Poetry for August 8, 2014.To A Skylark was completed by Shelley in late June 1820. It was inspired by an evening walk in the country near Livorno, Italy, with his wife Mary Shelley, and describes the appearance and song of a skylark they come upon.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets, and is regarded by some as among the finest lyric, as well as epic, poets in the English language. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not see fame during his lifetime, but recognition for his poetry grew steadily following his death. Shelley was a key member of a close circle of visionary poets and writers that included Lord Byron; Leigh Hunt; Thomas Love Peacock; and his own second wife, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.

Full titled History of a Six Weeks' Tour through a part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland; with Letters Descriptive of a Sail Round the Lake of Geneva and of the Glaciers of Chamouni, this small journal was a travel narrative kept by the English Romantic authors Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley. They describe two trips, both taken by Mary, Percy, and Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont: one across Europe in 1814, and one to Lake Geneva in 1816. Divided into three sections, the text consists of a journal, four letters, and Percy Shelley's poem "Mont Blanc". Apart from the poem, the text was primarily written and organized by Mary Shelley. - Summary by 1817

volunteers bring you 17 recordings of Fragment: To The Mind Of Man by Percy Bysshe Shelley. This was the Weekly Poetry project for February 28, 2021. ------ Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets. This poem is taken from THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, VOLUME 1 note: His second wife, Mary Shelley, was the author of Frankenstein. - Summary by David Lawrence

Written in 1819, but not first staged for over hundred years after it was written due to controversial themes of incest and parricide, it was not considered stageable. This tragedy is a true story, set in Rome, 1599, centred around the murder of the tyrant, Count Francesco Cenci, by his tormented daughter, Beatrice. - Summary by Jake Malizia Cast list: Count Francesco Cenci Greg Giordano Lucretia, wife of Cenci and step-mother of his children Sonia Beatrice, daughter of Cenci Jenn Broda Orsino,...

Queen Mab is the first major poetic work by Percy Bysshe Shelley and serves as a foundation to his theory of revolution. It depicts a two-pronged revolt involving necessary changes brought on by nature and the virtuousness of humans. The poem is written in the form of a fairy tale that presents a future vision of utopia on earth. Queen Mab, a fairy, descends in a chariot to a dwelling where Ianthe is sleeping on a couch. Queen Mab transports Ianthe's spirit on a celestial tour to her palace at the edge of the universe. - Summary by Alan Mapstone and wikipedia