DEATH. by Percy Bysshe Shelley: Summary, Meaning & Analysis
A reformed sinner named Peter Bell falls ill and is informed by his devout friends that he's surely bound for hell.
The poem
1. And Peter Bell, when he had been With fresh-imported Hell-fire warmed, Grew serious—from his dress and mien ’Twas very plainly to be seen Peter was quite reformed. _5 2. His eyes turned up, his mouth turned down; His accent caught a nasal twang; He oiled his hair; there might be heard The grace of God in every word Which Peter said or sang. _10 3. But Peter now grew old, and had An ill no doctor could unravel: His torments almost drove him mad;— Some said it was a fever bad— Some swore it was the gravel. _15 4. His holy friends then came about, And with long preaching and persuasion Convinced the patient that, without The smallest shadow of a doubt, He was predestined to damnation. _20 5. They said—‘Thy name is Peter Bell; Thy skin is of a brimstone hue; Alive or dead—ay, sick or well— The one God made to rhyme with hell; The other, I think, rhymes with you. _25 6. Then Peter set up such a yell!— The nurse, who with some water gruel Was climbing up the stairs, as well As her old legs could climb them—fell, And broke them both—the fall was cruel. _30 7. The Parson from the casement lept Into the lake of Windermere— And many an eel—though no adept In God’s right reason for it—kept Gnawing his kidneys half a year. _35 8. And all the rest rushed through the door And tumbled over one another, And broke their skulls.—Upon the floor Meanwhile sat Peter Bell, and swore, And cursed his father and his mother; _40 9. And raved of God, and sin, and death, Blaspheming like an infidel; And said, that with his clenched teeth He’d seize the earth from underneath, And drag it with him down to hell. _45 10. As he was speaking came a spasm, And wrenched his gnashing teeth asunder; Like one who sees a strange phantasm He lay,—there was a silent chasm Between his upper jaw and under. _50 11. And yellow death lay on his face; And a fixed smile that was not human Told, as I understand the case, That he was gone to the wrong place:— I heard all this from the old woman. _55 12. Then there came down from Langdale Pike A cloud, with lightning, wind and hail; It swept over the mountains like An ocean,—and I heard it strike The woods and crags of Grasmere vale. _60 13. And I saw the black storm come Nearer, minute after minute; Its thunder made the cataracts dumb; With hiss, and clash, and hollow hum, It neared as if the Devil was in it. _65 14. The Devil WAS in it:—he had bought Peter for half-a-crown; and when The storm which bore him vanished, nought That in the house that storm had caught Was ever seen again. _70 15. The gaping neighbours came next day— They found all vanished from the shore: The Bible, whence he used to pray, Half scorched under a hen-coop lay; Smashed glass—and nothing more! _75
A reformed sinner named Peter Bell falls ill and is informed by his devout friends that he's surely bound for hell. In a fit of rage and blasphemy, he dies, only for the Devil to appear in a storm and take him away. This darkly comic story-poem satirizes religious hypocrisy and the fire-and-brimstone preaching that frightens rather than comforts. Shelley narrates the tale with a serious tone but a mischievous grin.
Line-by-line
And Peter Bell, when he had been / With fresh-imported Hell-fire warmed,
His eyes turned up, his mouth turned down; / His accent caught a nasal twang;
But Peter now grew old, and had / An ill no doctor could unravel:
His holy friends then came about, / And with long preaching and persuasion
They said—'Thy name is Peter Bell; / Thy skin is of a brimstone hue;
Then Peter set up such a yell!— / The nurse, who with some water gruel
And the Parson from the casement lept / Into the lake of Windermere—
And all the rest rushed through the door / And tumbled over one another,
And raved of God, and sin, and death, / Blaspheming like an infidel;
As he was speaking came a spasm, / And wrenched his gnashing teeth asunder;
And yellow death lay on his face; / And a fixed smile that was not human
Then there came down from Langdale Pike / A cloud, with lightning, wind and hail;
And I saw the black storm come / Nearer, minute after minute;
The Devil WAS in it:—he had bought / Peter for half-a-crown;
The gaping neighbours came next day— / They found all vanished from the shore:
Tone & mood
The tone is consistently satirical and darkly comic, with Shelley maintaining a straight narrative face as the events become more absurd. The final storm stanzas carry a genuine sense of menace, which gives the comedy real weight—it's not just mockery; it's mockery that bites. The narrator's casual remark at the end that he heard everything from an old woman adds a layer of ironic detachment, keeping the entire poem at a distance from sincerity.
