1792-1822. English lyric poet, a leading
figure in the Romantic movement. Expelled
from Oxford for atheism, he fought all his
life against religion and for political
freedom. This is reflected in his early poems
such as Queen Mab 1813. He later wrote
tragedies including The Cenci 1818, lyric
dramas such as Prometheus Unbound 1820, and
lyrical poems such as `Ode to the West Wind'.
He drowned while sailing in Italy. Born near
Horsham, Sussex, he was educated at Eton
school and University College, Oxford, where
his collaboration in a pamphlet The Necessity
of Atheism 1811 caused his expulsion. While
living in London he fell in love with
16-year-old Harriet Westbrook, whom he
married 1811. He visited Ireland and Wales,
writing pamphlets defending vegetarianism and
political freedom, and in 1813 published
privately Queen Mab, a poem with political
freedom as its theme. Meanwhile he had become
estranged from his wife and in 1814 left
England with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, whom
he married after Harriet drowned herself
1816. Alastor, written 1815, was followed by
the epic The Revolt of Islam, and by 1818
Shelley was living in Italy. Here he produced
the tragedy The Cenci; the satire on
Wordsworth, Peter Bell the Third 1819; and
the lyric drama Prometheus Unbound 1820. In
July 1822 Shelley was drowned while sailing
near La Spezia, and his ashes were buried in
Rome.