“Then will oppression’s iron influence show;
The great man’s comfort as the poor man’s woe...”

The Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley died on 8 July 1822, at the age of 29, when his boat went down in a sudden storm off the coast of the Gulf of Spezia. After his body washed ashore near Viareggio, it was cremated according to the dictates of Italian law.

Shelley, perhaps the most intellectually adventurous of the great Romantic poets, personified the richly contradictory energies of his time.

A classicist, a headlong visionary, a social radical, and a poet of serene artistry with lyric touch second to none, Shelley gave voice to English romanticism’s deepest aspirations.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792–1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets, and is regarded by some as among the finest lyric poets in the English language, and one of the most influential. 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. Admired by many, including Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, Leo Tolstoy, Bertrand Russell, W. B. Yeats, Upton Sinclair and Isadora Duncan. Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience was influenced by Shelley's writings and theories on non-violence in protest and political action. Shelley's popularity and influence has continued to grow in contemporary poetry circles.