Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the most influential English poets of all time, known for poems like "Ozymandias", "Ode to the West Wind", and "To a Skylark". Some of his major longer works include the visionary poems "Queen Mab", "Alastor", "The Revolt of Islam", and "Prometheus Unbound" as well as the verse drama "The Cenci" and lyric drama "Hellas". Shelley believed poetry could transform the world and claimed poets were "the unacknowledged legislators of the world". Though criticized in his lifetime, Shelley was radical in his poetry and progressive political and social views that challenged conventions.

1. Percy Bysshe Shelley
Introduction
Percy Bysshe Shelley is regarded as one of the most influential English poets of all time. Today, he is best known
for classic poems such as “Ozymandias”, “Ode to the West Wind”, “To a Skylark”, “The Cloud” and “The Masque of
Anarchy”.
His other major works include the long, visionary poems such as “Queen Mab”, “Alastor”, “The Revolt of
Islam”, “Adonaïs” and “Prometheus Unbound”. He has also penned down a groundbreaking verse drama, The Cenci
(1819), and Hellas: A Lyrical Dram (1821). The following are some of the important works of Shelley.
1. Ozymandias
“Ozymandias” is a sonnet. It was first published in the The Examiner in London. It is regarded as one of Shelley's
most famous works and is frequently anthologised. Ozymandias was a Greek name for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses
II, who ruled in the thirteenth century BC. The poem explores the fate of history and the ravages of time.
2. Ode to the West Wind
"Ode to the West Wind" was written in 1819 near Florence, Italy. The poem consists of five sections (cantos) written
in terza rima. Each section consists of four tercets (ABA, BCB, CDC, DED) and a rhyming couplet (EE). The Ode is
written in pentameter. The poem begins with three sections describing the wind's effects upon earth, air, and ocean. It
allegorises the role of the poet as the voice of change and revolution.
3. To a Skylark
“To a Skylark” was written in June 1820. It was inspired by an evening walk by Shelley in a certain city of Italy,
with his wife Mary Shelley. It describes the appearance and song of a skylark. The poem has some of the memorable
words of the poet: “Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.”
4. Adonaïs
"Adonaïs" is a pastoral elegy written for John Keats in 1821. The poem is written in 495 lines. It is divided into 55
Spenserian stanzas. It is a pastoral elegy, in the English tradition of John Milton's Lycidas. The title of the poem is
modelled on an ancient Roman work that refers to the untimely death of the Greek Adonis, a god of fertility.
5. The Cenci
The Cenci (1819) is a verse drama in five acts written in the summer of 1819. It was inspired by a real Italian family,
the House of Cenci. It was a horrific tragedy of Beatrice Cenci, a young woman, executed for pre-meditated murder of
her tyrannical father. The events occurred during the Pontificate of Pope Clement VIII, set in 1599.
The Poet and the Critic
The poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley explores political and social questions more explicitly. Shelley was constantly
critical of conventional authority. He represented the revolutionary side of English Romanticism. His struggle for
equality can be noted in “Ozymandias”: “The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Shelley believed that poetry could transform the world. In his "A Defence of Poetry", Shelley claimed that "poets
are the unacknowledged legislators of the world". The essay was written in response to his friend Thomas Love
Peacock's article "The Four Ages of Poetry", which had been published in 1820. Shelley wrote the essay in1821.
Conclusion
Percy Bysshe Shelley often came under sharp criticisms and was not considered insignificant during his lifetime. As
a Romantic writer, Shelley was radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views. He was an individualist;
and his idealism broke the fetters of conventional ideas.