Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet, 1792-1822. Shelley exemplified English Romanticism in both its extremes of joyous ecstasy and brooding despair, in the way he lived his life and the substantial body of work that he left the world after his legendary death by drowning at age 29 after a sailing accident in Italy. More than any other English Romantic writer, with the possible exception of his friend?Lord Byron, Shelley's life and reputation have had a history and life of their own apart from the reputation of his various works, and one that has continued to evolve long after his death.