ABSTRACT
Composed 4 May 1818 (as dated in 1824) at an inn in the mountains midway between Modena and Barbarino di Mugello. This was the eve of the fourth anniversary of Shelley’s first meeting with Mary Godwin after her return from Dundee, which explains the second of her jnl entries: ‘May 4 … we begin to ascend the mountains and sleep in a solitary inn among them Tuesday May 5 Our day is passed in passing the mountains’ (Mary Jnl i 208).
