ENG 345: 19th Century Romantic Literature

Percy Bysshe Shelley, in the essay 'On Life' (1819), stated 'We live on, and in living we lose the apprehension of life'. Ross Wilson uses this statement as a starting point to explore Shelley's fundamental beliefs about life and the significance of poetry.

Shelley's drafts and notebooks, which have recently been published for the first time, are very revealing about the creative processes behind his poems, and show - through illustrations and doodles - an unexpectedly vivid visual imagination which contributed greatly to the effect of his poetry.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was an extraordinary poet, playwright and essayist, revolutionary both in his ideas and in his artistic theory and practice. This 2006 collection of original essays by an international group of specialists is a comprehensive survey of the life, works and times of this radical Romantic writer.

Even in his own day, Shelley's value as a poet and a thinker was hotly debated. This book argues that Shelley was both ahead of and in tune with his time and ours. Featuring close readings of the key texts, the book includes a reassessment of a previously undervalued work.

Shelley's poetry has gone in and out of fashion since his death in 1822--first considered immature, excessive, and even incoherent but later judged by critics to be among the great poems of the English language. At its best, his poetry is unparalleled for its range of metrical experimentation, its moral rigor, and its lush, sensual imagery. He has been staunchly championed by poets from Byron to Wordsworth to Yeats.