It was P. B. Shelley’s birthday a couple of days ago, and
so my Twitter and Facebook feeds were filled with snippets of his poetry, various
articles, and several pictures of the birthday boy himself (including one of
Shelley surrounded by celebratory confetti and streamers – I’m looking at you, @1815now). There were, of course, numerous images of the University College
sculpture and the famous Amelia Curran portrait, so I was interested to see that
the Keats-Shelley House in Rome had taken a different angle and shared an
image of the ‘Rising Universe’ fountain in Horsham, West Sussex.
Otherwise known as the Shelley Fountain (or, among some
locals, the Cornish Pasty), this sculpture by Angela Conner was installed in
1996 to commemorate the bicentenary of the birth of Shelley, who was from
Horsham. The fountain is made up of a large globe mounted on a pillar; the
globe slowly rises and falls, releasing a torrent of water at intervals. Or at
least it’s meant to: the fountain was switched off for some time in order to
save water, and then shortly after it was switched back on, it broke. The
fountain’s water feature has not functioned properly since 2013. Horsham
District Council has been discussing the future of the 'Rising Universe' over the past
12 months, and has looked into the cost of scrapping it, but no decisions appear to have been made yet.
The fountain attracted a lot of controversy when it was first installed, and it continues to do so. A quick google reveals the strong feelings
that locals have about the sculpture, with various residents of Horsham
describing it as ‘ugly’, ‘obtrusive’, and a ‘waste of money’. Indeed, in 2011
the landmark was named ‘the ugliest fountain in the world’ by Google. Some feel
that a work of art commemorating Shelley just isn’t relevant any more, with one
local describing the poet as ‘rarely read today’ before concluding that ‘It’s
the 21st century and a contemporary theme should be found’.
As someone who grew up in Horsham, I would argue that
this sculpture has an important function and should be kept. Far from being
irrelevant, it serves to introduce each new generation to Shelley’s work. I was
12 years old when the fountain was installed, and I remember being fascinated
by the extract from ‘Mont Blanc’ that appears on a plaque on the sculpture:
The everlasting universe of things
Flows through the mind, and rolls its rapid waves,
Now dark – now glittering – now reflecting gloom –
Now lending splendour, where from secret springs
The source of human thought its tribute brings
Of waters, – with a sound but half its own,
Such as a feeble brook will oft assume
In the wild wood, among the mountains lone,
Where waterfalls around it leap for ever,
Where woods and winds contend, and a vast river
Over its rocks ceaselessly bursts and raves.
I hadn’t come across Shelley’s poetry before, and I can’t
say that I felt I completely understood these lines, but I could nevertheless
see their power and energy reflected in Conner's sculpture. I went away and looked up Shelley
in the copy of the New Dragon Book of Verse that I used to borrow from the
library and found ‘Ozymandias’; again, I wasn’t quite sure what it all meant,
but it stayed with me. I should imagine that I haven't been the only person over the years to be inspired to find out more about Shelley by the fountain, and think it would be a great shame if we lost this public acknowledgement of his life and work.
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| Horsham Museum |
In many ways, I don’t think that Horsham does enough to
celebrate its links with one of the greatest Romantic poets – I don’t remember
ever being told about him in school, for example. An exception to this is the wonderful Shelley Gallery at the local museum, which offers a really interesting
collection of artefacts (including a rare bronze bust of Shelley), manuscripts, and first editions. The museum has a very dedicated curator in Jeremy
Knight, who over the past 25 years has done a tremendous job in building up one
of the largest collections on Shelley in the country. People won't seek out this collection, though, if they don't know who Shelley is, which is why we need a public monument such as the 'Rising Universe'.
So I’m with Keats-Shelley House on this one, and agree
that the Shelley Fountain is a fascinating and important work that deserves to
stay. I reckon that Shelley would have really liked it, too; he certainly would have enjoyed all the controversy he'd caused!
