Percy Bysshe Shelley

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 1792 – 1822 “Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar,” quoted Percy Bysshe Shelley in A Defence to Poetry. Of the poets from the English Romantic Period ( a period of love and admiration for the aesthetic portion of nature and the bond between nature and humanity ), Percy Bysshe Shelley ranked as one of the greatest. Although his life spanned but …

…realize the complexity of his philosophy. Modern critics have generally focused on his imagery, use of language, and technical achievements, in addition to his exploration of political and social reform. Described in the last stanza of The Sensitive Plant, Shelley again expresses his ideas of death and the purification of man. “For love, and beauty, and delight, there is no death nor change; their might exceeds our organs, which endure no light, being themselves obscure.”