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THE POEMS OF
JOHN KEATS
THE POEMS
OF
JOHN KEATS
EDITED
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
AND NOTES BY
E. DE S^LINCOURT
WITH A FRONTISPIECE
IN PHOTOGRAVURE
?
NEW YOEK
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
1905.
THIS EDITION OF A
FAVOURITE POET
THE FIRST THAT WE ENJOYED TOGETHER
I SHOULD LIKE TO DEDICATE
TO
MY WIFE
PREFACE
THE present edition of the Poetns of Keats aims'at i-bpro-
ducing, except foi- obvious errors, the exact text of the
three volumes published in the poet's Iffi^time; and at giving for
the rest of his work what' seems to be the most appttrved' text.
I have left the irregularities of orthography as I found them in the
fii-st editions, and have neither consistently modernised theim,
nor followed Mi-. Forman in altering the spelling of certain words
so as to make them fit in with what appears to be Keats's usual
foi'm. Keats's predUection for Elizabethan spelling does not seem
to me to justify its introduction in passages where he did not
actually employ it, iand it is at least no more chai-acteristic of
him than his fluctuations between the modem and archaic
spelling of the same word, which are noticeable brith in his
MSS. and in his printed poems. Similarly; I have not attempted
to revise the printing of the -'d or -ed of the past participles.
It is cleai', as Mr. Fonnan shows, that Keats's "intention,
speaking broadly, was to print -ed when that syllable was to
be pronounced, and to I'eplace the e by an apostrophe in the
opposite case " ; it is clear also that such a i-ule was not con-
sistently canied out. But it is often impossible to decide
whether Keats wished the syllable to be dropped enth-ely, oi-
whether he desired a slightly dissyllabic effect as a variation of
his metre, or even whether, as is quite possible, by the retention
of the e he wished to indicate that the previous syllable should
be slightly lingered over in reading. It is probable also that
Keats would consult the eye as well as the ear in deciding which
form to employ, and be would naturally shi-ink frcna printir^
such words as d^d or ey'd. Moreover it must be remembered
viii PREFACE
that he had eveiy opportunity for coiTecting his proofs, and
such proof copies of his poems as are now extant show that he
not only coiTected them with some care, but also obtained the
help of fiiends in their coiTection. It is hardly likely therefore
that he would have left as many as sixty incon-ectly printed in
Endymkm, and yet Mx. Forman, in reducing the fonn of Keats's
past participles to rule, has found it necessaiy to alter this
number.
A word must be said in explanation, and if need be in
defence, of the arrangement of the Posthumous and FtigiUve
Poems. It is a practice widely followed by modem scholarship
to collect under this head every sa'ap of verse that can be dis-
covered, and to produce the whole under the title of " Poems,"
and there is much to be said for the aiTangement. On the
other hand, I cannot help agi-eeing with Mr. Colvin that to
print snatches of doggerel and nonsense-vei'ses, such as are to be
found in the Lettere of Keats, "gi'avely, among the poetical
works, is to punish the levities of genius too hard," and I am
convinced that when the Ode to Mam shares a page with Dawlish
Fair, and La Belle Damie sans Merci is immediately preceded
by Two or Three Posies, as the dates of composition demand, the
mind is not attuned to their proper appreciation, and chi-ono-
logical accui'acy is bought at a heavy price.
Accoi-dingly I have relegated to an Appendix those verses
which do not seem to me to be worthy of the name of poetiy,
and would not, we may be sure, have been published by Keats
as such ; the remainder I have aii-anged as far as possible on the
principles which actuated the poet in the an-angement of his
volumes of 1817 and 1820. The FaU of Hyperion is placed first,
for pure convenience, that it may stand next to Hyperion ,• it is
followed by the other nan-ative poems, then by the Odes, by the
Sonffs and Lyrics, by the Epistle to Reynolds, then by the
Sonnets and the Dramas. The chronological table on pp. 564-8
will, perhaps, atone for this in the eyes of those who pi-efer tJhe other
plan. The Appendix is strictly ckronologicaL It contains much
vei-se which could well, I think, be spared, and it is only added
to satisfy, those readei-s who like to possess not merely what their
PREFACE ix
author wished to be preserved, but that which he would willmgly
have let die. Even so, it is not quite complete, for certain of
the poems are still copyiight ; but Mr. Forman, with character-
istic generosity, has allowed me to print one or two of these
which possess a literary as distinct &om a purely pei-sonal
interest, and they contain euQugh to show how badly Keats could
write when he was not inspired.
The same feeling as prompted the arrangement of the text
has induced me to place the notes at the end of the volume,
rather than, as would perhaps have been more convenient, at
the bottom of the page. " Here are the poems," wrote Keats,
in despatching to his brother in America some of his latest com-
positions, "they will explain themselves — as all poetry should
do, without any comment;" and though notes may sometimes
add to GUI- knowledge in such a way that we return to the text
with a fuller appreciation and a wider power of sympathy, for
once that they are consulted the poems wiU be read many times,
and in moods — those moods, indeed, in which poetry makra its
surest appeal — when all explanatory comments are a source of
weaiiness and mitation. The notes are both textual and illus-
trative. The record of textual variations makes no pretence at
being exhaustive ; for a complete account of the difiFerent
forms through which the poems passed before Keats left them
Ml". Forman's edition will always remain the exact and unim-
peachable authority, and it would have been wholly unnecessaiy,
even if the material at my disposal had made it possible, for
me to attempt again what has already been so admii'ably done.
I have been content, therefore, with recording those variants
which are espepially interesting in the light they throw upon
the poet's powers of self-criticism, and upon the gradual growth,
as it were, of a work of art to the form in which the artist
thought fit to give it to the world. However, the fii-st version
of the Ode to a Nightirigale, which has come to light since the
publication of Mr. Fonnan's edition, is given in eveiy detail
The eai'lier drafts of the poems of Keats ai'e of pai-ticulai' value
in that he had no opportunities, as, e^., had Wordsworth or
Tennyson, to revise his work after its first publication.
X PREFACE
But the main object of the notes, introduction, and ap-
pendices is to discuss and illustrate the relation of Keats with his
predecessoi-s, and to establish the sources of his inspii'ation. The
subject is one of special interest and special importance to a
study of Keats, and much has from time to time been written
incidentally upon it; but it has never, I thinkj been treated
systematically in all its bearings upon the spirit of his work and
upon its subject mattei-, style, and vocabulary. Yet such a
srtudy^ as it seems to me, affords one of the surest methods by
which we may come to undei'stand that essential element of
original ' genius by vii-tue of which Keats is among the veiy
greatest of our poets.
The last and one of the most agi-eeable duties of an editor is
to place on record his obligations to those scholars, both dead
and living, who have aided him in his task. The editors and
mtics of Keats, judged as a whole, have amply atoned for
the delinquencies of their eai'liest predecessors, and a poet who
has formed the study, to mention no others, of Charles Cowden
Clarkej Leigh Hunt, Lord Houghtcm, Mrs. Owen, Matthew
Arnold, the late Mr. W. T. Arnold, Mr. Robei-t Bridges, Mi-.
Buxton Forman, and Mr. Sidney Colvin has been fortunate
indeed. To all of these my debt is necessarily great, and has
been acknowledged whenever I have been conscious of it. But
to the last two I am under a special obligation ; to Mr. Forman
for his permission, already refen-ed to, to print certain of the
poems of which he possesses the copyright, in particular the
beautiful fragment to be found on p. 254, to adopt any of
his corrections and emendations in the text of Keats (notably in
Endymion and Otho) and also to incorporate in my notes certain
characteiTstic rejected passages fix)m Emh^mion and Lamia which
are given in his edition, and either ai-e based upon MSS. in his
possession or were otherwise inaccessible to me; to Mr. Colvin
not only for placing at my disposal all the valuable manuscript
mateiial in his keeping,^ but also for his active intei'est in my
' Particularly thie Woodhouse Commonplace Book and Keats's Journal Letters to
America, which contain manuscript copies of many of the poems and supply many
variant readings.
PREFACE xi
book, which has been the greatest encotu'agement to me in its
preparation. I have always found him i-eady to discuss with me
any problems connected with the life and work of Keats which I
have ventured to submit to him, and I am conscious how greatly
I have profited by his ripe judgment and his unrivalled
knowledge of the subject.
I should like also to express my thanks to Mr. Boui'dillon for
allowing me to make use of his copy of the Poems of 1817, with
its interesting annotations in the handwriting of Woodhouse, to
Professor A. C. Bradley and Mr. Gilbert Mun-ay for then*
kindness in reading my MS. and making several valuable
suggestions, and to the editoi-s of the New English Dictionary for
allowing me to consult their unpublished material upon one or
two difficult words. Finally my thanks ai-e due to several
pei-sonal friends, particulai-ly to my old pupil Miss Helen
Darbishh-e, of Somerville College, who has called my attention to
many interesting pai'allels between Keats and his predecessore, of
which I have availed myself in the notes, and has othei-wise given
me much valued assistance, and to Mr. H. S. Milford, who has
I'ead my proofs and allowed me to benefit by his special know-
ledge and expei-ience. Without then- help my book would be
faultier than it is ; for its faults I alone am responsible.
