Ayurveda originated in India long back in pre-vedic period. Rigveda and Atharva-veda ( 5000 years B.C.), the earliest documented ancient Indian knowledge have references on health and diseases. Ayurved texts like Charak Samhita and Sushruta Samhita were documented about 1000 years B.C. The term Ayurveda means ‘Science of Life’. It deals elaborately with measures for healthful living during the entire span of life and its various phases. Besides, dealing with principles for maintenance of health, it has also developed a wide range of therapeutic measures to combat illness. These principles of positive health and therapeutic measures relate to physical, mental, social and spiritual welfare of human beings. Thus Ayurveda becomes one of the oldest systems of health care dealing with both the preventive and curative aspects of life in a most comprehensive way and presents a close similarity to the WHO’s concept of health propounded in the modern era.
A perusal of its several classical treatises indicate presence of two schools of Physicians and Surgeons and eight specialities. These eight disciplines are generally called "Ashtanga Ayurveda" and are :-
1. Internal Medicine(Kaya Chikitsa)
2. Paediatrics(Kaumar Bhritya)
3. Psychiatry( Bhoot Vidya)
4. Otorhinolaryngology and Ophthalmology(Shalakya)
5. Surgery( Shalya)
6. Toxicology( Agad Tantra)
7. Geriatrics(Rasayana)
8. Eugenics and aphrodisiacs(Vajikarana)
Compendia on these subjects like Charak Samihta, Sushruta Samhita etc. were written by the ancient scholars during B.C. period. These were used for teaching of Ayurveda in the ancient universities of Takshashila and Nalanda
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Developments in physics
As we all know the world of science is witnessing rapid developments and the knowledge is accumulating at a very fast rate. Every now and then, new specializations are emerging, opening new frontiers and leading to new technologies. The world of Physics has its own share of excitement.Physical Sciences have not only helped in pushing the frontiers of knowledge, unfolding the mysteries of nature, but have also led to the creation of many new technologies. It is fair to say that most of the high technologies of today are directly or indirectly based on research in physics. Basic equipment used as a research tool in many of the sciences of today also owes its development to physics. Physics is thus of fundamental importance both for its applications to technology, and for understanding the deep mysteries of nature.
Regarding applications to technology, physics has led to the development of powerful new technologies. For instance, the discovery of nuclear fission made available to mankind vast amounts of energy stored inside atoms. This brought about the Nuclear Age. Then, in the 1960’s the study of how electrons move inside solids brought about the invention of the transistor and, later, the micro-chip, thus signaling the revolution in electronics. Another major development came from the study of radiation from atoms. The lasers which made their debut in 1960 are now used in almost all fields of science and technology, and have become common place in our daily life. Since the invention, peak power of a pulsed laser has increased by 12-15 orders of magnitude.
The field of plasma physics promises a lasting solution to the Energy problem of mankind through the development of fusion based power reactors. Plasma state popularly known as the fourth state of matter has also demonstrated important technological and industrial applications. Plasma and fusion-related technologies are fast entering a world market estimated at over USD 200 billion per year.
In Plasma Physics, new and important branches have emerged in recent years - Quark Gluon Plasma which is believed to have existed in the Early Universe and for which strong signals have been observed in the CERN Experiments and now at the relativistic heavy ion collision experiments at Brookhaven National Lab New York. Another important branch is Plasma Condensation with possible application of producing artificial diamonds and for providing understanding of Condensed Matter Physics Phenomena at a new level.
The field of Condensed Matter Physics its provides a good example in which basic research and technological developments go hand in hand. Whereas theoretical advances have helped in understanding semiconductors and superconductivity, remarkable inroads have been made in the technological developments of transistors, integrated circuits and superconductors. One of the enduring themes in Condensed Matter Physics is to look for Order Phenomena in highly complex forms of matter - this is like searching order in chaos. The Nobel prize in physics for the year 1991 went to a French Professor Pierre de Gennes who did precisely that. Among other things, he successfully explained the behaviour of Liquid Crystals and Polymers. Liquid Crystals have optical properties that can easily be manipulated, so they are valuable for information displays. They are now used in microelectronic hardware.
