July 8, 2011
From an eyewitness account of the cremation of Percy Byshhe Shelley by his friend Edward Trelawney: After the fire was well kindled we repeated the ceremony of the previous day; and more wine was poured over Shelley’s dead body than he had consumed during his life. This with the oil and salt made the yellow flames glisten and quiver. The heat from the sun and fire was so intense that the atmosphere was tremulous and wavy. The corpse fell open and the heart was laid bare. The frontal bone of the skull, where it had been struck with the mattock, fell off; and, as the back of the head rested on the red-hot bottom bars of the furnace, the brains literally seethed, bubbled and boiled as in a cauldron, for a very long time. Mmmmm, bubbling brains.

From an eyewitness account of the cremation of Percy Byshhe Shelley by his friend Edward Trelawney:

After the fire was well kindled we repeated the ceremony of the previous day; and more wine was poured over Shelley’s dead body than he had consumed during his life. This with the oil and salt made the yellow flames glisten and quiver. The heat from the sun and fire was so intense that the atmosphere was tremulous and wavy. The corpse fell open and the heart was laid bare. The frontal bone of the skull, where it had been struck with the mattock, fell off; and, as the back of the head rested on the red-hot bottom bars of the furnace, the brains literally seethed, bubbled and boiled as in a cauldron, for a very long time.

Mmmmm, bubbling brains.

6:35pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZHIPLy6uoZ-M
(Notes: 40)
  
Filed under: cremation poets poetry Shelley writers authors 
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    Reminds me of the lines from Queen Mab:“‘twas a sight Of wonder to behold body and soul. The self-same lineaments, the...
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