Oxford,
August, J 904
P.S. — This volume was on point of publication when two
impoi-tant MSS. came to light — ^tiie autograph MS. of Hyperion
and the Woodhouse transcript of The Fail of Hyperion and
other poems. The first has preserved for us many earlier readings
of Hyperion of intense interest in a study of Keats's art, the
second enables us to con-ect the printed text of The Fall of
Hyperion in several important places, and adds twenty-one new
lines, whilst among the minor poems at the end of the MS. aie
two which have not been published before. This edition was
therefore held back in oi-der that I might avail myself of the new
material. As much of the volume had already been printed off
it was found impossible to alter the text, but the new matter has
xii PREFACE
been incorporated in the notes, and one or two minor poems
added as Addenda to Posthumous avd Fugitive Poems (11). My
deepest thanks are due to Lord Crewe for his kindness in placing
the Woodhouse ti'anscript, which is in his possession, at my
disposal. I must also express my gi'atitude to Mr. G. Locker-
Lampson for allowing me to examine the valuable Keats MSS.
in his collection.
Oxford,
December, 1904
CONTENTS
PAGE
Intboduction xix
Achievements of Keats's genius in contrast with the limitations of his life {ax)—
Educative importance of his study of the English poets (xx) — Special value
of an investigation of their influence upon him (xx) — Early life (xx) —
Influence upon him of Charles Cowden Clarke (xxi) — His introduction to
Spenser (xxi) — Influence of eighteenth-century Spenserians on his early poetry
(xxii) — First reading of Chapman's Bomer, of Milton, Fletcher, and Browne
(xxiii)— Introduction to Leigh Hunt (zziii) — Hunt's conception of poetic style
and versification embodied in T?ie Story of Bimini and its preface (xxiv) —
Affinity between Hunt and Keats (xxvi) — Expansion of Keats's genius, and
exaggeration of its worst tendencies under Hunt's influence (xxvii) — The 1817
volume, its failures and its promise (xxlx).
Emancipation from Hunt's influence (xxx) — ^Poetic regeneration under the in-
fluence of Shakespeare and Wordsworth (xxxii) — Nature of Shakespeare's
influence upon his mind and art (xxzii) — Influence of William Wordsworth
upon his thought and upon the development of his poetic ideals (xxxv) —
Growth of these ideals traced through Sle^ and Poetry (zzziz) — JBndymion,
Hyperion, and Lamia (xl).
Attitude to Greek art suggested by his choice and treatment of Greek themes in
these poems (xliii) — Fruit of his study of the Elgin Marbles in his mastery
over statuesque effect (xliii) — Elizabethan poetry not Lempridre's Dictionary
the source of his classical knowledge and inspiration (xlv) — His attitude
towards Greek literature essentially romantic not classic (xlvi) — Characteristic
style of his three great poems upon Greek themes determined by influence
of different English poets (xlvi) — Endymion: influence of Spenser and
eighteenth-century Spenserians on style and structure (xlvii) — Hyperion:
influence of Milton on style and structure (xlix) — Assertion of Keats's in-
dependent genius and rejection of Miltonic model in FaXL of Hyperion (li) —
La/mia : influence of Dryden on style and construction : its highest poetic
merits to be found in romantic elements (lii).
Full expression of the romantic qualities of Keats's genius in the poems of mediseval
inspiration (Uv) — ItalbeUa, or The Pat of Baiil (liv) — JEve of St, Agnei:
the influence of Chatterton and Spenser (Iv) — Xa Belle Dame sons Herd:
highwater mark of romantic poetry reached (Ivii).
xiv CONTENTS
Interpretation of human life the goal of Keats's poetic ambition : his qualifioationg
as a dramatist (lix)— Full and independent expression of his genius in the
Odes (lix)— Close kinship of the Odes in style and thought (Ix)— OtJe to a
NigUmgaZe (ix.)—Ode on a Grecian Urn (Ixi)— Ode on Melanehaly (Ixi)— Oife
on Indolence (hd) — To Autwmn (Ixi).
Keats's poetic treatment of Nature (Ixii)— Artistic presentation : fidelity to actual
observation and impression : Nature viewed under terms of human emotion
(Ixiu)— Keats's affinity to Greek attitude towards Nature (Ixv)— Essentially
romantic element in his view of Nature (Ixvi) — His conception of Nature's
ultimate ^meaning for man (Ixvii).
PAOE
POEMS PUBLISHED IN 1817
Dedication. To Leigk Hunt, Esq 2
" I stood tip-toe upon a little hill " 3
Specimen of an Induction to a Poem 8
Calidore. A Fragment 10
To Some Ladies 14
On receiving a curious Shell, and a Copy of Verses, from the
same Ladies 15 "
To ♦**♦(« Hadst thou liv'd in daysof old") .... 16
To Hope 18
Imitation of Spenser 19
" Woman ! when I behold thee flippant, vain " . . . .20
Epistles —
To George Felton Mathew 22
To my Brother George 24
To Charles Cowden Clarke 27
Sonnets
I. To my Brother George 31
II. To ***** * (" Had I a man's fair form ") . . . 31
III. Written on the day that Mr. Leigh Hunt left Prison . 32
IV. " How many bards gild the lapses of time ! " . . .32
V. To a Friend who sent me some Roses .... 33
VI. To G. A. W. (G«orgiana Augusta Wylie) ... 33
VIL"0 Solitude! if I must with thee dwell " ... 34
VIII. To my Brothers 34
IX. " Keen, fitful gusts are whisp'ring here and there " . 35
X. " To one who has been long in city pent " . . .35
XI. On first looking into Chapman's Homer .... 36
XII. On leaving some Friends at an early Hour ... 36
XIII. Addressed to HaydOn 37
XIV. Addressed to the Same 37
XV. On the Grasshopper and Cricket 38
XVI. To Kosciusko 38
iXVIL "Happy is England!" ^ 39
/Sleep and Poetry 4(i
CONTENTS XV
PAGE
ENDYMION. A Poetic Romance
Preface 52
Book I 53
Book II 75
Book III 98
Book IV 122
LAMIA, ISABELLA, THE EVE OF ST. AGNES, AND OTHER
POEMS 145
Lamia. Part I 147
Lamia. Part II 156
Isabella or the Pot of Basil. A Story from Boccaccio. . . 164
The Eve of St. Agnes . . . 180
Ode to a Nightingale 191
(!>fle on a Grecian Urn 194
Ode to Psyche 196
Fancy 198
Ode ("Bards of Passion and of Mirth") . . . . . 201
Lines on the Mermaid Tavern 202
Robin Hood. To a Friend 203
To Autumn 205
^Pde on Melancholy 206
Hyperion. A Fragment
Book I . . . 207
Book II 215
Book III 224
POSTHUMOUS AND FUGITIVE POEMS
The Fall of Hyperion. A Vision. Canto I . . . .229
Canto II 239
The Eve of Saint Mark 241
La Belle Dame sans Merci 244
Odes
Fragment of an Ode to Maia, May, 1818 . . .248
On Indolence 249
To Fanny 261
To (" What can I do to drive away ") . . . 263
Lines supposed to have been addressed to Fanny Brawne . 264
Songs and Lyrics
On . . . ("Think not of it, sweet one, so") . . . 266
Lines ("Unfelt, unheard, unseen") 265
"Where's the Poet.?" 256
" Welcome joy, and welcome sorrow " 266
On a Lock of Milton's Hair . , 267
xvi CONTENTS
PAGE
POSTHUMOUS AND FUGITIVE POEMS— Continued
What the Thrush said 258
Faery Songs. I. " Shed no tear ! " 269
Faery Songs. II. " Ah ! woe is me ! " . . • • 269
Daisy's Song 260
Song ("The stranger lighted from his steed") . . j 260
"Asleep! O sleep a little whUe" . . . . .261
" Where be ye going, you Devon maid ? " . . . . 261
Meg Merrilies . . . ■- 261
8ta£Fa .262
A Prophecy. To tis brother George in America . ' . 264
Song (" In a drear-nighted December ").... 266
Song ("Hush, hush! tread softly!") 266
Song ("I had a dove") 266
Song of Four Fairies .267
Epistle to John Hamilton Reynolds 270
Sonnets ;
I. " Oh ! how I love " 273
II. "After dark vapours" 273
III. Written on the blank space of a leaf at the end of
Chaucer's tale of The Flowre and the Lefe . . 274
IV. To Haydon 274
V. On seeing the Elgin Marbles for the first time . . 276
VI. On a Picture of Leander 276
VII. On the Sea 276
VIII. On Leigh Hunt's, Poem, The Story of Rimini . . 276
IX. On sitting down to read King Lear once again . . 277
X. "When I have fears" 277
XI. To the Nile 278
Xn. To Spenser 278
XIII. To ("Time's sea") .279
XIV. Answer to a Sonnet by J. H. Reynolds . . . 279
XV. " O that a week could be an age " .... 280
XVI. The Human Seasons 280
XVII. To Homer 281
XVIIL On Visiting the Tomb of Burns 281
XIX. To Ailsa Rock . 282
XX. Written upon Ben Nevis 282
XXI. Written in the Cottage where Burns was bom . . 283
XXII. Fragment of a sonnet (translated from Ronsard) . . 283