High temperature superconductivity, a major break-through in the last few years promises far reaching implications for power generation public transport.
The study of electrons at extremely low temperature (close to absolute zero) and under very powerful magnetic fields (30 T) has led to a breakthrough in our understanding of quantum physics, making the mysterious quantum effects visible. As you know, the famous Hall Effect was originally studied more than hundred years ago at the room temperature and at moderate magnetic field. In 1980, German Physicist Klaus Von Klitzing performing a similar experiment but now at extremely low temperature and high magnetic field discovered that the Hall resistance does not vary with magnetic field in linear fashion, but stepwise (step height being ¯h=e2!). In other words, the Hall resistance is quantized and at the quantized resistance values, normal ohmic resistance disappears and the material becomes in a sense superconducting. Von Klitzing received the 1985 Nobel prize for that discovery known as the integer quantum Hall effect. On further refinement of the experimental studies, new steps in the Hall resistance both above below the integral value were found. In other words, fractional quantum Hall effect was discovered. 1998 Nobel Prize was awarded for this idea.
Besides applications to technology, physics by itself is a fascinating subject. I would like to cite just a couple of examples from the not too distant past. The unification of weak and electromagnetic interactions by Salam and Weinberg, one of the great achievements of 20th Century has revealed the intrinsic simplicity and beauty of nature. This theory is a highly successful theory.
Years of confrontation with experimental data of ever increasing accuracy have left the theory intact. No wonder it has come to be named as the Standard Model.
The search for simplicity at the deepest level has been one of the enduring themes of physics.
In this quest, perhaps the greatest development has been the quark model of matter. In the early 1960’s, theorists proposed that the known fundamental particles were really composites, made up of more fundamental objects called quarks. The Nobel prize for the year 19901 was awarded for experimental confirmation of that theory. In the (deep inelastic) experiments performed, the electrons were fired at protons and neutrons and the way they bounced off these particles showed that the targets were made up of tiny concentrations of matter - the quarks. This work reminds you of the famous Rutherford experiment in which particles were fired at gold foil to determine the atomic structure.
The Nobel Prize for the year 1995 went to two scientists, Frederick Reines and Martin Perl - the former had proved the existence of the elusive electron neutrino in 1956 and the latter proved the existence of the ”tau” lepton in 1976. These particles along with the discovery of ”top-quark” completed the family of elementary particles which are regarded as the building blocks of matter according to the Salam - Weinberg Standard Model.
The 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics was shared by 3 Scientists- Steven Chu of Stanford, Cohen Tannoudji of Paris and William Phillips of Maryland for developing new techniques for cooling and trapping of atoms with laser light. The laser light in this case acts as a thick liquid called Optical molasses through which the atoms are slowed down and thus individual atoms can be studied with great accuracy.
In one of the experiments performed, helium atoms were crawling along at a speed of only 2 cm/sec (an extraordinary feet) and that speed corresponded to a temperature of a fraction of a microkelvin- so close to the absolute zero temperature.
This novel method has many possible applications. Indeed it has already formed the basis for the discovery of Bose-Einstein Condensate - a bizarre state of matter in which atoms merge into a single wave-like entity much like a beam of laser light - thus causing atoms to sing in unison.The existence of such a state of matter was predicted way back in 1920’s by Bose and Einstein.
Einstein at the time had doubts that such a material could be demonstrated. But after 70 years and many technical advances, the feet was achieved by three scientists, who shared the Nobel Prize for the year 2001. These so called “atom laser” could in future draw microscopic computer circuits many times tinier than the smallest in use today, to build extremely fast, powerful and compact computers. Atom lasers could also power very accurate guidance systems and gravity meters that could pinpoint the position of airliners and spacecraft to within a few centimeters.
In the realm of Astrophysics and Cosmology, the theory of General Relativity has led to the notion of an Expanding Universe. The observation of the background radiation which is a relic from the time of the birth of the Universe has helped us understand how the Universe itself had started. Mindboggling objects like quasars and pulsars have been discovered in the sky.
