When in Rome

Shelley enthusiast Professor Sarah Wilson reflects on her recent trip to the Keats and Shelley House in Rome, and why that has cemented her belief that Horsham’s poet also needs a memorial here.

I was privileged to visit the Keats and Shelley House recently, along with the the famous Protestant Cemetery (now called 'acatholica' - non-Catholic) in Rome. Both were touching, and I took many photographs including one beside our beloved poet's simple grave.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born at Field Place, Warnham, near Horsham on August 4th 1792. Shelley came from a well-established Sussex family. His father, Timothy Shelley, was M.P for Horsham from 1790 to 1792 and MP for Shoreham from 1790 and 19792, generations of the Shelley family before him had interests in the area. Shelley spent much of his early life in Horsham but once he left the family home, at the age of nineteen, he rarely returned.

Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave

Shelley died in Italy on 7th July 1822 at the age of 29 when the yacht in which he was sailing became caught in a violent storm in the Gulf of Spezia, Shelley and two others travelling with him drowned. Shelley was cremated on the beach near Viareggio and his ashes buried in the Protest Cemetery of Rome. The gravestone is inscribed with a quote from Ariel’s song in Shakespeare's play ' The Tempest':

'Nothing of him that doth fade: but doth suffer a sea-change into something rich and strange.'

In this bi-centenary year of Shelley's death, the Shelley Memorial Project will be celebrating the great talent of one of the greatest poets in the English language . While it is wonderful to see him celebrated in Rome, it reinforced my commitment to help mark his life here too. We hope you will support our events and our objective of commissioning a permanent, public memorial that will bring Shelley home to Horsham.