Symbols & metaphors
- The storm from Langdale Pike — The storm is a genuine weather event in the Lake District and also serves as the Devil's vehicle. It embodies the supernatural outcome that the holy friends foresaw but couldn't manage — divine or diabolical judgment coming on its own terms, rather than theirs.
- The half-scorched Bible — Left behind under a hen-coop after the Devil's storm, the Bible symbolizes the divide between outward religious practices and true faith. It survived, but just barely, in a rather undignified spot — a fitting representation of the hollow piety the poem critiques.
- Peter's fixed inhuman smile — The death-mask grin suggests damnation, yet it also reflects the face of someone who has ceased to pretend. After a life of feigned holiness and a death marked by raw honesty, Peter's final expression remains ambiguous — neither saved nor merely lost.
- The nasal twang and oiled hair — These physical details represent the entire system of outward religious conformity. Shelley uses them to illustrate that Peter's reform was merely a performance, not a genuine belief — which intensifies the friends' cruelty at his deathbed.
- Half-a-crown — The price the Devil pays for Peter's soul is shockingly low. It turns the serious theological struggle of damnation into a trivial deal, suggesting that Peter — and, by extension, the entire fire-and-brimstone system that influenced him — was never worth much at all.
Historical context
Shelley wrote this poem as a satirical addition to his longer mock-epic *Peter Bell the Third* (1819), which parodies Wordsworth's serious narrative poem *Peter Bell*. A committed atheist and radical, Shelley held a strong disdain for what he perceived as the coercive, fear-driven religion of his time—especially Calvinist predestination and the evangelical revival that was gaining momentum in early nineteenth-century England. The poem’s setting in the Lake District (Windermere, Langdale Pike, Grasmere) directly references Wordsworth's region, making the satire both geographical and literary. Shelley was also reacting to the political conservatism he associated with the older Romantic poets, whom he believed had strayed from their initial radical ideals. This poem was not published during his lifetime; Shelley drowned in 1822 at the young age of 29.
FAQ
Peter Bell is a character from a poem by William Wordsworth, published in 1819. Shelley had issues with Wordsworth's political views and the poem's moralizing tone, which led him to create *Peter Bell the Third* as a parody. The short poem titled *Death* serves as the final section of that longer work — it presents Peter's demise in a darkly comic tale of damnation.
It's about death on the surface, but the real focus is on religious hypocrisy. Shelley uses Peter's deathbed scene to critique the kind of piety that goes through the motions of holiness without truly feeling it, and the kind of theology that judges a dying man instead of offering him comfort. Death sets the stage; organized religion is what we're really looking at.
Predestination is a Calvinist belief that God has determined your fate—whether you'll be saved or damned—before you were even born, and your actions can't alter this outcome. Shelley views this concept as both cruel and absurd, illustrating its harshness by having Peter's friends convey this judgment to a sick, frightened man, as though they’re doing him a kindness.
Completely intentional. Shelley employs farce — like the nurse tumbling down the stairs, the parson jumping into Windermere, and the eels — to puncture the self-importance of the religious figures. The humor lies in the fact that those who profess to comprehend God and death act like slapstick characters as soon as reality hits.
It's an intentionally ironic choice. After crafting a vivid and detailed deathbed scene, Shelley reveals that the narrator wasn't present — he heard the story from an unnamed old woman. This diminishes the authority of everything we've just read and, in turn, pokes fun at how religious stories and moral tales are often shared as if they were facts.
"The gravel" was a common term in the nineteenth century for kidney stones or urinary tract stones, which can be both painful and sometimes fatal. Shelley employs this term not only for the comedic rhyme with "unravel" and "travel" but also because it's an intentionally undignified ailment for a man of supposed holy stature to endure.
Half-a-crown was a small coin—about the price of a simple meal. The humor lies in the fact that Peter's soul, despite the heavy theological implications, is worth nearly nothing. It also pokes fun at the Faust legend, where the Devil typically makes a grand deal. In this case, the transaction feels trivial and commercial, highlighting Shelley's critique of the entire system.
The Lakes — Windermere, Langdale Pike, Grasmere — are where Wordsworth feels at home. By placing Peter's damnation in this setting, Shelley adds a geographical twist to the satire: it’s a jibe aimed at both Wordsworth and Peter. The landscape that Wordsworth revered becomes the stage for a chaotic Devil-storm and a burned Bible under a hen-coop.