ABSTRACT
A Fragment' and other pieces dating probably from 1819. Mary published it in 1824 as The Past', and in 1839 and 1840 she added the date T818'. But the poem's mood, together with its nbk context, suggest that these lines, like the preceding items, were written in the difficult period following William's death and Mary's resulting depression and distance from S. Mary's subsequent scattered datings of several such poems may be calculated to draw attention away from their true context in the Shelleys' strained relations in the summer of 1819. More specific date for this poem in the second half of August 1819 might be suggested by its thematic affinity with some passages in S. s' surviving letters from that period. Blossoms which were the joys that fell, and leaves, the hopes that yet remain.
