Poetry Commentary

This collection of 59 short poems consists of verses, some of them incomplete, which remained unpublished at the time of Shelley’s death. Some of them have become the best known of Shelley’s shorter works. The poems were collated and edited by Mary Shelley, who also wrote an introduction to...

A verse by verse commentary of the King James Bible book of Ruth.

This chilling tale of a gruesome monster unleashed into the world by an unthinking scientist was first conceived by 19-year-old Mary Shelley on a dark, rainy night on Lake Geneva. Lord Byron and Percy Shelley challenged their friends to see who could come up with the most horrifying story imaginable. Mary Shelley did, terrifying them all with her nightmare-inspired tale. It is followed by "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge which was an early haunting influence on the young Mary Shelley.