‘A Masque For Shelley’ is a poetic monologue celebrating the life and work of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Giving voice to the bronze bust erected in Viareggio, Italy close to where to where he drowned and where his body was later cremated it seeks to reconcile the poet with those he left behind and justify his place in the modern age where statues are toppled and free speech is weaponised.
Visited first by Mary Shelley and then by his first wife Harriet the author challenges the silent statue to account for his actions provoking a poetic odyssey that tells of Shelley’s ten days twisting in the waves, “his stormy going out, his short blown course and slow return to shore.”
JAN NOBLE 