Subramanyam Chandrasekhar who was born in Lahore in 1910 shared the 1983 Nobel prize for his theory of evolution of stars. The Nobel prize for the year 1993 went to two scientists who had found a binary pulsar, a pair of pulsars whirling around each other in tight formation. According to Einstein’s theory, two such heavy objects orbiting each other should give off gravitational waves, causing energy loss and consequently pushing the objects closer to each other. Indeed the partner pulsars in the binary complex were found to approach each other at a rate of 1 mm per year.
The latest Nobel Prize in Physics for the year 2002 was awarded to three scientists: Raymond Davis, Masatoshi Koshiba and Riccardo Giacconi, the first two were responsible for their detection of Cosmic Neutrinos and the 3rd for discovery of Cosmic X-ray Sources. In the 1960s Davis was the first to detect neutrinos coming from the sun. His detector was a huge tank filled with 600 tonnes of fluid, which was placed in a mine. Over a period of 30 years, he succeeded in capturing a total of 2000 neutrinos from the Sun. However, the number of neutrinos recorded, fell short of the predictions and thus was born the “solar neutrino problem”. The best explanation for the shortfall was that the electron neutrinos made in the solar core, as products of nuclear fusion reactions, might transform (while in flight toward Earth) into other types of neutrino such as muon neutrinos, which could not be recorded in the detectors.
This hypothesis was put to test in the Kamiokande detector in Japan, which had been earlierdesigned to find evidence for proton decay which didn’t occur. Koshiba and his collaborators
enlarged the detector (Super-Kamiokande) and finally a±rmed that neutrinos were indeed transforming from one type to the other. Further evidence came from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) in UK which is capable of directly detecting all three types of neutrino. It was reported that all solar neutrinos were duly accounted for. As for x-ray astrophysics, Giacconi was the first to employ an x-ray telescope in space (1962) 3 and observe specific x-ray sources outside our solar system. Then followed decades of new orbiting x-ray telescopes and notable x-ray discoveries were made including the detection of x-rays from sources, such as comets, black holes, quasars, and neutron stars. These two discoveries have opened up two new branches of astrophysics providing two new windows on the Universe.
Regarding applications to technology, physics has led to the development of powerful new technologies. For instance, the discovery of nuclear fission made available to mankind vast amounts of energy stored inside atoms. This brought about the Nuclear Age. Then, in the 1960’s the study of how electrons move inside solids brought about the invention of the transistor and, later, the micro-chip, thus signaling the revolution in electronics. Another major development came from the study of radiation from atoms. The lasers which made their debut in 1960 are now used in almost all fields of science and technology, and have become common place in our daily life. Since the invention, peak power of a pulsed laser has increased by 12-15 orders of magnitude.
The field of plasma physics promises a lasting solution to the Energy problem of mankind through the development of fusion based power reactors. Plasma state popularly known as the fourth state of matter has also demonstrated important technological and industrial applications. Plasma and fusion-related technologies are fast entering a world market estimated at over USD 200 billion per year.
In Plasma Physics, new and important branches have emerged in recent years - Quark Gluon Plasma which is believed to have existed in the Early Universe and for which strong signals have been observed in the CERN Experiments and now at the relativistic heavy ion collision experiments at Brookhaven National Lab New York. Another important branch is Plasma Condensation with possible application of producing artificial diamonds and for providing understanding of Condensed Matter Physics Phenomena at a new level.
The field of Condensed Matter Physics its provides a good example in which basic research and technological developments go hand in hand. Whereas theoretical advances have helped in understanding semiconductors and superconductivity, remarkable inroads have been made in the technological developments of transistors, integrated circuits and superconductors. One of the enduring themes in Condensed Matter Physics is to look for Order Phenomena in highly complex forms of matter - this is like searching order in chaos. The Nobel prize in physics for the year 1991 went to a French Professor Pierre de Gennes who did precisely that. Among other things, he successfully explained the behaviour of Liquid Crystals and Polymers. Liquid Crystals have optical properties that can easily be manipulated, so they are valuable for information displays. They are now used in microelectronic hardware.
High temperature superconductivity, a major break-through in the last few years promises far reaching implications for power generation public transport.
