THE VIATORIA N JJrac tt &ptra
MAY, 1914 Number 8
Volume 31
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY LEO. J. McDONALD Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792, one year before the eventful "Reign of Terror" in France. The romanticism and emotionalisn1 of Burns' Lyrical genius had already triumphed over the conventionalism and classicism of the Eighteenth cen'tury, and was at the time of Shelley's birth, paving the way for that individualistic and original mood which early in the Nineteenth century found expression through such enthusiastic poets as Byron, Keats, and Shelley. Shelley attained hi s maturity after the French Revolution, as a political fact, had failed. But the spirit that had animated the fierce struggle, though gloon1y and bitter in defeat, was still much alive, and in support of its ideals-Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, the young poet applied his pen with all the fervor of his intense nature. 路 Among Shelley's earliest literary efforts was the small pamphlet entitled "The Necessity of Atheism." This work, which was the cause of his itnmediate expulsion fron1 Oxford, set forth clearly his disapproven1ent to the usual arguments for the Divine existence. The spirit of rebellion continued to actuate the young poet, and in the foll owing year we find him in Dublin throwing from his window, to passers in the streets, copies of his "Addresses to the Irish People." The revolutionary view~ expressed in these addresses were so radically opposed to law and government that the police suggested to the author the propriety of his quitting Ireland. . Shelley's-defiance to the established order of things is further shown in " The Revolt of Islatn"; a story of the experience of human passion engaged in stirring and romantic adventures, in which all artificial opinions and institutions were contemptuously spurned. The purpose of the poem was to enliven the spirit that