{"title":"Percy Bysshe Shelley","description":"\u003cp\u003ePercy Bysshe Shelley was expelled from Oxford at eighteen for co-authoring a pamphlet titled “The Necessity of Atheism.” It was entirely consistent with everything he would do next. He was a radical in every direction available to him: religion, politics, diet, relationships, the structure of society. He came from a wealthy Sussex family, corresponded with William Godwin, eloped with Godwin’s daughter, and spent his years in England under persistent financial pressure and social condemnation before leaving for Italy in 1818. He was twenty-nine when he drowned in the Gulf of Spezia during a storm in 1822. Mary Shelley kept a page of \u003cem\u003eAdonais\u003c\/em\u003e close for the rest of her life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eBorn: August 4, 1792, Horsham, Sussex, England\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eDied: July 8, 1822, Gulf of Spezia, Italy (age 29)\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eEra: Romanticism\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eMajor works: \u003cem\u003eQueen Mab\u003c\/em\u003e (1813), \u003cem\u003ePrometheus Unbound\u003c\/em\u003e (1820), \u003cem\u003eAdonais\u003c\/em\u003e (1821); poems: “Ozymandias,” “Ode to the West Wind,” “To a Skylark,” “Mutability”\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eExpelled from Oxford at eighteen for co-authoring a pamphlet titled “The Necessity of Atheism”\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe poetry he wrote before turning thirty — “Ozymandias,” “Ode to the West Wind,” “To a Skylark,” “Adonais,” the lyric drama \u003cem\u003ePrometheus Unbound\u003c\/em\u003e — is a body of work that would justify a career twice as long. He published almost none of it to a wide audience during his lifetime and was largely ignored where he wasn’t actively condemned. Within a generation of his death, he was canonical. Within a century, “Ozymandias” was the poem people reached for every time power overreached itself and fell.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHis central preoccupation was liberation — political, intellectual, emotional — and the question of whether it was possible to live according to one’s ideals in a world organized against them. He did not resolve this question. He lived it, at great personal cost, for all twenty-nine years he had.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThese words are for the idealists who haven’t given up — and for the ones who needed to hear, from someone who didn’t survive his own convictions, that the convictions were worth holding anyway.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-midnight-moon-p-shelley-mutability-t-shirt","title":"The Midnight Moon — P. Shelley Mutability T-Shirt","description":"\u003cp\u003eShelley wrote this before he was twenty-five. The poem is twelve lines long. The title tells you everything: nothing stays.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePercy Bysshe Shelley, \"Mutability\" (1816)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon...\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShelley wrote \"Mutability\" in 1816, at 24, on a question he'd already been living: if nothing holds still, if everything shifts and passes — what are we? The answer the poem offers isn't despair. It's recognition. We are the clouds. We are the thing that passes across the face of what's permanent, briefly beautiful, briefly obscuring, and then gone. The poem continues, but the line is already finished.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you've ever:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLooked at something beautiful and felt the looking and the losing happen at the same time\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUnderstood that the impermanence of something is part of what makes it matter\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRead a line that trailed off and felt it was more complete for the ellipsis than it would have been with a period\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is for you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Design\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the back: Shelley’s opening image in three lines, unfinished. The ellipsis at the end isn’t a design choice — it’s in the poem. Walking around in it means carrying a sentence that doesn’t close, a thought still moving.\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlso available: \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/quoteiac.com\/products\/the-midnight-moon-p-shelley-mutability-mug\"\u003eThe Midnight Moon Mug\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/quoteiac.com\/products\/the-midnight-moon-p-shelley-mutability-journal\"\u003eThe Midnight Moon Journal\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003ch3\u003eAbout This Tee\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% combed and ring-spun cotton\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFabric weight: 4.2 oz\/yd² (142 g\/m²)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRetail fit, true to size\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSide-seamed construction\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMachine washable, cold water\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eQuoteiac logo on the left sleeve\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWho It's For\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe person who understands impermanence and has stopped fighting it. The reader who finds Shelley returning to them at unexpected moments. The one who looks at the night sky and feels both small and exactly right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBe the cloud. Veil the moon. Keep moving.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003ePercy Bysshe Shelley, in Plain English\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLived: 1792–1822, England — drowned in the Bay of Spezia, Italy, at 29\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\"Mutability\" (1816) is one of his earliest great poems — written at 24, it poses the question the rest of his work spent trying to answer: if everything changes, what can we hold onto?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eExpelled from Oxford at 18 for publishing a pamphlet on atheism; remained a radical thinker in politics, religion, and love for his entire short life\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMarried Mary Godwin — later Mary Shelley, author of \u003cem\u003eFrankenstein\u003c\/em\u003e — after his first wife died; the two were at the center of the most consequential literary circle of the Romantic era\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePublished almost nothing during his lifetime that reached a wide audience; considered one of the greatest lyric poets in English within a generation of his death\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eSize Chart (Bella + Canvas)\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eSize\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eWidth (in)\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eLength (in)\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eXS\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e16.5\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e27\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eS\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e18\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e28\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eM\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e20\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e29\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eL\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e22\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e30\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eXL\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e24\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e31\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e2XL\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e26\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e32\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"Quoteiac","offers":[{"title":"XS","offer_id":42647150657630,"sku":"8089346_21593","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"S","offer_id":42647150690398,"sku":"8089346_21594","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"M","offer_id":42647150723166,"sku":"8089346_21595","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"L","offer_id":42647150755934,"sku":"8089346_21596","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"XL","offer_id":42647150788702,"sku":"8089346_21597","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"2XL","offer_id":42647150821470,"sku":"8089346_21598","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0554\/8664\/4318\/files\/The_Midnight_Moon_Tee_Percy_Bysshe_Shelley.png?v=1776233432"},{"product_id":"the-midnight-moon-p-shelley-mutability-mug","title":"The Midnight Moon — P. Shelley Mutability Mug","description":"\u003cp\u003eShelley wrote \"Mutability\" in his early twenties, before he had much to lose. He still got the feeling exactly right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePercy Bysshe Shelley, \"Mutability\" (1816)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon...