Percy Bysshe Shelley, a vegetarian poet

English literature and culture reveals a long and articulate reflection on the adoption of the ‘Pythagorean’ or ‘natural’ diet, which would later become vegetarianism. Established in 1847, the Vegetarian Society was crucial in institutionalizing food and cultural practices that were already well established in England. During the Romantic Age, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s defence of the vegetarian diet significantly shaped his life and reflection. This article explores Shelley’s views on the necessity of adopting a ‘natural’ diet, suggesting that his vegetarianism stemmed from both ethical principles and his knowledge of late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century anatomy. It then argues that in Shelley’s thought Ancient Greek culture and mythology forestalled and illustrated what contemporary anatomy would prove. To this end, this article examines both biographical and poetic evidence taken from Shelley’s letters and works before focusing on his pamphlets ‘A Vindication of Natural Diet’ (1812) and ‘On the Vegetable System of Diet’ (1814-15).