Getting to know Percy Bysshe Shelley

In my first blog of the quarter, I mentioned a little bit of information about my poet, Percy Shelley. But I thought it would be better for me to do some more research on him for two purposes. One being that I hardly knew anything about him and two so that it would make my paper a bit easier to write. As I said before Shelley is known as one of the greatest epic poets of the 19th century and is very well known for his long-form poetry. While at school, Shelley was severely bullied; physically and mentally- by his classmates. After finding this out, I can now understand why he wrote some of the pieces he did. While in college, Shelley developed very strong anti-beliefs and published an article about it in school. He was then expelled and his parents immediately demanded that he take back everything he had published. Instead of doing what he had been asked, Shelley eloped with Harriet Westbrook, who he had also been banned to see by his parents. Clearly, his parents had an issue with everything that he said and did. Shelley grew to hate his wife, and eventually abandoned her for the very well known, Mary Shelley (author of one of my favorite books, Frankenstein). And to make things even better for Shelley, Mary was the daughter of his hero, William Godwin. Surprisingly Godwin did not approve of the two of them being together and ended up not speaking to either of them for several years. Death was something that majorly affected Percy Bysshe Shelley. In the fall of 1816, the young couple came home from a trip to discover that Mary's half-sister had committed suicide. Shortly after, around December, within the same year Harriet had committed suicide as well. She was found drowned in a river in London. Finally after waiting several years, Mary and Percy married- only for everything to come to a very fast halt because the courts ruled not to give Shelley custody of his and Harriet's children; assuring everyone that they would be better off with foster parents. On July 8, 1822 just about to turn 30, Shelley drowned while sailing. Shockingly, his death has been ruled as an accident even though there was evidence that said otherwise. As you can see, Percy Bysshe Shelley's life was certainly uneasy and very stressful. I actually sort of feel bad for him, but at the same time I think because of his day to day life- it bettered his poetry. He was able to express what others would not allow him to verbally do and just put it on a page.