NOTES TO THE POEMS
P. i'i6, 1. 5. Misfeature: distortion or ugliness — a word
coined by Keats.
On first looking into Chapman's Homer.
P. 116,1. 14. Chapman: an Elizabethan dramatist and
poet. His translation of Homer, in heptameters,
captures something of the spirit and movement of the
original.
1. 17. ^ Cortez: the conqueror of Mexico (1519-1521).
This allusion is a mistake : the Pacific was first seen
by Vasco Balboa (1513).
To Autumn.
P. 117, 1. 28. Sallow : a kind of willow.
P. 118, 1. i. Bourn: boundary, limit. Keats uses the word
here to mean " region."
Autumn.
John Clare (1793-1864), the Northamptonshire peasant-
poet, wrote his earlier poems in the intervals of hard
manual labour in the fields, and his later work in
lucid intervals in a mad-house, to which ill-health,
over-work, and drink had brought him. His best
poems describe with clear natural simplicity and de-
tailed accuracy the life of the country as he knew it.
P. 118, 1. 13. Rig: ridge.
L 19. Cote : dovecote.
1. 24. Lea : field.
Blow, bugle, blow.
This song is taken from " The Princess."
P. 119, 1. 15. Scar: crag.
Home Thoughts, from Abroad.
P. 120, 1. 6. Bole : trunk of a tree.
1. 10. Whitethroat: a small warbler.
1. 19. Dower : dowry.
0 Captain ! My Captain !
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was born at Huntingdon,
Long Island. He began work in a printing office,
and after a varied career, became editor of " The
Brooklyn Eagle " in 1846. In 1855 appeared his great
work, " Leaves of Grass." In the Civil War he acted
as nurse in the Federal army, an experience reflected
in " Drum Taps." He then retired to New Jersey.
His outlook is optimistic without being weak or blind—
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