The Shelley Memorial, University College, Oxford, England

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the most important poets of the Romantic period and is widely regarded as one of the preeminent lyric poets of the English language. Shelley had a short stint at University College at Oxford University before he was unceremoniously expelled for penning a pamphlet titled, “The Necessity of Atheism.” It is rumored that he only attended one lecture in his time at Oxford. Though he died under auspicious circumstances in a boating accident at the age of 29, Shelley’s influence reached into the next several generations of Victorian poets and he was a considerable figure to members of the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

The monument is the work of Edward Onslow Ford, a prominent member of the so-called “New Sculpture”, and the enclosure was designed by Basil Champneys. Recent restoration work has attempted to recreate the original colour scheme of the memorial, so that it can be seen as its sculptor intended.