Celebrating the Promethean Spirit of Percy Bysshe Shelley (4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822)

Profiles in Poetry

July 8th marks the date of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s unfortunate drowning in the Bay of Lerici, Italy. Despite the considerable sea of time that separates us from the age in which Shelley lived, the poet’s significance has by no means diminished. In our age of increasing cultural chaos, aggressive censorship, and rearing social anarchy, the Promethean spirit of Shelley’s work remains alive and well.

One of Shelley’s most ambitious compositions, Prometheus Unbound (1818-1819), took the form of a lyrical drama. Inspired by a fervent spirit of classicism, the poet revisited one of the most famous and compelling Classical Greek myths: the Titan Prometheus’ stealing of fire from the gods of Olympus and giving it to humankind.

For some, including the Greek poet Hesiod and Shelley’s own wife, Mary Shelley, the Promethean myth was viewed as a cautionary tale about humankind’s hubris in the face of divine authority and the natural order of things. For poets like Shelley and Aeschylus, however, Prom…