![]() The Shelleysĭespite having a young wife and child, Shelley fell in love with the 16-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, the daughter of William Godwin and his wife, Mary Wollstonecraft (the campaigner for female emancipation). Shelley felt the need for social and political change and he believed in atheism, vegetarianism and free love. He began a degree course at Oxford but was expelled after less than a year and soon eloped with a young woman called Harriet Westbrook.ĭespite his upbringing, Shelley had unconventional political ideals and spent a great deal of time with reform thinkers of the day such as William Godwin, a well known philosopher. He stood to inherit both his father’s title and a fortune when his father died.īullied and unhappy at school, Shelley became known as ‘Mad Shelley’ by his fellow students. He had a comfortable and affluent upbringing in rural England, the eldest son of a baronet and Whig Member of Parliament. Percy Shelley (1792 – 1822) was one of the leading poets of the Romantic movement in England. ![]() Having heard of the British Museum’s recent acquisition of a huge statue of Ramses II, Shelley and his contemporaries decided to write poems about it.Egyptian culture was exotified by Europeans, so much so that important historical treasures soon made their way to Europe.Ozymandias was the Greek name of Ramses II.They decided to have a competition to see who could write the best poem about this statue. Shelley and a friend learned of the acquisition by the British Museum of a massive statue of Ramses II. In the early 19th century, when Shelley was writing poetry, Europeans became fascinated with Egyptian culture after Napoleon conquered Egypt and began transporting the great treasures of the Ancient Egyptians back to Europe. ![]() ‘Ozymandias’ was the Greek name given to Ramses II, one of the greatest pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. This blog explores Percy Shelley’s Ozymandias poem, focussing on: ![]() Help GCSE English Literature students revise for the AQA English Literature Paper 2 exam with Beyond’s “revise” blogs on Power and Conflict poetry. ![]()
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