Nineteenth century

Percy Bysshe Shelley

1792–1822

Poet of the west wind

If Winter comes is a political hope as much as a season. The claim that poets are unacknowledged legislators is from a defence of poetry written against a practical friend’s teasing. He drowned at twenty-nine.

In the canon

  1. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.A Defence of Poetry
  2. If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?Ode to the West Wind

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