Shelley, Percy Bysshe - Vita e analisi

Shelley

Was born in Sussex in a quite rich family: his father was a member of the parliament. He was the symbol of the typical rebellion of romantic spirit, actually an anarchic. he also became a symbol for successive generations for this: since the very beginning he published something against catholicism, a pamphlet, “necessity of atheism”, that represents a break with his father.
He married with Harriet Westbrook and had 2 children but when he met the daughter of Godwin he abandoned Harriet to run away with Mary in Switzerland.
This relationship turned public opinion against him, and he was obliged to leave England, to go living in Italy.

freedom and love:
-refusal of social conventions
-refusal of any form of tyranny (because he was anarchic)
-he believed in the principles of freedom and love as remedies for the evil society.

role of imagination:
He believed in imagination because it meant creativity. With a creative imagination you can change the materialistic world where he lived.

nature:
he doesn’t describe a realistic nature normally described by Wordsworth, but he doesn’t even describe the metaphysical nature of Coleridge: he’s in the middle describing nature as a beautiful set , as a vail who covers up the divine truth.

In nature there is the divine thruth
Nature is also a refuge where he can find his true spirit, a sort of interlocutor of his melancholy.

poet’s task:
the poet for him is a prophet. New: Is also a titan, someone big in morality.
He is a titan because he wanted a world of love, freedom and beauty. He is an eternal child.
So he is a rebel, who refused social conventions.