XXIII. To Sleep . . .284
XXIV. "Why did I laugh to-night?" 284
XXV. On a Dream 286
CONTENTS xvii
PAGE
POSTHUMOUS AND FUGITIVE POEMS— Continued
Sonnets
XXVI. On Fame (I) 285
XXVII. On Fame (II) 286
XXVIII. " If by dull Thymes our English must be chain'd" . 286
XXIX. "The day is gone" 287
XXX. " I cry your mercy— pity— love!" . . . .287
XXXI. Written on a Blank" Page in Skakespeare's Poems,
facing A Lover's Complaint 288
Otho the Great. A Tragedy in five Acts
Act I 291
Act II 303
Act III 312
Act IV 321
ActV 330
King Stephen. A Dramatic Fragment
Act I 341
APPENDIX. POSTHUMOUS AND FUGITIVE POEMS (II)
On Death 347
Sonnet : To Byron 347
Sonnet : To Chatterton 348
Ode to Apollo 348
Sonnet : To a Young Lady who sent me a Laurel Crown . . 349
Hymn to Apollo 350
Sonnet (" As from the darkening gloom ") 361
Sonnet : Written in Disgust of Vulgar Superstition . . . 351
On Oxford. A Parody 351
Modern Love 352
Fragment of "The Castle Builder" 352
Sonnet: To a Cat 353
A Draught of Sunshine (" Hence Burgundy, Claret, and Port ") 353
Extracts from an Opera 354
Song ("Spirit here that reignest!") 355
" Here all the Summer " 366
"Over the Hill and over the Dale" .'.'.... 367
Acrostic 367
Lines written in the Highlands 368
Spenserian Stanza 359
An Extempore 369
Spenserian Stanzas on Charles Armitage Brown .... 361
A Party of Lovers 362
The Cap and Bells ; or. The Jealousies. A Faery Tale . . 363
b
xviii CONTENTS
PAGE
ADDENDA : POEMS FOUND IN THE WOODHOUSE TRAN-
SCRIPT OF THE FALL OF HYPERION AND OTHER
POEMS
" Fill for me a brimming bowl " 383
SQng("St»y, rubj-hreaSted Wiarbler, stay") . . • .384
On Peace 384
To Emma 385
NOTES, Etc.
The Poems of 1817 387
Endymion. Introduction 410
Endymion. Notes to Book I 420
Endymion. Notes to Book II 429
Endymion. Notes to Book III 436
Endymion. Notes to Book IV 443
Lamia, Isabella, etc.
Lamia. Parti 453
Lamia. Part II 467
Isabella ,. . i 460
The Eve of St. Agnes 464
Poems published with Lamia, etc. 472
Hyperion. Introduction 484
Hyperion. Notes to Book I 495
Hyperion. Notes to Book JI 604
Hyperion. Notes to Book III 612
Posthumous and Fugitive Poems
The Fall of Hyperioa 516
The Eve of St. Mark 626
La Belle Dame sans Merci 526
Ofles, qtc 529
So.ngs and Lyrics 532
Epistle to John Hamilton Reynolds 637
Sonnets 640
Otho the Great 561
King Stephen 556
Aj)pendix. Posthumous and Fugitive Poems (II) . . . 656
Addenda. Poems found in Woodhouse Traiiscript . . . 662
Appendix B. Chronological Table of the Life of John Keats . 664
Note on Date of Hunt's First Acquaintance with Keats . 568
Aj)pendix C. On the Sources of Keats's Poetic Vocabulary . 670
Glossary . . . .■; ■. 685
Index op Titles and First Lines op Poems 601
Gbnisral Index 607
INTRODUCTION
WHEN Shelley, in a metaphor of exquisite appropriateness,
laments the dead Adonais as
The bloom whose petals^ nipt before they blew.
Died on the piomise of the fruit,
he suggests two thoughts whidi are never long dissociated in the
minds of those who love the poetry of Keats, the supreme beauty
of what his genius actually achieved and the pathos of his " un-
fulfilled renown ". No poet at the age of twenty-four has pro-
duced work comparable in maturity of thought, in richness of
imagery, in easy masteiy of execution, with the cont^its of the
1820 volume; and empty but irresistible conjecture can only
wonder to what heights of song he might have attained i{, with
no advance of artistic power, but merely with that wider ex-
perience and greater inde{)endence which are the gift of time
rather than of genius, he had reached the years at which Shake-
speare had wiitten Hamlet or Milton Paradise Lost. And yet in
Keats there was no taint of youthful precocity. He did not lisp
in numbers. He wrote nothing in his teens which could be com-
paj%d with the earliest works of Pope, or Chatteii»n, or Blake.
He had indeed but three yeare of serious literary apprenticeship,
years beset by difficulties as great as ever hampered the path of
poet ; but not his vulgar origin and his banal suiToundings, nor
the hostility of i^esponsible criticism, nor the thiuldom of unsatis-
fying love, nor the haunting presence of hereditaiy disease could
check the ripening of his poetic powers until, a year before his
actual death, moiiality had set her cold finger upon him, and
except for one sonnet, a cry for release, his poetic life had reached
its tragic close.
XX INTRODUCTION
Thei-e is no need to tell anew the beautiful story already
familiar in the Life amd Letters and in the biography written
with fuller knowledge and riper literary judgment by Mr. Colvin ;
it is rather my object to attempt solbe further contribution to
the study of Keats's poetic development and to direct attention
to the principal forces which moulded his mind and art. In the
case of Keats this study is of special interest, and, I think, of
special impoi'tance. "The fair pai-adise of Nature's light" is,
doubtless, the inspiration of all great poetry, but the mind
which nature inspires may acquire its individuality by widely
different processes. Whilst each of his gi-eat contemporaries
owed no little debt to the influence of a culture either inherited
or acquired naturally ft-om early suiToundings, and to a wide and
generous ti'aining which stimulated the mind &om many sources,
Keats was educated almost exclusively by the English poetg.
His studies, and he was a deep and earnest student, were con-
centrated upon their works, and the fiiendships which encouraged
his genius were sealed in a common enthusiasm for them. The
ideas which influenced his mind most vitally, the themes which
most keenly affected his imagination, the language with which
he widened the limited vocabulary of his ordinary life came to
him from the same channel. To his English predecessors he
served a willing apprenticeship, detecting the deficiencies of each
thi-ough his appreciation of the peculiar excellences of the rest,
till he gained at last that complete unfettered independence
which had always been the goal of his ambition.
John Keats was bom a member of that section of the com-
munity in which, perhaps, we are least accustomed to suspect the
presence of poetic thought and feeling. His father, a native of the
west country, went to London as a youth and became ostler to Mr.
Jennings, a liveiy-stableman who canied on a prosperous business
at the Swan and Hoop, Finsbuiy Pavement, maiiied his mastei'^s
daughter, and in course of time succeeded to the management of
the business. Here it was that, on the 29th or 31st of Octobei",
1796, the poet was bom. He was the eldest of a family of five,
with three brothers, one of whom died in inffmcy, and a sister.
His parents are repi'esented as possessed of a talent and distinction
INTRODUCTION xx»
unusual in their class ; and ambitious for the future, they intended
at one time to send their boys to Harrow ; finding, however, the
expense beyond their means, they decided upon a private school
kept at Enfield by the Rev. John Clarke. Here John was sent
in his eighth year, and was soon joined by his brother George.
The choice was in many respects fortunate. Charles Cowden
Clarke, who helped his father in the school and in all probability
taught young Keats from the very first, took a keen interest in
his pupil, and fr'om being his master soon became his warmest
friend, and exercised the greatest influence upon his development.
He was a sound scholar and an accomplished musician ; above all,
he was an enthusiastic student of English poetry. To him we
owe most of our knowledge of Keats's school-days. "In the
early part wf his sch««l life," says Clarke, " John gave no extra-
ordinary indications of intellectual character ; it was in the last
eighteen months or so that he became an omnivorous reader.
History, voyages and travels formed the bulk of the school
library and these he soon exhausted, but the books that he read
with most assiduity were Tooke's Pantheon, Lempriere's Classical
Dictionary, which he seemed to leam, and Spence's Poly metis."
But before he reached the age of fifteen, he was removed from
school, and apprenticed to a surgeon in practice at Edmonton.
