Percy Bysshe Shelley - a photo on Flickriver

            University College, Oxford
The Shelley Memorial and (top right at Christchurch Abbey)

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792 in Sussex and came from a prominent family being the son of the MP for Horsham.
The Shelley memorial was erected at University College in 1892-3 it lies in the west front quad of the college under a dome painted with stars and is close to The High Street, yet it seems another world. The domed memorial was intended for the Protestant Cemetery in Rome. Curiously Shelley’s memorial is placed in the college from which he was sent down from in 1811 for publishing a “scandalous”  document “The Necessity of Atheism”, this had be co-written with his friend Jefferson Hogg. Lady Shelley presented the memorial to University College, who by 1894 had undoubtedly forgiven Shelley’s earlier misdemeanour. Following the disgrace of the pamphlet Shelley eloped with sixteen year old Harriet Westbrook to Scotland, this marriage like Shelley’s tempestuous life was doomed, and Harriet drowned herself in the Serpentine (Hyde Park.) Drowning was to be the romantic poet’s own fate eleven years later when he too was lost, his yacht was sunk in a storm in the Bay of Lerici following a visit to Lord Byron . Onslow Ford’s monument is very “fin de siècle” it was designed to appear as if the muse of poetry and two lions support the drowned poet on a slab of Conemara marble as if floating on an invisible sea. The cold marble of his naked body contrasts with the heavy bronze of its support. The whole edifice is behind a grille and is locked so one usually observes it from eye level. The monument and its architectural surround was described by Pevsner as “extremely lush.”  (P.211 Oxfordshire The Buildings of England , Yale Press) The memorial is an intriguing piece of work and is not generally open to public view. Basil Champneys (1842-1920) who was the architect was also responsible for Newham College Cambridge and Mansfield College Oxford. His work is often cited as late gothic, however in this case his influences appear more classical in keeping with the mausoleum.
 It is worth comparing the University College  monument with Weekes’ 1854 one of Shelley (In Christchurch Abbey). This monument was intended for St Peter’s Bournemouth where the poet’s heart is buried.  (NT)

   

Taken on: April 7, 2007

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Oxford

Poet

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Victorian

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Atheism

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England

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Basil Champneys

English Literature

Time and Tide

Art and Life

Time and Tide Set

Inspirations

Literary Britain and Ireland

Writers and Poets « less

Sets appears in: • Time and Tide

Groups appears in: • Nineteenth Century English Poetry • Literary Britain and Ireland

Camera: Canon PowerShot G2, f/4.5, 1/80 sec, 18.8mm (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon PowerShot G2
Aperture:	f/4.5
Exposure Time:	0.013 sec (1/80)
Focal Length:	18.8mm
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Spot
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh
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