The study of electrons at extremely low temperature (close to absolute zero) and under very powerful magnetic fields (30 T) has led to a breakthrough in our understanding of quantum physics, making the mysterious quantum effects visible. As you know, the famous Hall Effect was originally studied more than hundred years ago at the room temperature and at moderate magnetic field. In 1980, German Physicist Klaus Von Klitzing performing a similar experiment but now at extremely low temperature and high magnetic field discovered that the Hall resistance does not vary with magnetic field in linear fashion, but stepwise (step height being ¯h=e2!). In other words, the Hall resistance is quantized and at the quantized resistance values, normal ohmic resistance disappears and the material becomes in a sense superconducting. Von Klitzing received the 1985 Nobel prize for that discovery known as the integer quantum Hall effect. On further refinement of the experimental studies, new steps in the Hall resistance both above below the integral value were found. In other words, fractional quantum Hall effect was discovered. 1998 Nobel Prize was awarded for this idea.
Besides applications to technology, physics by itself is a fascinating subject. I would like to cite just a couple of examples from the not too distant past. The unification of weak and electromagnetic interactions by Salam and Weinberg, one of the great achievements of 20th Century has revealed the intrinsic simplicity and beauty of nature. This theory is a highly successful theory.
Years of confrontation with experimental data of ever increasing accuracy have left the theory intact. No wonder it has come to be named as the Standard Model.
The search for simplicity at the deepest level has been one of the enduring themes of physics.
In this quest, perhaps the greatest development has been the quark model of matter. In the early 1960’s, theorists proposed that the known fundamental particles were really composites, made up of more fundamental objects called quarks. The Nobel prize for the year 19901 was awarded for experimental confirmation of that theory. In the (deep inelastic) experiments performed, the electrons were fired at protons and neutrons and the way they bounced off these particles showed that the targets were made up of tiny concentrations of matter - the quarks. This work reminds you of the famous Rutherford experiment in which particles were fired at gold foil to determine the atomic structure.
The Nobel Prize for the year 1995 went to two scientists, Frederick Reines and Martin Perl - the former had proved the existence of the elusive electron neutrino in 1956 and the latter proved the existence of the ”tau” lepton in 1976. These particles along with the discovery of ”top-quark” completed the family of elementary particles which are regarded as the building blocks of matter according to the Salam - Weinberg Standard Model.
The 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics was shared by 3 Scientists- Steven Chu of Stanford, Cohen Tannoudji of Paris and William Phillips of Maryland for developing new techniques for cooling and trapping of atoms with laser light. The laser light in this case acts as a thick liquid called Optical molasses through which the atoms are slowed down and thus individual atoms can be studied with great accuracy.
In one of the experiments performed, helium atoms were crawling along at a speed of only 2 cm/sec (an extraordinary feet) and that speed corresponded to a temperature of a fraction of a microkelvin- so close to the absolute zero temperature.
This novel method has many possible applications. Indeed it has already formed the basis for the discovery of Bose-Einstein Condensate - a bizarre state of matter in which atoms merge into a single wave-like entity much like a beam of laser light - thus causing atoms to sing in unison.The existence of such a state of matter was predicted way back in 1920’s by Bose and Einstein.
Einstein at the time had doubts that such a material could be demonstrated. But after 70 years and many technical advances, the feet was achieved by three scientists, who shared the Nobel Prize for the year 2001. These so called “atom laser” could in future draw microscopic computer circuits many times tinier than the smallest in use today, to build extremely fast, powerful and compact computers. Atom lasers could also power very accurate guidance systems and gravity meters that could pinpoint the position of airliners and spacecraft to within a few centimeters.
In the realm of Astrophysics and Cosmology, the theory of General Relativity has led to the notion of an Expanding Universe. The observation of the background radiation which is a relic from the time of the birth of the Universe has helped us understand how the Universe itself had started. Mindboggling objects like quasars and pulsars have been discovered in the sky.
