Percy Shelley

A selection of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was a major English Romantic poet known for his radical politics, lyrical intensity, and visionary imagination. Expelled from Oxford for atheism and estranged from his family, he led a life of rebellion and exile. Known as a radical agitator, apostle of free love, and a brilliant poetic innovator, his works include Ozymandias, Prometheus Unbound, and The Mask of Anarchy. Shelley drowned in a storm off the coast of Italy in 1822 when his sailing boat sank during a voyage from Livorno to Lerici.

Queen Mab is a philosophical poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1813, brought back to life by Kay Hawkins for a new generation. Will you take Queen Mab's Hand and follow Ianthe on her celestial journey?

The Necessity of Atheism is a classic religious essay by the great English poet, Percy Shelley. A close examination of the validity of the proofs adduced to support any proposition is the only secure way of attaining truth, on the advantages of which it is unnecessary to descant: our knowledge of the existence, of a Deity is a subject of such importance that it cannot be too minutely investigated; in consequence of this conviction we proceed briefly and impartially to examine the proofs which have been adduced. It is necessary first to consider the nature of belief. The tract starts with the following rationale of the author's goals: "As a love of truth is the only motive which actuates the Author of this little tract, he earnestly entreats that those of his readers who may discover any deficiency in his reasoning, or may be in possession of proofs which his mind could never obtain, would offer them, together with their objections to the Public, as briefly, as methodically, as plainly as he has taken the liberty of doing." Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Necessity of Atheism Shelley made a number of claims in Necessity, including that one's beliefs are involuntary, and, therefore, that atheists do not choose to be so and should not be persecuted. Towards the end of the pamphlet he writes: "the mind cannot believe in the existence of a God." Shelley signed the pamphlet, Thro' deficiency of proof, AN ATHEIST, which gives an idea of the empiricist nature of Shelley's beliefs. According to Berman, Shelley also believed himself to have "refuted all the possible types of arguments for God's existence," but Shelley himself encouraged readers to offer proofs if they possess them. Opinion is divided upon the characterisation of Shelley's beliefs, at the time of the writing of Necessity. At the very beginning of his note on the line "There is no God" in Canto VII of Queen Mab, published just two years later and based on Necessity, Shelley qualifies his definition of atheism: "There Is No God. This negation must be understood solely to affect a creative Deity. The hypothesis of a pervading Spirit co-eternal with the universe remains unshaken." Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab, Canto VII, Note 13 Shelley also quotes the Dutch pantheist Benedict Spinoza later in the Note, but there is no explicit statement of pantheistic views. Shelley scholar Carlos Baker states that "the title of his college pamphlet should have been The Necessity of Agnosticism rather than The Necessity of Atheism," while historian David Berman argues that Shelley was an atheist, both because he characterised himself as such, and because "he denies the existence of God in both published works and private letters" during the same period.

Title: The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Edited by Mrs. Shelley.Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.The POETRY & DRAMA collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The books reflect the complex and changing role of literature in society, ranging from Bardic poetry to Victorian verse. Containing many classic works from important dramatists and poets, this collection has something for every lover of the stage and verse. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Shelley, Percy; Shelley, Mary; 1840. xviii. 363 p.; 8 . 11609.i.15.