Which Romantic poet wrote the lyrical drama 'Prometheus Unbound'?

Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote the lyrical drama “Prometheus Unbound.”

Published in 1820, Shelley’s four-act drama reimagines the ancient Greek myth of Prometheus, the Titan who steals fire for humanity and is punished by Zeus. Shelley’s version does not simply retell the classical story: it imagines Prometheus refusing to submit to tyranny and ultimately being freed after Zeus’s oppressive order collapses.

The work reflects major Romantic concerns, including political liberty, moral idealism, the power of imagination, and the possibility of social transformation. Shelley based the central figure partly on the Prometheus of Aeschylus, but he rejected the reconciliation traditionally associated with the surviving portion of Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound. This makes Shelley’s Prometheus a more uncompromising symbol of resistance to unjust power.

“Prometheus Unbound” is a lyrical drama rather than an ordinary stage play. Shelley wrote it primarily as a work for poetic reading, using songs, spirits, mythological figures, and highly symbolic scenes. A frequent mix-up is confusing it with “Prometheus Bound,” the ancient Greek tragedy traditionally attributed to Aeschylus; Shelley’s poem is a later Romantic reinterpretation, not the original drama.