The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Complete

Shelley was twenty-nine when he drowned off the Italian coast, carrying in his boat the manuscripts of his greatest works. He left behind a body of poetry that set fire to the Romantic age and has burned ever since. This comprehensive collection gathers everything: the apocalyptic vision of "Queen Mab," the lyrical transcendence of "Alastor," the defiant drama of "The Cenci," and the staggering "Prometheus Unbound" , a drama of liberation that remains unmatched in its ambition. Here too are the shorter lyrics, poems that ache toward something just beyond language: "Ode to the West Wind," "To a Skylark," the urgent "Men of England." Shelley wrote as if the world depended on it, because for him, it did. He was an atheist when atheism could get you imprisoned, a radical when radical meant dangerous, a lover of humanity who saw poetry as a force that could reshape consciousness itself. His verse moves with extraordinary musicality, dense with imagery and philosophical fire. This is not a book to skim. It is a book to inhabit.