Hence his education, in the strictest sense of the word, must
have been veiy scanty. Of Greek he had learned nothing ; and
though he had some knowledge of Latin, for he had already
begun, as a pastitne, a translation of Vergil's Aeneid, he could
hai-dly have reached that stage of scholai'ship in which the
influence of classical literature begins to make itself felt. But
if he had not laid the foundation of a sound literary education
he had at least acquu-ed the habit of reading. After he had left
school he continued to pay frequent visits to Enfield and " he
rai-ely came empty-handed : either he had a book to read, or
broughtione to be exchanged ".' It was on one of these occasions,
probably in 1812 or 1813, that Clai-ke read to him the Epitha-
lamiura of Spenser, and the ai-tistic side of his nature received its
■ Recollections of Writers, by Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke, 1878.
xxii INTRODUCTION
first definite stimulus. " As he listened," we «,« toM " his featuues
and exclamations were ecstatic." It was in truth the revelatirai
of a new worldi, but one which was his natural home though he
had been bom an iexile from it. And now for ilie first time he
became conscious of his inheritance. "That ni^t," says Clarke,
'^ be took away with him a volume of the Faerie Queerte, and he
went through it as a young horae through a spring meadow rsAup-
irag ! Like a true poet, too, he especially singled out epithets,
for that felicity and power in which Spenser is so eminent. He
hoisted himself up, and looked burly and dominant, as he said,
' What an image that is — " sea-shouldering whales ! " ' " " It was
the Faerie Qiteem" says Brown, a fiiend of Eieats's later years,
" that fii-st awakened his geauus. In Spensei-'s fairy land he was
enchanted, bi-eathed in a new world and became a new fodt^ ;
till enamoured of the staiiza, he attempted to imitate it and
succeeded."
It is significant that Keats's eaiiiest known composition is the
Imitation of Spenser, written probably in 1813, and Spenser
never lost hold upon his imagination. I^ere was indeed an
essential kinship between the two poets, and that brooding
love of sensuous beauty, that fi^ank i%spoiise to the charm of
nature and romance, that luxuriance of fancy ajui fdicity of
expression to which the Faerie Queene owes its uxesistible
fascination were soon to be re-echoed in the poems of Keals.
But Keats was not the first poet to acknowledge that Spenser
was his original. Apart from those who may justly clfdm so
honouraible a lineage, in eveiy succeeding epoch there axe to
be found poetasters who have attempted to catch, though horn
afai-, faint echoes of his melody, and to inform their own lifeless
puppets with something of the spirit and the gesture of his
magic world. Keats's literaiy education did not enable him
to distinguish the essential qualities of Spenser from those of
his latest imitatore. Naturally, therefore, the influence of the
eighteenth-century allegorists is pai-amount in his eai-liest writ-
ings. They were far easier to reproduce, and he could hardly
be expected to i-ealise when allegory devoid of imagination had
become mere idle pei-sonification, and when a rich exubei-ance
INTRODUCTION xxiii*
and easy gi'ace of laxiguage had giTen vf&j, in waiters of a less
intense and less continuous inspiration, to mere licentious fluency
or empty verbiage. In this he was, doubtless, affected by the
poetic taste of his time, which, as yet unconverted to the revolu-
tionary doctiines of Woi-dsworth and Coleridge, still clung to
the milder and more conventiontd romanticism counjtenanced
by the age of reason. Of this period in his development he
wrote later " Beattie and Mrs. T%he once delighted me," and at
the same time he showed himself to be momentarily affected
by the Jwveniiia of Byron and the drawing-room melodies of
Moore. A weak sonnet shows that already he had come under
the spell of Chatterton, but it was not till later liiat C3iatterton
influenced his litosry methods. For the pvesent he was an
eighteeuLiJi-centmy Spenseiian, and traces of the diction and
style of the eighteeath-centtiry poets still linger even in that
poem in which he most fiercely denounces them.
But this phase <of his development, which has little relation
with his later work, was soon followed by one of more lasting
sighiflcance; Early in 1815 he came under the spdi of Chs^-
man's translation of Homer, of the early work of Milton, and
of tiie poems of Fletcher and of William Browne, whilst his de-
list in the seventeenth-century Spenseriaius became inextiicfl^ly
blended with his admiration for the most prominent of Spenser's
living disciples, the chaiming and veraatile Lei^ Hunt.
It was in the summer of 1816 that Keats paid his first visit
to the Hampstead cottage, whei'e Hunt presided over a lively
circle of literary and artistic spirits, many of whom were soon
to be numbered among Keats's own fiiends; but it is certain
that some time bdbre this Hunt had indir^tly exercised no
small influence on his mind. The Clarkes were enthusiastic
admirers of Hunt, and in their home Keats had been a regular
reader of Hunt's weekly paper, The Examiner, from which he
had imbibed much of Hunt's radicalism and love of civil and
religious liberty. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that to
the eyes of young Clai-ke Hunt fulfilled the double role of poet-
patriot, so that in every way he would prepare his pupil for the
greater master. And when in February, 1815, Hunt was released
xxiv INTRODUCTION
from prison where he had been confined for two yeans " for dif-
fering from the Morning Post, on the meiits of the Prince
Regent, and pointing out that this Adonis in loveliness was
in i-eality 'a coi-pulent man of fifty, without a single claim on
the gi-atitude of his country,' " Keats expressed his delight in a
sonnet in which he contrasted the eternity of the patriot's fame
with the ti'ansient power of the "wretched ci-ew," the Tory
ministiy of the ci-own. The same sonnet gives proof that Keats
knew Hunt not merely as a politician, but, as indeed he pre-
feii-ed to be regarded, as a lover of our litei-ature who "in
Spenser's halls strayed culling enchanted flowers," and in
pai-ticulai' as a poet whose "genius true to regions of his own
took happy flights". In 1814 Hunt had reprinted a trifle in
veree called the Feast of the Poets, a light satiric criticism on
the claims of his poetic contemporaries to fame, adding a com-
mentary more important than the text, and an introduction,
in which he expressed his intention of reducing to practice his
own conceptions as to the proper style of poetry. He was in
fact already at work upon the Story of Rvmini, which he had
only tempoi-arily laid aside. Evidently many of Hunt's "lux-
urious gossipings " in the notes to the Feast of the Poets were
already known to Keats, and if he had not seen Rimim in manu-
script it is more than probable that he had heard through Clarke
something of the general principles which it involved.
In the spring of^l816 Hunt's poem made its appearance
with a preface in which he set forth at length his conception
of poetic style and versification. The heroic couplet, he said,
had been spoiled as a measure for narrative poeti-y by Pope and
the Pi'ench school of verification, who had mistaken smoothness
for harmony, because their eai-s were only sensible of a marked
and unifoi-m harmony. He desired to return to its fi-eer use,
as it is to be found in the fables of Dryden, in Spenser, and in
pai-ticular in Chaucer, its original master. " With the endeavoui-,"
he adds, " to recui- to a freer spii'it of vei-sification, I have proved
one of still greater impoi-tance — that of having a free and idio-
matic cast of language. Thei-e is a cant of ai-t as well as of
nature. But the proper language of poetry is in fact nothing
INTRODUCTION xxv
different fi'om that of real life, emd depends for dignity upon
the sti'ength and sentiments of what it speaks. It is only adding
musical modulation to what a fine understanding might actually
utter in the midst of its giifefe and enjoyments. The poet
should do as Shakespeare and Chaucer did, not copy what is
obsolete or peculiar, but use as much as possible an actual
existing language, omitting mere vulgarisms and fugitive phrases
which ai"e cant of ordinaiy discourse."
In upholding the restitution to the couplet of the Alexan-
diine, the double or feminine rhyme, the tiiplet and the i-un-on
line or enjambement. Hunt set an example which was to be
widely and on the whole satisfactoiily followed, though he exag-
gerated into far too general a practice what was after all only an
exceptional variation from the rule. But in his use of language
his own interpretation of his theory led to most disastrous
results. He had attacked Wordsworth, to whom he was obvi-
ously indebted for all that is really valuable in the preface, for
the meanness of much of his poetry ; but whereas Wordsworth
was the most correct writer of his day, and was never led by his
theories to treat of a great subject in other than a great manner.
Hunt confused naturalness with triviality, and constioied a free-
dom fi-om the use of a specific poetic diction into the right to
be slipshod in language and vague in thought. His addiction
to abstract terms in his desaiption of the concrete, his coinage
of adverbs from present participles, or adjectives from nouns,
and his reckless use of one part of speech for another can only be
regarded as expedients by which to save himself the trouble
of thinking clearly and definitely on any subject, whilst he forgot
entu'ely his own proviso that the poet's vocabulary must be
freed from all "mere vulgarisms, fugitive phrases and the cant
of ordinaiy discourse ".
