Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-08-05
POETS CENTENARY.
"a MONUMENT TO THE MEMORY
OF PERCY BYSsHE SHELLEY.
The Occasion Will BE More Generally
I Observed Than Was the Centenary of
Lord Byron in 1854 Monument De.
signed by Lady Shelley.
Especial Correspondence .

~ ICOCdESlER, ~ l., July 1O.-lue Ccl-
tenary. of Percy Bysshe Shelley, which
comes on the 4th Of August of this year,
will be of a different character from that |
of Lord Byron, which occurred in 1888. |
Gould we have witnessed the great popu- !
larity; of which Byron was the subject dur
ing his lifetime, and then been able to
look forward and see how in less than 100
years his fame would have so declined that
his centenafy would pass without any
public acknowledgement of it in his native
England, we would be strongly impressed
with the vanity of all literary fame.
Greece indeed IGNORED Byron's centenary
by a public celebration, but in doing
SO she honored, not the English poet,
but the patriot who went to help her and
to die in her service.
It can safely be predicted that Shelley's
centenary will cause widespread interest.
And not alone in England. America and
Italy will join England in paying tribute
to the memory Of one of the greatest poets
of this century. All the strange and sad
story of his brief and romantic life will be
once more reviewed, and in sorrow over
his sudden and untimely fate the hearts of
all will beat in sympathy.
Shelley enjoyed in life none of the popu-
larity which distinguished Byron. At
first he longed to play his part in the great
political movements of the age, but his
revolutionary and visionary ideas found
little favor. Then the peculiar opinions
which were the cause of his alienation
from his family also ended to restrict his
social influence. His great poems appeared
at different times, but few needed this
sweet and impassioned singer until the
voice grew silent, and then the world be-
gan by degrees to realize what a great and
true poet it had been neglecting so long.
The interest which began soon after his
death to center in Shelley has been natural
ly intensified by the pathetic nature of the
tragedy. which overwhelmed him at the
last. But Shelley's fame cannot be said to
be dependent upon either outward incident
.or upon personal magnetism, or even upon
the unique qualities of his poetical work.
English political and religious thought
began to assume new aspects as the years
passed. The. poetry which Shelley had
written in obscurity began to rouse en-
" ;thusiasm, for it expressed many of the
ideas which were now becoming more pop
'ular. 1t is true that many of the social
reforms which Shelley proposed have never
been and doubtless never will be adopted
by the world. And it is well that this is
the case. But as mems minds began to be
"Su"lduClpdUeu LlOfe dllu mOfe liOIl UlSOGiy}
and intolerance they perceived the
truth that was in Shelley, while at the
same time they could reject that which
was false and pernicious in his theories
They saw. too, that Shelley had no
written for his own age, but like the true
prophet that he was he had written fol
the future.
Then, also, the same causes which
brought England around to Wordsworth
brought all lovers of nature to trust in thu
spiritual representation of nature in thu
work of Shelley; while his imaginative
grasp and fervor, his enthusiasm for higl
and noble ideals and tlIe wlJchery OF hi
music ave brought delight to a constant
i ly increasing number of readers.
Shelley's fame has therefore grown il
about the same proportion as hat of Byron
has declined. When in the Twentieth
century critics turn back to the Nineteenth
/, and review all the different phases which
its glorious li~terature%has assumed, it will
be found that of the great men who's
work has won an abiding place in TIN
world Percy Bysshe Shelley will ranl
among the first.
At this centennial time Lady Shelley. b,
whose proud and affectionate efforts S,
much has been don't to vindicate the poe
and to furnish his different %biographer
authentic information, will feel that sh'
is indeed receiving the reward of all he
loving service when she sees how fully tn
world responds to the magnetism of tn
poet who, though dead these seventy Ion.
years, yet speaks to, men and sways then
by his genius. ..,
Though Shelley has never been honore,
by a place in Westminster Abbey, there i
nevertheless a fine monument to his mem
DRY on consecrated ground. In the soutl
of Hampshire, nearly opposite the Isle o
Wight, is the old town of Christchurch
In its parish church, one of the finest speci