Percy Bysshe Shelley letter to Joseph Severn, p.2

Percy Bysshe Shelley, letter to Joseph Severn, 29 November 1821, p. 2. MA 790.2. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1911.

Transcription: 

p. 2

poet, & the total neglect & obscurity in
which the astonishing remnants of his
mind still lie, was hardly to be dissipated
by a writer, who, however he may
differ from Keats in more important
qualities, at least resembles him in
that accidental one, a want of popularity.
     I have little hope therefore that the
Poem I sent you will excite any attention
nor do I feel assured that a critical
notice of his writings would find a
single reader. But for these considerations
it had been my intention to have
collected the remnants of his compositions
& to have published with them with a
life & criticism.– Has he left any
poems or writings of whatever kind, &
in whose possession are they? Perhaps
you would oblige me by information
on this point.—
     Many thanks for the picture you
promise me: I shall consider it