Subramanyam Chandrasekhar who was born in Lahore in 1910 shared the 1983 Nobel prize for his theory of evolution of stars. The Nobel prize for the year 1993 went to two scientists who had found a binary pulsar, a pair of pulsars whirling around each other in tight formation. According to Einstein’s theory, two such heavy objects orbiting each other should give off gravitational waves, causing energy loss and consequently pushing the objects closer to each other. Indeed the partner pulsars in the binary complex were found to approach each other at a rate of 1 mm per year.
The latest Nobel Prize in Physics for the year 2002 was awarded to three scientists: Raymond Davis, Masatoshi Koshiba and Riccardo Giacconi, the first two were responsible for their detection of Cosmic Neutrinos and the 3rd for discovery of Cosmic X-ray Sources. In the 1960s Davis was the first to detect neutrinos coming from the sun. His detector was a huge tank filled with 600 tonnes of fluid, which was placed in a mine. Over a period of 30 years, he succeeded in capturing a total of 2000 neutrinos from the Sun. However, the number of neutrinos recorded, fell short of the predictions and thus was born the “solar neutrino problem”. The best explanation for the shortfall was that the electron neutrinos made in the solar core, as products of nuclear fusion reactions, might transform (while in flight toward Earth) into other types of neutrino such as muon neutrinos, which could not be recorded in the detectors.
This hypothesis was put to test in the Kamiokande detector in Japan, which had been earlierdesigned to find evidence for proton decay which didn’t occur. Koshiba and his collaborators
enlarged the detector (Super-Kamiokande) and finally a±rmed that neutrinos were indeed transforming from one type to the other. Further evidence came from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) in UK which is capable of directly detecting all three types of neutrino. It was reported that all solar neutrinos were duly accounted for. As for x-ray astrophysics, Giacconi was the first to employ an x-ray telescope in space (1962) 3 and observe specific x-ray sources outside our solar system. Then followed decades of new orbiting x-ray telescopes and notable x-ray discoveries were made including the detection of x-rays from sources, such as comets, black holes, quasars, and neutron stars. These two discoveries have opened up two new branches of astrophysics providing two new windows on the Universe.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), one of the major contributors to English Romantic poetry wrote “Ozymandias”;
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Probably his most famous short poem, “Ozymandias” was published in 1818. The second-hand narration attempts to resurrect the once powerful king's might while the exotic setting of Egypt and desert sands helps illuminate the struggle between artist and subject. Shelley often attracted criticism and controversy for his outspoken challenges to oppression, religion, and convention as in his political poem “The Masque of Anarchy” (1819), a critical look at the Peterloo massacre;
Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you-
Ye are many — they are few.
Written in terza rima “Ode To The West Wind” (1820) is another of Shelley’s calls for revolution and change. Other longer visionary works by Shelley include “The Revolt of Islam” and “Prometheus Unbound” (1820). He also expressed profound tenderness and sympathy for humankind such as in “The Magnetic Lady to Her Patient” and deep love in poems dedicated to Mary;
O Mary dear, that you were here
With your brown eyes bright and clear.
And your sweet voice, like a bird
Singing love to its lone mate
In the ivy bower disconsolate;
Voice the sweetest ever heard!
And your brow more...
Than the ... sky
Of this azure Italy.
Mary dear, come to me soon,
I am not well whilst thou art far;
As sunset to the sphered moon,
As twilight to the western star,
Thou, beloved, art to me.
O Mary dear, that you were here;
The Castle echo whispers 'Here!'—“To Mary” (1818)
Shelley found friendship with fellow poets John Keats and Byron as well as paving the way for future esteemed poets Robert Browning, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Tennyson, and Yeats. His life and works are studied still and his influence lives on in the 21st century.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on 4 August 1792 in Horsham, Sussex, England. He was the eldest of the seven children of Elizabeth Pilfold and Timothy Shelley, a country squire who would become baronet in 1815 on the death of his father. Young Percy attended Sion House Academy before entering University College, Oxford, in 1804. These years in a conventional institution were not happy ones for Shelley, where his idealism and controversial philosophies were developing. At this time he wrote such works as the Gothic Zastrozzi (1810) and The Necessity of Atheism (1811); “If the knowledge of a God is the most necessary, why is it not the most evident and the clearest?”