But the language used by a poet cannot be considered to
any pui-pose apart from the use to which he puts it, and it is
here that Hunt reveals his own limitations with most fatal
results. Absolutely sincere in his affections, and genuine in his
convictions both in life and litei-ature, he was lacking in real
depth : he was content with a purely superficial delight and was
xxvi INTRODUCTION
never able to comprdieiul the high seriousness of passion fiiom
which all great art must spring. Conseqiuently the noMesr the
sulaject he was considering the less capable he was of communi-
cating its true spirit. The fate of Paolo and Francesca, recounted
by Dante with a severe restmint pulsating with intense tragic
passion, merely offered him an opportunity for exposing his
woi-st faults. The Story of Bimiaii reads as though it were
intentionally written in that Bemesque style which was intro-
duced only a little later by Hookham Frere in his Monks amd
the Giants, and became the model on which Byi-on executed his
most brilliant satires ; but a manner of wiiting which was a fit
veMcle to convey their typical attitude of humorous scepticism
was employed by Hunt in sober earnest and perfect good faith,
as Uiough it were suited to the sympathetic expression ei a tragic
iJieme. In an easy conversational manner we are told of Paolo's
charms " that ail he did was done divinely," and that Francesca
" has strict notions on the marrying score " ; her supreme emotion
ooneentaated by Dante into the pregnant " tutto ti-emente " is,
to Hunt's mind, adequately represented in tiie essentially vulgar
phrase " all of a tremble ".
Incomprehensible as it may seem to the reader of the Eve of
St. AgneS' or the Ode to a Nightmgaie there was a natmul
sympathy already existing between Hunt and the youthful
Keats. Neither of them had looked on art as more than a
delightful pastime, and their tastes in literature were similar.
Both had feasted in youth on the same stories of classic mytho-
logy and bad read 1jiem originally in the same soui'ce. Both
had the same favourite poet, Spensei-, and both delighted in him
for his melody, his colour, his voluptuousness, without compi-e-
hending the spirit which infoi-med them. That tJiis was the
case with Hunt is proved by his almost equal passion for Ariosto
— an impossibility for one who had truly entered into the spirit
of Spenser ; and though Keats had, even at this time, intenser
feelings, he had not yet comprehended their significance or their
necessaiy influence upon his ai-t. " He admired more the
external decorations than felt the deeper emotions of the Muse.
He delighted in leading you through the mazes of elaborate
INTRODUCTION xxvii
description, but was less conscious of tiie sublime and the
patiietic,"! and Hunt's personal charm and the generous en-
couragement which he was always ready to extend to budding
genius, cemented the relationship. "We became intimate,"
says Hunt, "on the spot, and I found the young poefs heart
as warm as his imagination. We read and walked together
and used to write verses of an evening upon a given subject.
No imaginative pleasure was left untouched by us, or unenjoyed ;
from the recollection of the bards and patriots of old, to tiie
luxury of a summer rain at our window, or the clicking of the
coal in winteii:ime." As for Keats, he expanded under the genial
influence of his friend, and for the time looked to him with the
reverence and admiration of a disciple for his master.
It is uncritical to father upon Hunt all the vices of Eeats's
early work. For Hunt could never have gained the same sway
over his mind had there not been a natural affinity between them.
Keats said of the cancelled pnefaee to Eadymion, " I was
not aware that tiiere was anything like Hunt in it, and if there
is it is my natural way and I have something in common with
Hunt " and the remark expres^d a truth of wider application
than to the immediate case whidi evoked it. But it is calain
that the theory and practice of his friend led him to accentuate
all the worst features of his genius and encouraged him in those
very failings which a sounds' master might have taught him
to overcome. Azid the superficial similarity between them made
this influence all the more dangerous. Keats from the first went
deeper than Hunt, but, leading into Hunt's light-hearted en-
thusiasm some of his own intenser feeling, came natundly «iough
to regard the language and style of Rimmi as suited to the ex-
pression of that higher emotion of which its author had never
dreamed.
Nowho-e did the young poet need more guidance than in his
treatment of romantic passion. His emotional temperament
made it inevitable that he should be a love poet, and from his
boyhood he had so idealised womfui that he constantiy found
'Stephens's Heminisrences of Keats, Houghton MSS. (quoted E.M.L. p. ao). M
xxviii INTRODUCTION
himself ill-at-ease in the presence of the reality. To this ideali-
sation his reading of Spenser had given an impetus. It was as
a poet of chivalrous love that Spenser had first appealed to him.
" He hotly bums to be a Calidore, a very Red Cross Knight," and
reminiscences and vei'bal echoes of Spenser in his firet love poems
make it evident that his gi-eat 'poetic ambition was to be for his
own age what Spenser had been for the Elizabethans.
But it was here that the taint of vulgarity in his own origin
and the ill-bred tone of the society in which he moved were
calculated to have the most dangerous effect upon his work ;
and the literature of his own day could give him no help in
emancipating himself from it. The Delia Cruscan School had,
perhaps, been destroyed, but a vapid sentimentalism was still
accepted instead of genuine passion, and permeated not only the
romantic novel, the ballads of Moore, and the early poetry of
Byron, but had even touched the broad and healthy mind of
Scott. Woi-dsworth alone might have guided him, but the
sublime Lucy poems were invested with a spirituality which was
too far aloof from his present world for him to recognise in it
the consummation of his own more obviously sensuous passion.
A deeper and more independent study of Spenser would un-
doubtedly have served the same end ; and it was nothing short
of disastrous that his enthusiasm for Hunt led him to believe that
the mantle of Spenser had fallen upon the shoulders of the poet
of Rimini. For woman in Hunt's poetry was merely a lay figure
over which to luxuriate a keen but often vulgai" sense of the
beautiful in art and nature, and chivalry was always more of an
ecstasy than an activity. There is no wonder that Keats under
his influence failed to realise that the intense sensuousness of
Spenser's desciiptions is only ai-tistically justified by their
spirituality, and instead of compi-ehending the full significance
of Sir Calidore or the Red Cross Knight was satisfied to re-
present them Bs though they were lovesick tradesmen mas-
querading in a picturesque costume. Later Keats came to
recognise this. " One cause," he writes, " of the unpopularity of
my book is the tendency to class women in my books with roses
and sweatmeats, they never see themselves dominant." Under
INTRODUCTION xxix
othei' guidance, perhaps with no guidance at all, he might have
discovered it eai-Iier.
The fii-st poem of the 1817 volume strikes at once the
dominant note of the whole. Headed with a characteristic
quotation from the Story of Rimim, " Places of nestling green
for Poets made," it shows the influence of Hunt in its most
pronounced fonn. It is inspired by a genuine love of nature,
blended, as always in Keats, with €m intensely real feeliag for
literature and for ancient legend, but after an opening of happy
delicacy it degenerates into an indiscriminate catalogue of natural
delights associated with the vulgar and mawkish sentiment and
expi-essed with all the indefiniteness of the abstract style of Hunt.
The poet "*
straightway began to pluck a posey
Of luxuries bright, milky, soft and rosy.
He tells how Apollo " kisses the dewiness " of the flowers, and
"kisses" as in Hunt rhymes with "blisses". The goldfinches
" pause upon their yellow flutteiings," and the rural spot is not
felt to be complete until a lovely woman of the peculiar Huntian
type has been introduced into it; the whole poem is replete
with adjectives of the delicious order by which he seeks to give
utterance to his keen but vague delight, while its versification
exhibits that negligence of form which had some precedent
in Chapman and Browne, but received its special sanction fi'om
the theory and practice of Hunt. And yet notwithstanding
such palpable faults of style and temper there are few poems in
the volume which do not give some promise of future achieve-
ment ; either in their imaginative suggestion, or in their strangely
felicitous language, betokening the poet who had already " looked
upon fine phrases like a lover ". Lines such as
That distance of recognizance bereaves (Sonnet, iv. 13)
or
Full in the speculation of the stars (/ stood iip-toe, 189t^
have a ring about them which recalls the harmony of some old
Elizabethan ; the pictures of
XXX INTEOeUCTION
the moon lifting her silvAr rim
Above a cloud, and with a gradual swim
Coming into the blue with all her light
(/ stood tip-toe, 113-15)
and of the sea that
Heaves calmly its broad swelling smoothness o'«r
Its j-Dckj' ma];ge, and balances once more
The patient weeds ; that now unshent by foam
Feel all about their undulating home
{Sleep and Poetry, 377-80)
though missing the perfecitiqn of his later studies of moon
and ocean ai'e touched with the same tenderness, and lit up
by the same magic, whilst the sonnet On first loohw^ into
ChapmarCs Homer proclaims him capable already of reaching,
in supreme moments, the heights of song.
