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Elective English–II

Notes politics. He also wrote a political pamphlet A Declaration of Rights, on the subject of the
French Revolution, but it was considered to be too radical for distribution in Britain.
Percy Bysshe Shelley returned to England where he became involved in radical politics. He
met William Godwin the husband of Mary Wollstonecraft, the author of Vindication of the
Rights of Women. Shelley also renewed his friendship with Leigh Hunt, the young editor of The
Examiner. Shelley helped to support Leigh Hunt financially when he was imprisoned for an
article he published on the Prince Regent.

Leigh Hunt published Queen Mab, a long poem by Shelley celebrating the merits of republicanism,
atheism, vegetarianism and free love. Shelley also wrote articles for The Examiner on polical
subjects including an attack on the way the government had used the agent provocateur
William Oliver to obtain convictions against Jeremiah Brandreth.
In 1814 Shelley fell in love and eloped with Mary, the sixteen-year-old daughter of William
Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. For the next few years the couple travelled in Europe.
Shelley continued to be involved in politics and in 1817 wrote the pamphlet A Proposal for
Putting Reform to the Vote Throughout the United Kingdom. In the pamphlet Shelley suggested
a national referendum on electoral reform and improvements in working class education.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was in Italy when he heard the news of the Peterloo Massacre. He
immediately responded by writing The Mask of Anarchy, a poem that blamed Lord Castlereagh,
Lord Sidmouth and Lord Eldon for the deaths at St. Peter’s Fields. In The Call to Freedom
Shelley ended his argument for non-violent mass political protest with the words:
Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -

Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many—they are few.
In 1822 Shelley, moved to Italy with Leigh Hunt and Lord Byron where they published the
journal The Liberal. By publishing it in Italy the three men remained free from prosecution by
the British authorities. The first edition of The Liberal sold 4,000 copies. Soon after its publication,
Percy Bysshe Shelley was lost at sea on 8th July, 1822 while sailing to meet Leigh Hunt.

13.1 Ode to the West Wind

O WILD West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being—
Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes!—O thou
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
Her clarion o’er the dreaming earth, and fill

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