After Shelley’s expulsion from school for expressing his atheistic views, and now estranged from his father, he eloped with sixteen-year old Harriet Westbrook (1795-1816) to Scotland. They married on 28 August 1811 and would have two children, daughter Ianthe born in 1813 (d.1876) and son Charles born in 1814. Inviting college friend Thomas Hogg into their household, Shelley attempted an open marriage to the consternation of Harriet, which led to the demise of their marriage. For the next three years Shelley made several trips to London to the bookshop and home of atheist journalist William Godwin, the father of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1797-1851). Influenced by William Wordsworth, he continued to write poetry including Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem (1813) and participated in various political reform activities. He was also studying the writings of Godwin’s and embracing his radical philosophy.
Percy Shelley’s forays to the Godwin’s also resulted in his acquaintance with his daughter Mary, who almost immediately proved to be his intellectual equal. The poets’ fondness for each other soon grew and in 1814, Shelley eloped a second time with Mary and her stepsister Claire in tow, settling in Switzerland. This action drew the disapproval of both their fathers, and they struggled to support themselves. The Shelley’s were spending much time with George Gordon Byron who also led a controversial life of romantic entanglements and political activity. Shelley was passionate about life and very generous to his friends, which often caused him financial hardship. They passed their days sailing on the lake and telling each other ghost stories. Mary overheard Percy and Byron speaking one night of galvanism, which inspired her most famous novel Frankenstein or; The Modern Prometheus (1818) and which Percy wrote the introduction for.
In 1815 the Shelley’s moved back to England and settled near London. The same year Percy’s grandfather died leaving him a lucrative sum of £1000 per annum. The year 1816 was filled with highs and lows for Shelley. His wife Harriet drowned herself in the Serpentine river in Hyde Park, London and Mary’s half sister Fanny committed suicide, but son William was born (d.1819) and he and Mary wed on 30 December. “Alastor or; The Spirit of Solitude” was published in 1816 and their joint effort based on their travels History of Six Weeks Tour was published in 1817.
In 1818, the Shelley’s moved to Italy and their son Percy Florence was born a year later. Advocates of vegetarianism, the Shelley’s wrote numerous articles about the subject. Percy was working on his tragedy in five acts The Cenci and many other works including “Men of England” and his elegy for John Keats “Adonais” (1821). Mary too was busy writing while they lived in various cities including Pisa and Rome. Shelley continued to venture on sailing trips on his schooner ‘Don Juan’. It sank on 8 July 1822 in a storm and Shelley drowned, at the age of twenty-nine. His body washed ashore and he was cremated on the beach near Viareggio. His ashes are buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, Italy.
The Shelley Memorial now stands at University College, Oxford, England, in honour of one of their most illustrious alumni. It features a white marble statue depicting Shelley as he appeared when washed ashore. Mary Wollcomshart Shelly, having moved back to London with her son Percy Florence, devoted much of her time after her husband’s death to compiling and publishing his works. Her fondness and respect for her husband is expressed in her extensive notes and introductions to his works contained in The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe (1824).
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Probably his most famous short poem, “Ozymandias” was published in 1818. The second-hand narration attempts to resurrect the once powerful king's might while the exotic setting of Egypt and desert sands helps illuminate the struggle between artist and subject. Shelley often attracted criticism and controversy for his outspoken challenges to oppression, religion, and convention as in his political poem “The Masque of Anarchy” (1819), a critical look at the Peterloo massacre;
Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you-
Ye are many — they are few.
Written in terza rima “Ode To The West Wind” (1820) is another of Shelley’s calls for revolution and change. Other longer visionary works by Shelley include “The Revolt of Islam” and “Prometheus Unbound” (1820). He also expressed profound tenderness and sympathy for humankind such as in “The Magnetic Lady to Her Patient” and deep love in poems dedicated to Mary;
O Mary dear, that you were here
With your brown eyes bright and clear.
And your sweet voice, like a bird
Singing love to its lone mate
In the ivy bower disconsolate;
Voice the sweetest ever heard!
And your brow more...
