Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792 at Horsham. He was amongst the second generation of Romantic Poets, and is widely associated with other poets Keats and Byron.
Shelley then only 19 eloped and married Harriet Westbrook, but after three years ran away with Mary Godwin, who after Harriet’s death he married.
On one of their foreign trips Mary Shelley developed the novel Frankenstein with Shelley’s assistance.
In the last few years of Shelley’s life he suffered considerable tragedy losing two children and losing friends such as Keats.
Shelley died in 1822 aged 29 in a mysterious boating accident in Italy.
Shelley’s fame in the early 19th Century was based more on his political poems, however towards the end of the century and into the 20th century his reputation was built on being one of the finest lyrical poets with poems such as Ozymandias and To a Skylark receiving critical and popular acclaim.
