nov 5, 1816 - Shelley writes 'The Cold Earth Slept Below'

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Published posthumously in 1823.

There is some controversy about the date that Shelley wrote this poem. His first wife, Harriet, had committed suicide by drowning in the Serpentine. Her body was recovered on the 10th December 1816 and there is a view that The Cold Earth Slept Below refers to her death.

Shelley died in a boating accident in Italy in 1822 and The Cold Earth Slept Below was not published until after his death. It first appeared in Hunt's Literary Pocket-Book [1823], where it is headed "November 1815". It was reprinted in an edition compiled by Shelley's widow, Mary, in a volume with the title Posthumous Poems [1824]. Theories have been advanced that Mary Shelley changed the date written on the manuscript of the poem to 5th November 1815 so that it would seem to have been written prior to Harriet's death and therefore could not have been about her.

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