The Triumph of Life

The Triumph of Life, a poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1822 at the Villa Magni in Lerici, Italy, was not completed in Shelley’s lifetime. While it was the last major poem Shelley worked on before his accidental drowning in 1822, The Triumph of Life was published as an unfinished work in Posthumous Poems (1824), with minor edits by his wife, Mary Shelley. The Triumph of Life was inspired by Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (1321) and Francesco Petrarch’s Trionfi (Triumphs) (1351), and Shelley uses the same verse form as these earlier poets: terza rima—stanzas with three lines and a consistent rhyme scheme. Shelley was also inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who appears as a character in The Triumph of Life. The visionary poem explores The Dualities of Life, The Power of Love, and The Power of Nature.

Poet Biography

In 1792, Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in Sussex, England, to a wealthy family. Shelley’s grandfather, Sir Bysshe Shelley, became the 1st Baronet of Castle Goring in 1806. Shelley began studying at Eton College in 1804. In 1810, he enrolled at University College, Oxford, but was expelled the following year for writing and distributing a pamphlet on atheism with Thomas Jefferson Hogg.