Tag Archives: Percy Bysshe Shelley

“I was never afraid of failure, for I would sooner fail than not to be among the greatest.” –John Keats

I was just beautifying him, don’t you know. A thing of beauty, don’t you know. Yeats says, or I mean, Keats says. – James Joyce, Ulysses Born in 1795 on this day, John Keats was orphaned at fifteen. Because his … Continue reading

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Have you thought of a story? I was asked each morning, and each morning I was forced to reply with a mortifying negative.” — Mary Shelley

As legend has it: In May of 1916, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his not-wife Mary Shelley went to Geneva. Along for the ride (for months and years) was Claire Clairmont, Mary’s stepsister. Shelley had a fantasy of living in … Continue reading

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“Poets, the best of them, are a very chameleonic race.” — Percy Bysshe Shelley

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe Like wither’d leaves to quicken a new birth! And, by the incantation of this verse, Scatter, as from an unextinguish’d hearth Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! Be through my lips to … Continue reading

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“I doubt sometimes whether a quiet and unagitated life would have suited me–yet I sometimes long for it.” — Lord Byron

— And who is the best poet, Heron? asked Boland. — Lord Tennyson, of course, answered Heron. — O, yes, Lord Tennyson, said Nash. We have all his poetry at home in a book. At this Stephen forgot the silent … Continue reading

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“It is a pity that the poet should be compelled to impart interest and force to his subject, instead of receiving them from it.” — poet and critic Matthew Arnold

“My poems represent, on the whole, the main movement of mind of the last quarter of a century, and thus they will probably have their day as people become conscious to themselves of what that movement of mind is, and … Continue reading

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The Books: The Complete Essays of Mark Twain, ‘In Defense of Harriet Shelley’

On the essays shelf: The Complete Essays Of Mark Twain Mark Twain read Edward Dowden’s biography of Percy Bysshe Shelley and this magnificent gigantic article was the result. It is a devastating critique. I haven’t even read Dowden’s book, and … Continue reading

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The Books: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Shelley

Daily Book Excerpt: Poetry: Selected Poetry And Prose Of Shelley This is a nice comprehensive volume. I have a second-hand copy, and it includes all of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s most famous poems, as well as excerpts from Prometheus Bound and … Continue reading

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The Books: Six Centuries of Great Poetry: A Stunning Collection of Classic British Poems from Chaucer to Yeats: Percy Bysshe Shelley

Daily Book Excerpt: Poetry Six Centuries of Great Poetry: A Stunning Collection of Classic British Poems from Chaucer to Yeats, edited by Robert Penn Warren and Albert Erskine Shelley, along with his BFF Lord Byron, thumbed their nose at the … Continue reading

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Happy Birthday, John Keats

Keats was born on this day in London, 1795. “Ode to Autumn” is perhaps my favorite of his – but today, for his birthday, I will post: “Ode on Melancholy”. And below the poem are a bunch of compiled quotes … Continue reading

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Percy Bysshe Shelley: “My custom is to undress and sit on the rocks, reading Herodotus…”

Oh, is it, Percy? Is that your custom? I mean, HONESTLY. …and the nights are for ever serene, and we see a star in the east at sunset–I think it is Jupiter–almost as fine as Venus was last summer; but … Continue reading

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