Mont Blanc

After the discovery of Scrope Davies Notebook, two distinct versions of Mont Blanc became known. The previously known version first appeared as the conclusion of the Shelleys’ joint travelogue, History of a Six Weeks’ Tour, published in 1817. Its text had to be reconstructed from earlier drafts by PBS after the disappearance of SDN. The present version is titled Scene—Pont Pellisier in the vale of Servox and is one line shorter than the other. Unlike the other three poems in SDN, Scene—Pont Pellisier was entered into the notebook by PBS, rather than MWS, presumably because the preceding draft was not sufficiently finished or readily decipherable. Composition on the original version of the poem began at the end of July 1816, when the Shelleys and Claire Clairmont toured the Chamonix Valley, and was completed before the end of August. Draft of the poem can be found in Bod. MS. Shelley adds. e. 16, pp. 3-13. The fair copy of Scene—Pont Pellisier can be accessed below, or in the context of the notebook in which it appears: British Library Loan MS 70/8.