ABSTRACT
This chapter uses formalist techniques to undo formalist assumptions, bringing out the way Shelley's late lyrics to or about Jane Williams problematise their status as poems. William Keach describes his approach as 'formalist', an approach he defends on the grounds that 'Criticism of Shelley's poetry may be said to have gone beyond formalism without ever having been there'. If Shelley had somehow been able to seal off his last lyrics from sexual, domestic and personal literary perturbations, they would be less important demonstrations of his distinctive, unsettled brilliance. The lyrics of 1822 transgress the boundary separating words from deeds. It is a deed, an act which springs from but also might be expected to cause suffering, for Shelley to make Jane Williams fill in the missing name at the end of 'The Recollection' when he gave the poems to her.