For the poet who could wiite like this the influence of Hunt
could only be short-lived. H« was soon to Tealise that the way
in whidi Hunt *' flaunted bis beauties " contrasted unfavourably
with the grand unobtrusiveness of nature, and when be had
learned by deep and reverent study in very truth "to hold
high converse with the mighty dead," he found less inspiration
in the society of the loved Libei-tas, who "el^atftly chals and
talks ". But thbiiig^ Humt^ influence was m certain ways to be
deplored, Keats owed him an inestimable debt. He had recog-
nased his genius from the &vt -and encouraged him at 0. time
when raicouragem«it was of greatest value. Aand if Hunt's
superficial view of things failed to «8/tisfy the poet's intellect
and beait, it was through his genial hospitality that he fin^
met <tii»se friends who were more oapaiye of quickening the
intenser side of his nature.
For already side by side with the tendency to luxuriate in
agreeable sensations, to " lose the soul in pleasant smotheiings,"
had aiTsen within him the consciousness that if poetry was to
absorb his whole life, to become a vocation rather than a pastime,
it must coiTespond with his whole being and not mei-ely with the
least esaenHal ,pairt of it. There wei'e elements in his nature
which had as yet found but paiiial or unsatisfactory expression,
INTRODUCTION xxxi
simply because (Uiiie>y layfai' ideejrax' and were the harder to ex-
press. His was doubtless a supremely sensuous nature ; such is
the essential ba^ on which all poetry builds, and it was bo moiie
promineni. in his eady work ijian it was in the early work of
SSaakespeais ; but the sk^ong <common-sense, tiie sound critical
insight into the faults of himself and others, the habitual
tiiioughtfiidness of mind, the tender devotion to his family and
friends, revealed in his letters and amply iattested by all who
knew him, are quite iacompafcible with a complete absorption in
the luKuiy of his owm sensarfcions. There was indeed a veiim of
melancholy within him which made it impossiMe for him "to
A laughing school-boy, without grieJF or care,
Riding thB springy htanches of an elm. (Sfesji and Poetry, 94, SS.)
However much be might delight in the impressions of the
senses as an escape feiom the broodings of his mind they could
never satisfy his whole nature ; and his force of character, to which
his most intimate ftiends bear striking witness, not only helped
him to realise his own peculiar dangers but supplied the determi-
nation to conquer them. He had a high conception not only of
the pleasures but ,ako of the duties of the poetic life and reso-
lutely set himself to bring his own art into accord with his ideals.
And though to the mind which craves for beauty thepe is tm
inherent shrinking from all that seems to combat it, yet, as his
feeling foi" beauty deepened from sensation to emotion, and from
emotion to a passion which embraced his whole moral and intel-
lectual being, the conviction grew upon him that the artist, if
only for the sake of his art, must be ready to open his heart aad
mind to receive all impressions thfit the world has to offer, even
those that ai-e in themselves unlovely.
And so we find him writing, " I know nothing, I have read
nothing — and I mean to follow Solomon's directions, ' Get know-
ledge, get underatanding '. I find earlier days have gone by ;
I find that I can have no enjoyment in the world but the con-
tinual drinking of knowledge. I find there is no wox-thy purauit
but the idea of doing some good in the world. ... There is but
xxxii INTRODUCTION
one way for me. The road lies through application, study and
thought, I will pursue it. ... I have been hovering for some
time between an exquisite sense of the luxurious, and a love for
philosophy, — were I calculated for the former I should be glad.
But as I am not, I shall turn my soul to the latter." ^ This
utterance is chai'acteristic, not merely of a vague and fitful
desh-e on his part, but of his steady frame of mind, and of
a position which he had definitely assumed foi' some time past ;
and even those passages which seem to combat it, as for example
his praise of indolence, and of the poetic impulse to be obtained
fi'om "the beauty of the morning operating on a sense of idle-
ness,"" ai-e by no means incompatible with it, but have their
obvious parallel in the works of the most strenuous votaries of
song. Keats, completely absorbed in the attainment of perfec-
tion in his art, realised the necessity of study, not merely the
technical study of artistic models, but of life and its problems,
and of human chai'acter in which those problems are illustrated.
Criticism, with its eye fixed on the development of style, has
often failed to realise the deeper influences at work upon his
mind of which, after all, his style is only the expression. Yet
it is no insignificant fact that his intellect developed in the
closest relation with two mastei-s who in different ways could
teach him what he needed most to leant. These were Shake-
speare and Woi-dsworth.
Of the influence of Shakespeai'e, though it is the most import-
ant, it is diflicult to speak definitely as one can speak of the
influence of Spenser or of Leigh Hunt, for it is not primaiily a
literary influence at all. Shakespeare's style, where it is not itself
imitative of others, is so completely at one with its subject that
it defies imitation, and no one has ever been able to catch more
than an occasional ring of it. Even more elusory is his mental
attitude. His unrivalled breadth and sanity are the wonder of
all who read him, but they make no disciple, and none has ever
been sealed of his tribe. Until the end of 1816 Shakespeare
1 Letter to John Taylor, 34th April, 1818.
' Letter to John Hamilton Reynolds, tc/Ca February, 1818.
INTRODUCTION xxxiii
counted for little with Keats. Though he had doubtless read
most of the plays, they had made no impression on his mind,
and it is in keeping with the general character of his eai'ly work
that apai-t fi'om two supei-ficial references to Lear, and a repaini-
scence of a famous passage in ^* You Like It, which he spoilt in
the boiTowing, all the allusions are to A Midsvmmer-NigMs
Dream. Shakespeare is to him the poet of Titania and fairy-
land. But the first use that he made of the retirement which
followed on his dedication of his life to poetry, was to begin a
real study of Shakespeare. The vocabulary and phraseology of
Endymion differ chiefly frota that of the 1817 volume in the
influx of Shakespearian words, allusions and reminiscences, drawn
horn a lai'ge number of plays, whilst the influence of Shakespeare's
poems is shown in the fact that though the larger number of
Keats's sonnets are in Italian form, all the best, with the e^eption
of the Chapman sonnet, which belongs to an earlier date, are
written upon the model of Shakespeare.^
But to say this is only to refer to the superficial signs of an
influence which goes far deeper. For no one can rise fi'om the
reading of Shakespeai'e the same man as he sat down, and least of
all a poet, to whom the language cames a special chai-m and the
vivid realisation of truth makes a special appeal. During all the
early part of 1 81 7 we find Keats steeped in Shakespeare. His letters
shew that his passion for poetry was closely associated with his
study, that it is Shakespeai-e who is educating him, inspiiing him,
comforting him. The line in Lear, " Do you not hear the sea,"
haunts him till he can give poetic utterance to his emotion.'
"Whenever you write," he tells Reynolds, of all his friends,
perhaps, that one who had most intellectual sympathy with
him, "say a word or two on some passage of Shakespeare that
' The two apparent exceptions, the Sonnet To Sleep and On the Sonnet are ex-
periments in form, and though beautiful in themselves are failures if regarded as sonnets.
Keats in bis use of the different forms of sonnet offers an intensely interesting and
significant contrast with Wordsworth. Wordsworth wrote more Shdcespearian than
Petrarchan sonnets, but never succeeded except in the strict Italian form or the
Miltonic development of it.
'^Letter to John Hamilton Reynolds, 17th April, iSiy.^On Reynolds, vide p.
537-
C
xxxiv INTRODUCTION
may have come rathei- new to you, which must constantly be
happening, notwithstanding that we read the same play forty
times; e^., the following never struck me so forcibly as at
present : —
urchins
Shall for the vast of night, that they may work,
All exercise on thee.
How can I help brining to your mind the line —
In the dark backward and abysm of time "
Shakespeare at once gives him an unapproachable standard,
which prevents his thinking overmuch of his own productions,
and at the same time keeps him from despondency. "I never
quite despair and I read Shakespeare — indeed, I think I shall
never read any other book much."^ It is in reference to
Shakespeare that he realises a ti'uth fully applicable to his own
poetry that the " excellence of every art is its intensity, capable
of making all disagreeables evaporate from their being in close
relationship with Beauty and Truth "? All through the year his
study continues, and eai'ly in 1818 he is found turning again to
Lear. And as once more he bums through the fierce dispute
Betwixt damnation and impassioned clay
the world of Spenser seems shadowy and dim.* Later
he writes, in words truer of himself than of the most learned
commentator, " I have reason to be content, for, thank God, I
can read and perhaps understand Shakespeare to his very
depths ".* The influence of other poets in turn grew and waned,
but the genius of Shakespeare opened out a new world before
' Letter to Haydm, loth May, 1817. The passage goes on : " I am very near
agreeing with Hazlitt that Shakespeare is enough for us". Earlier in the letter is
another significant passage : "I remember your saying that you had notions of a
gppd genius presiding over you. I have of late had the same thought, for things
which I do are afterwards confirmed in a dozen features of propriety. Is it too daring
to fancy Shakespeare this Presider ? "
"^Letter to George and Thomas Keats, aSth Deo. 1817.
' Sonnet On sitting down to read King Lear once again, vide p. 277.
^ Letter to John Taylor, 27th Feb. 1818.