\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShelley was 24 when he wrote \"Mutability\" and already understood something most people spend decades avoiding: everything passes, we pass with it, and the right response isn’t grief but clarity. The clouds don’t mourn the moon they’re covering — they keep moving. This is the mug for the morning when you hold something warm and understand it’s temporary — the coffee, the quiet, the hour — and decide that’s exactly what makes it worth holding.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Design\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThree lines of the poem over a warm burnished rule, attribution in warm gray beneath — the same composition wrapping both sides of the mug. The ellipsis trails the way the poem does: not a conclusion, a dissolution. The mood doesn’t pick sides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlso available: the \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/quoteiac.com\/products\/the-midnight-moon-p-shelley-mutability-t-shirt\"\u003eMidnight Moon Tee\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/quoteiac.com\/products\/the-midnight-moon-p-shelley-mutability-journal\"\u003eJournal\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eYour Morning Mutability\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e15 oz — substantial, not a collection piece\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGlossy black ceramic — the ellipsis trails on both sides, no resolution by design\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTwo-sided print — the quote wraps the mug, facing you whether you reach left or right\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDishwasher safe\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMicrowave safe\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWho It’s For\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe person who holds the morning deliberately. The one who has made peace with change. Anyone who has ever looked at something temporary and loved it more for that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHold it. It won’t last. That’s the point.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePercy Bysshe Shelley, in Plain English\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLived: 1792–1822, England\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWrote \"Ode to the West Wind,\" \"Ozymandias,\" \"Adonais,\" and \"To a Skylark\" — each now a standard of the English canon; none widely read while he was alive\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe ellipsis in \"We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon...\" is the original — the poem continues, but the line is already complete; Shelley lets it trail because that’s what transience does\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHis circle included Byron, Keats, and his wife Mary — four people who between them produced more enduring work in a decade than most movements manage in a century\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDrowned at 29 while sailing in a storm off the Italian coast in 1822\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Quoteiac","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42647153115230,"sku":"6315321_9324","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0554\/8664\/4318\/files\/The_Midnight_Moon_Mug_Percy_Bysshe_Shelley.png?v=1776233817"},{"product_id":"the-midnight-moon-p-shelley-mutability-journal","title":"The Midnight Moon — P. Shelley Mutability Journal","description":"\u003cp\u003eShelley wrote “Mutability” before he was twenty-five. The poem is twelve lines. This journal holds whatever it is you need to write before it changes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePercy Bysshe Shelley, \"Mutability\" (1816)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon...\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShelley wrote \"Mutability\" as an argument about impermanence — not a lament, an observation. We are the clouds. We veil the moon briefly, then move on. The poem continues past this line, but this is where most readers stop, because the ellipsis says everything the rest of the poem says at greater length. A journal is where you put the things that are passing before they pass — the thought that won't survive until morning unless you write it down now.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you've ever:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWritten something down because you knew it would be gone if you didn't\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFound that the act of writing a feeling was the only way to hold it still long enough to understand it\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKept a journal not as archive but as witness — proof that the moment existed\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is for that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWriting isn't just recording — it's the act of slowing the cloud down long enough to see it clearly. Shelley's ellipsis trails because everything does. The journal is where you catch it before it goes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Design\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThree lines of the poem sit on a black hardcover, a warm burnished rule beneath them, the attribution in warm gray below. The ellipsis is Shelley’s own — the opening image trailing into the rest of the stanza, which the cover leaves to you. It opens a journal the way a first line opens a poem.\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlso available: \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/quoteiac.com\/products\/the-midnight-moon-p-shelley-mutability-t-shirt\"\u003eThe Midnight Moon Tee\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/quoteiac.com\/products\/the-midnight-moon-p-shelley-mutability-mug\"\u003eThe Midnight Moon Mug\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAbout This Journal\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n5.5″ × 8.5″ hardcover — 120 lined pages, acid-free paper\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eElastic band closure, ribbon bookmark, lay-flat binding\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWho It's For\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe person who writes to catch what's passing. The reader who finds Shelley returning to them unexpectedly. The one who journals because it's the only place time slows down enough to see clearly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWrite it down. The cloud is already moving.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePercy Bysshe Shelley, in Plain English\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLived: 1792–1822, England\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSpent his adult life in self-imposed exile from England — too radical for polite society, too unconventional to be forgiven for it\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\"Mutability\" (1816) is structured as a proof: clouds veil the moon, forgotten melodies haunt us, forgotten thoughts return — everything changes, nothing holds still, and we are no different\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHis ashes are buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, near Keats — two Romantic poets who both died before 30, both abroad, both now in the permanent canon\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKarl Marx kept a copy of Shelley's work on his desk; George Bernard Shaw called him \"a Shelleyan socialist\"; his political writing was as radical as his poetry\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Quoteiac","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42647156228190,"sku":"6937649_16952","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0554\/8664\/4318\/files\/The_Midnight_Moon_Journal_Percy_Bysshe_Shelley.png?v=1776234128"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0554\/8664\/4318\/collections\/percy-bysshe-shelley-portrait.jpg?v=1776232058","url":"https:\/\/quoteiac.com\/collections\/percy-bysshe-shelley.oembed","provider":"Quoteiac","version":"1.0","type":"link"}