ADAPTED FROM THE VITA NUOVA OF DANTE.
[Published by Forman, “Poetical Works of P. B. S.”, 1876.]
What Mary is when she a little smiles
I cannot even tell or call to mind,
It is a miracle so new, so rare.
***
The Annotated Edition
ADAPTED FROM THE VITA NUOVA OF DANTE. by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Read aloud in ~1 minOpen reading mode →
This brief excerpt is Shelley’s loose translation of a section from Dante's *Vita Nuova*, where the speaker attempts—though he acknowledges his failure—to capture the moment his beloved smiles.
- Themes
- art, beauty, identity
§01Quick summary
What this poem is about
This brief excerpt is Shelley’s loose translation of a section from Dante's *Vita Nuova*, where the speaker attempts—though he acknowledges his failure—to capture the moment his beloved smiles. The smile is so remarkable that both words and memory fall short. It’s a love poem that ultimately explores the boundaries of language.
§02Themes
Recurring themes
§03Line by line
Stanza by stanza, with notes
What Mary is when she a little smiles / I cannot even tell or call to mind,
Editor's note
The speaker starts by introducing his subject — Mary, who represents Dante's Beatrice — and quickly admits defeat. He struggles to describe her smile and can't even picture it in his mind afterward. This double failure (in speech and memory) is exactly the point: the experience goes beyond anything we have to express it.
It is a miracle so new, so rare.
Editor's note
The closing line focuses on the word *miracle*, elevating a simple human moment into something nearly sacred. The repetition of *so* infuses the line with a breathless, childlike awe — as if the speaker is still in shock. Shelley maintains Dante's religious tone while making it feel deeply personal and urgent.
§04Tone & mood
How this poem feels
Reverent and quietly awestruck. The speaker doesn't exude grand passion — he's truly at a loss, and that sense of helplessness comes across as sincere instead of theatrical. The three lines convey a stillness that feels almost like a moment of devotion.
§05Symbols & metaphors
Symbols & metaphors
- The smile
- The smile represents a beauty that goes beyond words. It's the moment when the beloved's inner grace shines through, and its inability to be fully described makes it feel almost otherworldly.
- Mary / Beatrice
- Mary is Shelley’s version of Dante’s Beatrice. Both characters serve as idealized, almost angelic figures whose value the poet can hint at but never completely express.
- The miracle
- Referring to the smile as a miracle elevates it to a divine and unique status. Miracles, by their nature, defy the usual boundaries — which is precisely why the speaker's everyday language and recollections fall short in capturing it.
§06Historical context
Historical context
Dante Alighieri wrote the *Vita Nuova* around 1294, combining Italian sonnets, canzoni, and prose commentary to explore his love for Beatrice Portinari. This work had a huge impact on European poetry that followed. Shelley, who was fluent in Italian, engaged with Dante throughout his brief life, most notably in *The Triumph of Life*, which he left unfinished when he died in 1822. This fragment loosely adapts a passage where Dante's speaker admits that Beatrice's smile overwhelms both his tongue and memory. Shelley replaces her name with Mary, likely referring to Mary Godwin (who would later become Mary Shelley), with whom he had been involved since 1814. This fragment didn’t get published during Shelley's lifetime; it surfaced later in Harry Buxton Forman's 1876 edition of his collected works, joining the many brief pieces he left in manuscript form.
§07FAQ
Questions readers ask
Almost certainly, Mary Godwin—who later became known as Mary Shelley—replaced her name with Beatrice, the beloved character from Dante's original *Vita Nuova*. This choice adds a personal touch, transforming a translation into something resembling a private love note.
That's the entire point of the poem. The smile is described as a *miracle* — something so far removed from everyday experience that language struggles to express it. This difficulty in describing it actually highlights just how remarkable it is.
It's a piece by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, composed around 1294. It weaves together poems and prose commentary to narrate his love for a woman named Beatrice. This work is among the earliest and most significant in Italian literature, essentially shaping the concept of the idealized, spiritually uplifting beloved that has influenced Western love poetry for centuries.
It's a fragment — just three lines that never turned into a finished work. Shelley left behind a lot of material like this in his manuscripts. Forman published it in 1876, long after Shelley's death, as part of a collected edition. Its short length is part of what makes it intriguing: it captures a single complete thought and then simply ends.
There's no rigid structure here—no rhyme scheme or consistent meter. The lines have a loose iambic quality, but Shelley doesn’t stick to a specific pattern. Since this is a fragment adapted from Italian prose-poetry, that looseness is understandable; he aims for the emotion rather than adhering to a strict English form.
It's much quieter than something like *Epipsychidion*, where Shelley dives into lengthy and intense expressions of ideal love. Here, the restraint is essential — the poem focuses on having nothing to say, which is a stark contrast for a poet celebrated for his lavish use of language.
Shelley had a good grasp of Italian and felt a strong connection to Dante, particularly during his time in Italy from 1818 to 1822. He regarded Dante as one of the greatest visionary poets, who used love and beauty to explore deeper truths. For Shelley, translating passages was both a tribute and a means to engage with ideas that resonated with him on a personal level.
It has a religious tone, inherited from Dante's original work, where Beatrice is truly linked to divine grace. Although Shelley wasn't a Christian, he chose to use the term because it serves its purpose perfectly: it indicates something that transcends the usual rules of the world. Whether you interpret that as something sacred or merely as a strong compliment, the impact remains the same — the smile surpasses ordinary classifications.
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