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PERCY SHELLEY
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Percy Shelley was born in Sussex in 1792.

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He went to school at Eton and then went to Oxford University but

was dismissed for producing a provocative pamphlet The Necessity
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of atheism.
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In 1811, he ran away with Mary Godwion and two years later wrote
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Queen Mab, His first important poem, in 1813.

Shelley then met and fell in love with Harriet Westbrook and eloped
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with her.
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Shelley’s first wife commited suicide but Shelley and Mary

continued to travel around Europe and spent some time with Lord
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Byron in Switzerland. They later married. Shelley wrote most of his

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best poetry in Italy where he lived with his wife and children from
1818.
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In 1822 Shelley drowned in a sailing accident and his body was

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washed up on the shore near Viareggio, where it was burned in the

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presence of Byron.
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A Song: Men of England (1819) is much more direct criticism of the

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injustice of society as it clearly points the finger at the ruling and

upper classes of Britain and their exploitation of the lower classes.
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It is an open invitation to rebellion and criticism of those who are not

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willing to act . Here Shelley uses a simple form ( quatrains in

rhyming couplets ) and relatively simple language rich in questions
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and imperatives in order to address the people in a very outspoken

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and comprehensible way.

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Shelley’s anger had been incited by recent events in Britain

including the shocking Peterloo massacre when a peaceful crowd of
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protesters had been charged by soldiers with bayonets drawn,

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resulting in many deaths and hundreds of injuries.

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