INTRODUCTION xxxv
his eyes, and the life which he saw in the pages of Shakespeare
became as it were a part of his inner experience. And as his
own Kfe's ti"agedy drew to its close he turned, naturally, in
his agony of mind to the majestic tranquillity of Shakespeare.
His last poem, Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou
art, was written, with a touching suggestiveness, on a blank
page in a copy of Shakespeare's poems facing 7%e Lover''s
Complaint.
At the same time that he was finding in Shakespeare the
greatest examples of the imaginative presentation of life, he was
turning to Wordsworth not only as the one living poet who was
fully conscious of the dignity of his vocation, but even more
than this as the inspii-ed commentator on the poetic faculty,
who traced its gi-owth in the mind of the poet, and inteipreted
its significance to the world. Wordsworth's influence was never
a pei-sonal one. It began to be exerted fuUy a year before the
two poets had met, and even after their acquaintance it remained
unchanged in character ; it was never cemented by the ties of
friendship. Still less was it a literary influence. Eeats gives
expression more than once to his antipathy to the artistic
method by which Wordsworth chose to present his faith. " We
hate poetry," he writes, "that has a palpable design upon us.
Poetiy should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters
into one's soul." To his eyes "the egotistical sublime " of Words-
worth contrasted unfavourably with " Shakespeai^'s gi-eat negative
capability, his power of presenting uncei-tainties, mysteries and
doubts without an in-itable reaching after fact and reason ". But |
just because much of Wordswoi-th's poetry seemed to be the
studied expression of a definite philosophy of life and art rather i
than the cry of spontaneous emotion, it had all the more effect j
upon him. He stood in no need of further poetic inspiration ;
what he desired was the direction of his intellect, and there is
continual evidence of the deep hold which the teaching of Words- /
woi-th had gained over his mind. The Hymn to Pan might
perhaps seem to Woi-dsworth " a pretty piece of paganism," yet
it was Woi-dsworth's interpretation of Greek mythology which
I'eveaJed to Keats the spu-it which informed it. And Wordsworth
xxxvi INTRODUCTION
affected kim, too, in his attitude to subjects with which he is
supposed to have been generally unconcerned. It is rarely, for
example, that he touches on the politics of the hour. Yet his
criticism sent to his brother George, to whom he communicated
all his thoughts, could only have come from the student of
Wordsworth's greatest political utterances. "The motives of
our woret men," he wiites, " are Interest and of our best Vanity.
We have no Milton, no Algernon Sidney. Governors in these
days lose the title of man in exchange for that of Diplomat and
Minister. . . . All these departments of Government have strayed
fai" fi'om Simplicity, which is the greatest of strength" . . . and
he goes on to disjoin himself from the Liberal party in a denuncia-
tion of Napoleon as "one who has done more harm to the life
of Liberty than any one else could have done ". It is evident
fi'om this passage how the cheery Radicalism of Hunt has been
tempered by the spirit of the Sormets dedicated to National
Independence amd Liberty?^
Even more suggestive of the deep hold which the Words-
worbhian creed had gained over his mind are the words in which
he interprets to his brother, who is grieving with him over a
common loss, the meaning of man's life in its relation with what
is beyond.
"The common cognomen of this world among the misguided
and superstitious is 'a vale of tears,' from which we are
redeemed by a certain arbitrary interposition of God and taken
to Heaven. What a little circumscribed notion! Call the
world, if you please, the vale of Soul-making. Then you will
find out the use of the world. ... I will call the world a school
instituted for the pui-pose of teaching little children to read — I
will call the human heart the hom-book used in that school
and I will call the child able to read, the Soul made from that
school and its hom-book. Do you not see how necessaiy a
world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make
^Journal Letter, Oct. i8i8. Keats's political sympathies are with the Wotxls-
worth of iSoi-s and not, of course, with the Wordsworth of the time at which he
writes. Cf. the Sennets deMcated to National Independence and Liberty, passim, but
especially Nos. iv. , xiii, , xiv. , xv.
INTRODUCTION xxxvii -
it a Soul? A place where the heai"t must feel and suffer in a
thousand divei-se ways." ^ This passage might well be taken as a ,
commentary on Wordsworth's Ode on Intimations of Im- ^
nurrtalit^, which, as Bailey tells us, "he was never weaiy of
repeating". In Wordswoiih, indeed, he saw a poet who, like
himself, had drawn his first inspiration from the beauty of
nature, but had only become conscious of
how exquisitely
The external world is fitted to the mind
after a deep and sympathetic study of humanity. Through a
profound contemplation on the mysteries of being Wordsworth
had at last attained to a resolution of the conflicting elements in
his natux-e, in an impassioned philosophy in which " thought and
feeling ai-e one ". This resolution was never attained by Keats,
but he realised that the gi-eatest poetiy sprang from the desire
for it, if not from its attainment ; and both in his lettei-s and
in his poems there are continual signs that he was turning to
Wordsworth for help and guidance. Even that famous ejacula-
tion, " 0 for a life of sensations rather than of Thoughts," which
has so often been made the text for a denunciation of his
unbi-idled sensuousness, bears a totally different construction
when it is viewed in its context, in its true place in the de-
velopment of his thought.
"I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the heart's
affections, and the truth of imagination. What the Imagination
seizes as Beauty, must be Ti-uth — whether it existed before or not
— for I have the same idea of all our passions as of love : they
ai'e all, in their sublime, creative of essential Beauty. . . . The
Imagination may be compared *ith Adam's dream, — he awoke
and found it truth. I am more zealous in this affair because I
have never been able to perceive how anything can be known for
truth by consecutive reasoning — and yet it must be. Can it be
that even the greatest philosopher ever aixived d,t truth without
setting aside numerous objections ? However it may be, O for a
^Journal Letter, April, 1819.
xxxviii INTRODUCTION
life of sensations rather than of Thoughts ! It is a vision in the
form of youth, 'a shadow of reality to come\"^
It must be remembered that this letter is addressed to Bailey,
an ai-dent Wordsworthian with whom but a few months before
Keats had been studying in the Excursion the poet's superb
vindication before an unbelieving age of the value of the emo-
tions in the attainment of the highest truth. The passage is
thus a passionate exaltation of that part of Wordsworth's creed
•with which Keats had, doubtless, most natural sympathy, the
belief that we
do well to trust
Imagination's light when reason's fails.
In wilting to a friend whose orthodoxy might lead him,
perhaps, to accept Wordsworth's theory of imagination with
some reserve, he tends in the natural spirit of controversy to
overstate his case, and to throw too much weight upon the
emotions as opposed to the reason. But this does not express,
even for Keats, more than one side of the truth (and the veiy
form in which his desire is couched is itself a recognition that
the life of sensation apart from thought is impossible for any
true poet) ; it can therefore only be judged aright side by side
with those of his utterances which show him to be fully conscious
of those other qualities of mind and heart which give to imagina-
tion its body — an insight into human life and a sympathy with
its sufferings, together with an extensive knowledge by widening
speculation to ease the "burden of the mystery".^ "Words-
worth," he writes, in a letter whose whole spuit is that of a
' Leiier to Bailey, 22nd Nov. 1817. It should be remembered that Keats had no
exact logical training and cannot therefore be expected to be accurate in his use of
philosophical terminology. The word intuition would express his meaning far more
truly than sensation. He is, obviously, contrasting what Milton calls the discursive
and intuitive reason — or the manner of attaining the truth characteristic of the philo-
sopher— by consecutive reasoning, and the poet's immediate apprehension of it.
"^Letter to Reynolds, May, 1818. Mr. Robert Bridges ^Introduction to Keats's
Poems : Muses' Library) has pointed out the analogy of thought between this letter and
Wordsworth's Lines on Tintern Abbey : cf. also notes to Sleep and Poetry. The
Excursion, the last poem which the casual reader of Keats would expect him to admire,
was to him one of "the three things to rejoice at in this age". Letter to Haydon,
January, 1818.
INTRODUCTION xxxiit
disciple, " is explorative of the daa-k passages in the mansion of
human life. He is a genius superior to us in so far as he can,
more than we, make discoveries and shed a light in them. Now
if we live and go on thinking, we too shall explore them."
The influence of Wordswoi-th appears in the poems of Keats
before there are any traces of it in his correspondence. Several
Wordsworthian echoes,^ which seem strangely incongruous with
their surroundings, startle the reader of the 1817 volume into
the conviction that even whilst the young poet was revelling
in the luxuries of art and nature under the guidance of Leigh
Hunt, he was gradually absorbing much of the poetry of Words-
worth. It is significant that he associates the two men together,
apparently unconscious of their essential antagonism, as the
champions who have arisen to fi-ee English literatm-e fi-om the
formalism and artificiality of the eighteenth century. Sleep and
Poetry, with which the volume closes, is at the same time a
glowing tribute to the sympathetic friendship which he had
enjoyed at the Hampstead cottage and an attempt to express
in the style of the Story of Rimini something of the spirit which
had informed the Lines written above Tintern Abbey. Under
the inspiration of this higher seriousness he becomes conscious
that he too is " disturbed with the sense of elevated thoughts ".
