‘While Yet a Boy I Sought for Ghosts’: Contexts

This introductory, contextualising chapter provides close readings of Shelley’s youthful writings on death, including ‘To St Irvyne’ (1810), ‘How swiftly through Heaven’s wide expanse’ (1810) and ‘To Death’ (1810), and presents an overview of a range of key texts on death, from classical to contemporary, that were influential, in various ways, on Shelley’s thought. It also provides an overview of the present study.