Person    | Male  Born 4/8/1792  Died 8/7/1822

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Categories: Poetry, Seriously Famous

Countries: Italy

Poet. Born at Field Place, near Horsham in Sussex. Had a habit of eloping with and then marrying 16 or 17 year olds: first Harriet Westbrook. When she, pregnant, drowned herself in the Serpentine Percy waited 2 weeks and then married Mary Godwin with whom he had been living for the previous 2 years.

Although he couldn't swim and often predicted that he would die by drowning, Shelley spent the summer of 1822 sailing on the Bay of Lerici. A storm threw him and others overboard. The bodies were washed ashore 10 days later and, in the presence of Lord Byron and Leigh Hunt, a cremation took place on the beach. Shelley's heart was saved and given to Mary who carried it with her all her life, taking it to her own grave (or their son kept it and took it to his grave, stories vary). Shelley's ashes were later buried in the Protestant cemetery in Rome.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Commemorated ati

Percy & Mary Shelley

After their elopement in July 1814 the Shelleys lived here with Claire Clairm...

Read More

Percy Shelley - SE1 - blue

British History Online: "In 1932 the London County Council erected a memorial...

Read More

Percy Shelley - SE1 - Southwark

Percy Bysshe Shelley lived at No. 26 Nelson Square which formerly stood on a ...

Read More

Percy Shelley - W1

Shelley lodged here after he was expelled from Oxford.

Read More

Somers Town Mural

This mural was commissioned by the GLC in 1980 and moved to this site by St P...

Read More

Show all 6

Other Subjects

Vivian Forbes

Vivian Forbes

Painter and poet. Born London.  Served in the Royal Fusiliers in WW1. Had a close relationship with Glyn Philpot and on Philpot's death, Forbes died by suicide, the day after the funeral. The pict...

Person, Art, Poetry

1 memorial
Charles Williams

Charles Williams

Writer on literature and theology, novelist and poet. Born Charles Walter Stansby Williams, 3 Spencer Road. He worked for the Oxford University Press (OUP) in various capacities for most of his lif...

Person, Literature, Poetry, Religion

1 memorial
Coventry Patmore

Coventry Patmore

Poet and critic. Born at Woodford, Essex. Died Lymington. Web sites giving his poetry are numerous.

Person, Literature, Poetry

2 memorials
Robert Burns

Robert Burns

Born Alloway, Ayrshire. Wrote in the Scots language, and also in a Scots dialect which is accessible to English speakers. Also collected traditional songs. Scots the world over celebrate his birth ...

Person, Poetry, Seriously Famous, Scotland

1 memorial
Thomas Middleton

Thomas Middleton

Playwright.  Born London, probably in in a house on the corner of Ironmonger Lane and Cateaton Street (now Gresham Street). Baptized on 18 April 1580 in St Lawrence Jewry. He collaborated with a nu...

Person, Poetry, Theatre

1 memorial