Ode to the West Wind
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"Ode To The West Wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Shelley was born in Field Place near Horsham, Sussex, England to a wealthy family 1792. He was expelled from University College Oxford, for producing The Necessity of Atheism, with Thomas Jefforson Hogg. This, and his elopement with 16 years old Harriet Westbrook, estranged him from his family and Shelley relinquished his right to his inheritance. Despite having two children by Harriet, the marriage failed and he eloped with Mary Wollstonecraft, taking along Mary's half-sister, Jane 'Claire' Clairmont (later to bear a child by Byron). He spent much time with Byron and wrote Julian and Maddalo in 1818 which explored his relationship with Byron. Sailing back from a meeting with Byron and Leigh Hunt, Shelley and his companions were drowned in a sudden storm in 1822. Shelley's body was washed up 10 days later, still with Hunt's copy of Keat's poems in his jacket pocket, and, at first, buried on the beach. Subsequently exhumed, he was cremated on the beach in the presence of Byron and Leigh Hunt. Despite his origins within the landed gentry, Shelley had concerns for social justice and these concerns manifest themselves frequently within his poetry, for example, "Ode to the West Wind...