Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Triumph of Life

Mark Sandy (University of Durham)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.06: English Writing and Culture of the Romantic Period, 1789-1837.
Vol. editors: Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Daniel Robinson (Widener University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1822

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

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At Casa Magni in Lerici, in early summer 1822, Shelley started composition of his final major poem,

The Triumph of Life

, fashioned after Dante's

Divine Comedy

and Petrarch's

Trionfi

. Written in

terza rima

Shelley's last work was never completed, as he was accidental drowned, along with Edward Williams, in a squall on 8 July, during their return voyage from Leghorn. Stressing the significance of this poetical fragment, Mary Shelley included the first published version of

The Triumph of Life

in her edition of Shelley's

Posthumous Poems

(1824).

Shelley's unfinished fragment is characterised by ontological and epistemological speculation about the nature of being and reality. Within the fragment's Dantean dream framework, these philosophical anxieties are evident in Shelley's ambivalent

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1261 words

Citation: Sandy, Mark. "The Triumph of Life". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 September 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7981, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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