ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Epipsychidion, poem in couplets by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1821 in Pisa (Italy). It is dedicated to Teresa (“Emilia”) Viviani, the teenage daughter of the governor of Pisa, who had been confined in a nunnery by her father.

Detailed explanation-2: -Composed in couplets of breathless energy, the poem celebrates Shelley’s lifelong search for the eternal image of Beauty, in the earthly form of his various wives, mistresses, and female friends: notably Harriet Westbrook, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and Emilia Viviani-to whom the work is addressed.

Detailed explanation-3: -Shelley’s best known works include “Ozymandias” (1818), “Ode to the West Wind” (1819), “To a Skylark” (1820), and the political ballad “The Mask of Anarchy” (1819). As well as poetry, he wrote prose fiction and essays on political, social, and philosophical issues.

Detailed explanation-4: -’Ozymandias’. Published in The Examiner on 11 January 1818, ‘Ozymandias’ is perhaps Percy Bysshe Shelley’s most celebrated and best-known poem, concluding with the haunting and resounding lines: “‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Detailed explanation-5: -Among his best-known works are “Ozymandias” (1818), “Ode to the West Wind” (1819), “To a Skylark” (1820), the philosophical essay “The Necessity of Atheism” written alongside his friend T. J. Hogg (1811), and the political ballad “The Mask of Anarchy” (1819).