Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelleywas one of the major English Romantic poets, and is regarded by some as among the finest lyric, as well as epic, poets in the English language. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not see fame during his lifetime, but recognition for his poetry grew steadily following his death. Shelley was a key member of a close circle of visionary poets and writers that included Lord Byron; Leigh...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth4 August 1792
power shadow awful
The awful shadow of some unseen Power Floats, tho' unseen, amongst us.
beautiful spirit
A pard-like spirit, beautiful and swift.
gentleman devil sometimes
Sometimes The Devil is a gentleman.
paradise exile
Thou Paradise of exiles, Italy!
wall lying ocean
Underneath Day's azure eyes, Ocean's nursling, Venice lies, A peopled labyrinth of walls, Amphitrite's destined halls
death creeds modest
It is a modest creed, and yet Pleasant if one considers it, To own that death itself must be, Like all the rest, a mockery.
writing criticism would-be
If certain Critics were as clearsighted as they are malignant, how great would be the benefit to be derived from their writings!
philosophy causes adequate
It is vain philosophy that supposes more causes than are exactly adequate to explain the phenomena of things.
ignorant force forces-of-nature
Everytime we say that god is the author of some phenomenon, that signifies that we are ignorant of how such a phenomenon was caused by the forces of nature.
character being-positive atheism
Whatever may be his true and final destination, there is a spirit within him at enmity with nothingness and dissolution. This is the character of all life and being.
ignorance simple men
It is thus that the generality of mankind, whose lot is ignorance, attributes to the Divinity, not only the unusual effects which strike them, but moreover the most simple events, of which the causes are the most simple to understand by whomever is able to study them. In a word, man has always respected unknown causes, surprising effects that his ignorance kept him from unraveling. It was on this debris of nature that man raised the imaginary colossus of the Divinity.
passion mind atheism
... as belief is a passion of the mind, no degree of criminality is attachable to disbelief; ...
revenge parent kind
Revenge and wrong bring forth their kind; The foul cubs like their parents are.
simplicity innocence knows
Oh that simplicity and innocence its own unvalued work so seldom knows!