PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY- LIFE AND POETRY

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792, in Sussex, son of a

wealthy and conservative Member of the Parliament. After have
attended the Eton College, he went to the Oxford University from
where he was expelled because of his pamphlet "The Necessity of
Atheism", in which challenged the existence of God.
Shelley's contempt towards the conventional forms of religion and
politics was matched by an interest in the sciences.
When he was nineteen, he married the sixteen year-old Harriet
Westbrooke, from which he had two children, but after they
decide to separate.
Shelley met Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and they married.
In 1818 the Shelleys left England and they went to Italy, in
voluntary exile, where he wrote a lot of beautiful works.
Shelley died in 1822 in an accident during a storm, near Livorno

The poet
Shelley belongs to the second romantic generation of poets, in fact, he is
considered a revolutionary poet because he refused social conventions,
customs and traditions, but also a fighter, because being him against to
social conventions, he wanted to destroy them.
Shelley believed in the principles of Freedom and love, which he regarded as
remedies for the evils of society.

According to Shelly, men could overcome the political, moral and social
constraints only with love.

Works
Ode to the West Wind, written in 1819.
The Cenci, a verse tragedy, written in 1819.
To a Skylark, written in 1820.
Prometheus Unbound
Adonais, written in 1821, is an elegy written in honour of JohnKeats.
A Defence of Poetry, written in 1821, is an unfinished essay concerning
the importance of poetry.

TO THE MOON

And, like a dying lady lean and

pale, A
Who totters forth, wrapp'd in a
gauzy veil, B
Out of her chamber, led by the
insane A
And feeble wanderings of her
fading brain, B
The moon arose up in the
murky east,C
A white and shapeless mass.C
Art thou pale for weariness C
Of climbing heaven,D
And gazing on the earth, E
Wandering companionless C
Among the stars that have a
different birth, E
And ever-changing,F
Like a joyless eye G
That finds no objectH
worth its constancy?G

Enjambement
Simile
Archaism(Thou=yo
u)
Personification:in
the poem the
author
Talks to the moon
like it were a
woman
Metaphor

POEM

The poet reflects on the timeless journey of the

The poet reflects on the timeless journey of the
moon. He thinks that the moon is tired of climbing
moon. He thinks that the moon is tired of climbing
the heaven and looking upon the earth continuously.
the heaven and looking upon the earth continuously.
It changes its face from time to time to express its
It changes its face from time to time to express its
disgust for the world. It is alone because there is not
disgust for the world. It is alone because there is not
an object that has a noble birth like its.
an object that has a noble birth like its.
The feelings of the moon are similar to the poets
The feelings of the moon are similar to the poets
feelings. The moon feels strange among the stars of
feelings. The moon feels strange among the stars of
a different birth in the same way as Shelley because
a different birth in the same way as Shelley because
of his low origins feels himself strange among the
of his low origins feels himself strange among the
nobles.
nobles.

Alla luna
O graziosa luna, io mi rammento
Che, or volge l'anno, sovra questo
colle
Io venia pien d'angoscia a rimirarti:
E tu pendevi allor su quella selva
Siccome or fai, che tutta la rischiari.
Ma nebuloso e tremulo dal pianto
Che mi sorgea sul ciglio, alle mie
luci
Il tuo volto apparia, che travagliosa
Era mia vita: ed , n cangia stile,
O mia diletta luna. E pur mi giova
La ricordanza, e il noverar l'etate
Del mio dolore. Oh come grato
occorre
Nel tempo giovanil, quando ancor
lungo
La speme e breve ha la memoria il
corso,
Il rimembrar delle passate cose,
Ancor che triste, e che l'affanno

Shelley
The poet identifies the moon to a woman and in
this way he exalts her suffering and her
psychological condition.
We can find these characteristics in the
description of the whiteness of her exhausted
face.
He identifies the mans suffering in the moon.
Leopardi
The poet links the poetry to the moon.
For this poet the moon means salvation, relief
and the finish of mans suffering.
Both poets talk to an interlocutor, but with an
only difference: in Shelley he is the protagonist
and in Leopardi he is a spectator.

Like us

I know youve been hurt by

someone else
I can tell by the way you carry
yourself
If you let me, heres what Ill
do
Ill take care of you
Ive loved and Ive lost.