Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Born on 4 August 1792 at Field Place in Warnham, West Sussex, Percy Bysshe Shelley was the eldest son of Sir Timothy Shelley, a baronet, and Elizabeth Pilfold. Growing up in a privileged household, he attended Eton College, where he was subject to bullying, and later University College, Oxford. In February 1811, Shelley and his friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg circulated a pamphlet titled The Necessity of Atheism, leading to their expulsion in March 1811 for refusing to disavow their beliefs.

Shelley’s poetic career produced works such as Ozymandias 1818, Prometheus Unbound 1820, and Adonais 1821, an elegy for John Keats. He also wrote political and philosophical essays. In 1816, he, Mary Godwin, and Claire Clairmont joined Lord Byron at Lake Geneva, where Mary conceived the story of Frankenstein. Shelley encouraged her to write it down and contributed to the novel’s philosophical themes. His later years were spent in Italy, where he composed much of his mature poetry.

In 1811, Shelley married Harriet Westbrook, with whom he had two children: Ianthe b. 1813 and Charles b. 1814. By 1814, he had fallen in love with Mary Godwin, daughter of philosopher William Godwin, and they eloped to France. After Harriet’s death by suicide in 1816, Shelley married Mary in December 1816. They had four children, but only Percy Florence survived to adulthood. Shelley’s unconventional lifestyle and radical views caused ongoing financial and legal troubles.

Shelley’s influence on English Romantic poetry is wide-ranging; Ozymandias remains his most quoted work. His atheism and political radicalism made him a controversial figure in his time, but his posthumous reputation grew, and he is now recognized as a major lyric poet in English. His legacy includes inspiring later poets like Robert Browning and the Pre-Raphaelites. He died at 29, leaving behind a body of work that continues to be studied and admired.