Than the ... sky
Of this azure Italy.
Mary dear, come to me soon,
I am not well whilst thou art far;
As sunset to the sphered moon,
As twilight to the western star,
Thou, beloved, art to me.
O Mary dear, that you were here;
The Castle echo whispers 'Here!'—“To Mary” (1818)
Shelley found friendship with fellow poets John Keats and Byron as well as paving the way for future esteemed poets Robert Browning, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Tennyson, and Yeats. His life and works are studied still and his influence lives on in the 21st century.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on 4 August 1792 in Horsham, Sussex, England. He was the eldest of the seven children of Elizabeth Pilfold and Timothy Shelley, a country squire who would become baronet in 1815 on the death of his father. Young Percy attended Sion House Academy before entering University College, Oxford, in 1804. These years in a conventional institution were not happy ones for Shelley, where his idealism and controversial philosophies were developing. At this time he wrote such works as the Gothic Zastrozzi (1810) and The Necessity of Atheism (1811); “If the knowledge of a God is the most necessary, why is it not the most evident and the clearest?”
After Shelley’s expulsion from school for expressing his atheistic views, and now estranged from his father, he eloped with sixteen-year old Harriet Westbrook (1795-1816) to Scotland. They married on 28 August 1811 and would have two children, daughter Ianthe born in 1813 (d.1876) and son Charles born in 1814. Inviting college friend Thomas Hogg into their household, Shelley attempted an open marriage to the consternation of Harriet, which led to the demise of their marriage. For the next three years Shelley made several trips to London to the bookshop and home of atheist journalist William Godwin, the father of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1797-1851). Influenced by William Wordsworth, he continued to write poetry including Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem (1813) and participated in various political reform activities. He was also studying the writings of Godwin’s and embracing his radical philosophy.
Percy Shelley’s forays to the Godwin’s also resulted in his acquaintance with his daughter Mary, who almost immediately proved to be his intellectual equal. The poets’ fondness for each other soon grew and in 1814, Shelley eloped a second time with Mary and her stepsister Claire in tow, settling in Switzerland. This action drew the disapproval of both their fathers, and they struggled to support themselves. The Shelley’s were spending much time with George Gordon Byron who also led a controversial life of romantic entanglements and political activity. Shelley was passionate about life and very generous to his friends, which often caused him financial hardship. They passed their days sailing on the lake and telling each other ghost stories. Mary overheard Percy and Byron speaking one night of galvanism, which inspired her most famous novel Frankenstein or; The Modern Prometheus (1818) and which Percy wrote the introduction for.
In 1815 the Shelley’s moved back to England and settled near London. The same year Percy’s grandfather died leaving him a lucrative sum of £1000 per annum. The year 1816 was filled with highs and lows for Shelley. His wife Harriet drowned herself in the Serpentine river in Hyde Park, London and Mary’s half sister Fanny committed suicide, but son William was born (d.1819) and he and Mary wed on 30 December. “Alastor or; The Spirit of Solitude” was published in 1816 and their joint effort based on their travels History of Six Weeks Tour was published in 1817.
In 1818, the Shelley’s moved to Italy and their son Percy Florence was born a year later. Advocates of vegetarianism, the Shelley’s wrote numerous articles about the subject. Percy was working on his tragedy in five acts The Cenci and many other works including “Men of England” and his elegy for John Keats “Adonais” (1821). Mary too was busy writing while they lived in various cities including Pisa and Rome. Shelley continued to venture on sailing trips on his schooner ‘Don Juan’. It sank on 8 July 1822 in a storm and Shelley drowned, at the age of twenty-nine. His body washed ashore and he was cremated on the beach near Viareggio. His ashes are buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, Italy.
The Shelley Memorial now stands at University College, Oxford, England, in honour of one of their most illustrious alumni. It features a white marble statue depicting Shelley as he appeared when washed ashore. Mary Wollcomshart Shelly, having moved back to London with her son Percy Florence, devoted much of her time after her husband’s death to compiling and publishing his works. Her fondness and respect for her husband is expressed in her extensive notes and introductions to his works contained in The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe (1824).
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