" The realm of Flora and old Pan " in which he spent so many
pleasant hours of comradeship " choosing each pleasure that the
fancy sees " must now be I'enounced
for a nobler life
Where I may see the agonies, the strife
Of human hearts ;
and the ideal of which he has been vouchsafed a vision is only
^ Cf. specimen of an Induction^ ^\, with/ wandered lonely as a f loud, ii. Sonnet
to Solitude, ii, with Nuns fret not. The Sonnet to my Brothers (i8i6) seems a reminis-
cence of Wordsworth's / am not one who much or oft delights, etc. Sleep and Poetry,
igo, " The blue bared its eternal bosom " is both in thought and language a reproduction of
Wordsworth's, The world is too much with us. It is worth noticing that all these poems
of Wordsworth's are to be found in his 1807 volume. Lines like ' ' A sense of real things
comes doubly strong "and "Wings to find out an immortality "(5to/ffi«rf/'«e/0', 157, 84)
suggest the Ode on Intimations, etc. Vide notes to the poems, passim.
xl INTRODUCTION
to be attained by a deeper human sympathy and a more eagei-
scrutiny of the mysteries of nature and of life.
In Endymion he strives to treat in a more highly poetic fonn
the problem continually before his mind, and to present in a story
whose beauty had long haunted him an allegory of the develop-
ment of the poet's soul towai'ds a complete realisation of itself.
The hero is first pi-esented in ordinaiy human relations ; he is
the beneficent chieftain of his people, the beloved brother of
Peona \%n\, from these he is estranged by his aspiration after the
ideal, as typified in Cynthia, who has found a secret entrance
into his heart through his emotional worship of the loveliness
of nature. In pui-suit of Cynthia he leaves the world of action
to wander through the realms of space. But his whole-hearted
devotion to the quest is only rewarded by fitful visions of his
love, and his failure is really due to his absoiption in his own
fate, and to his delusion that the ideal can be gained in complete
isolation from the fates of othere ; it is not till he has sympa-
thised with Alpheus and Arethusa and has aided Glaucus to
regain his lost love that he makes any progress towards his
end. But even now the immediate result seems disastrous.
For his reawakened sympathy with humanity is followed by an
absorbing passion for an Indian maiden whom he meets in the
forest, so that in his devotion to her the ideal loses its hold
upon him and he is tortured by the sense of his infidelity to the
highest within him. Under such conditions nothing seems left
for him but death, and he prepares to depart, leaving the maiden
to the care of Peona ; but the exclamation which he had uttered
before, half ignorant of its import, " I have a triple soul," is now
found to be the truth. Cynthia and the Indian maid ai-e the
same being in difFertnt foim, his woi-ship for nature and his
passion for the ideal are unified in his love for humanity.
It is hardly safe to give a more detailed inteipretation of the
allegory, for as a whole Endymion is vague and obscure. But
the vagueness and the obscurity do not prove that the poet's
interest lay merely in the stoiy and its decoration, they rather
point to that inability to portray his conceptions in dear
outline, which accompanies an immaturity of artistic power.
INTRODUCTION xH
His mind at that time was, as he said later, like a pack of
scattered cai-ds. Thus much at least is cei-tain, that in the
dark wanderings of Endymion we may trace the gropings of the
spirit after the ideal, and the episodes of Arethusa and of
Glaucus could have no possible justification in the scheme of
the poem had they not been introduced to emphasise the con-
ception, already presented in Sleep and Poetry, that only by
human sympathy can the poet reach the summit of his powei-.
In Hyperion the same strain of thought is present." The
fruitless struggle of H;h'e Titans, types of the elemental energies
of the world, against that dynasty whose rule was based on
higher principle than mere bitite force, is to Keats essentially
concentrated in the fall of Hypexion, the flaming sun-god,
before Apollo the god of light and song. And its fundamental
conception that
'tis the eternal law
That first in beauty should he first in might
can only have one interpretation. For it is by " knowledge
enormous '.' that Apollo has become a god, and if his knowledge
has given him divinity, his perfect beauty and his power over
song have come to him from the humanising influence of sym-
pathy and suifering. When Keats came to recast the poem in
the form of a vision, in order to give himself a freer scope for the
development of his conception, he made this clearer still.^ The
ideal, says the goddess intei-preter, is only to be attained by
those
to whom the miseries of the world
Are miseries and will not let them rest.
In Lamia he lays aside for the time the question of the place 6i
human sympathy in ai-t and concentrates his power upon a
dramatic pi%sentation of the antagonism between reason and
emotion. Here we have no longer the calm reserve and self
control of Hyperion^ in its expression of a creed from which,
in reality, Keats never wavered ; but a passionate, almost mor-
bid, expression of a conflict between those antagonistic foi'ces
' Cf. Introduction to Fall of Hyferion, pp. 515 et seq.
xlii INTRODUCTION
which fought out their battle continually within his breast ; and
though with a true poetic feeling he keeps his own pei-sonality
out of the poem, it lends additional passion to his treatment of
the subject. The significance of Lamia in its relation to Keats's
whole tone of thought is by no means summed up, as often
represented even by his most sympathetic critics, in the well-
known lines
Do not all charms fly
At the mere touch of cold philosophy ?
for the poem is the utterance of a mood rather than of a settled
conviction. Ti-ue it is that the poet wishes to enlist our sym-
pathies on the side of Lycius ; that is essential, if the interest
of the story is to be maintained ; but it is possible for the
emotional side of a nature to upbraid with bitterness the
intellectual even while i'j; recognises the right of the intellectual
to supremacy. The subject in this respect presents itself in
some measure as it might have done to Shakespeare. As we
read the early acts of Troihis and Cressida and feel the
impending tragedy, we cannot remain untouched by the vain
hope that Ti'oilus may live on to the end believing in an
illusion which seems to make for his happiness. Yet at the
same time we bow before the remoreeless supremacy of truth
and recognise that only through bitter experience can Troilus
reach a higher plane of feeling. Keats, with a prophetic con-
sciousness that he will not live to attain his fuller purpose,
I necessarily lacks the serenity of Shakespeai^, and ends his poem
on a note of tragic despair. And as he follows the fate of his
hero he represents the agony of the struggle in the soul of a
man who clings to the false at the same time that he desii-es the
true, who aspires after the ideal even whilst he is unable to
relax his hold of those very shadows, not reaUties, which he
knows well enough to despise. Keats realised the nature of the
struggle from the very firat and set himself to unify the con-
flicting emotions of his nature. He had no time to reach the
perfect consummation of his genius ; the widest sympatliy with
the world about him, the firmest gi-asp of the. realities of human
INTRODUCTION xliii
life and character were not yet his ; but his whole work presents
us with the struggle for it, and presents it with a passion and
sincerity which is itself a constituent of the highest genius. For
ai-t itself represents a straggle after an infinite perfection, and
in no one of our poets do we find this more vitally portrayed
than in the work of Keats. -^
It is significant that in these three poems, which are the most
ambitious of his works and i-eflect most fully his inner experience
and his poetic ideals, he should turn for his source and much of
his framework to the world of Greece, whose legends had fascin-
ated his childhood, and had never lost their hold upon his
imagination. There was much indeed in the Greek attitude to
life, as he understood it, that made an irresistible appeal to him.
The expression of truth in forms essentially beautiful, the spon-
taneous unquestioning delight in the life of nature and its
incarnation in forms human but of more than human loveliness,
made the pagan creed, outworn to Wordsworth, retain for Keats
all its freshness and its vitality. And when he came to study
the Elgin marbles he learnt something of the principles of Greek
art where they ai-e most supei'bly embodied and most cleai'ly
read. Hei'e Keats owed a great debt to his friend Haydon.
Haydon was the untiring exponent of the Elgin mai-bles as the
supreme example of classic art, and devoted his energies to im-
pressing upon all young artists the impoi-tance of sei-ving thefr
appi'enticeship in the school of Phidias rather than of Michael
Angelo. Keats learnt under his direction that the most ideal
representation of life was not incompatible with the minutest
accuracy of detail and that the vagueness characteristic of his
eai'liest work must give place to clearer outline and more definite
conception. It is hardly fanciful to associate with this rapturous
study of those
heroes — not yet dead.
But in old marbles ever beautiful, {End. i. 318, 319)
the development of that mastery over statuesque effect in which
Keats has no rival but Landor among his contemporaiies. The
figures of
xliv INTRODUCTION
old Deucalion mountain'd o'er the flood,
Or blind Orion hungry for the morn, {End. ii. 197, igS) ;
of the Naiad who
'mid her reeds
Pressed her cold finger closer to her lips {Hyp. i. 13, 14) ;
still more, perhaps, the wonderful picture of Saturn,
Upon the sodden ground
His old right hand lay nerveless, listless, dead,
Unsceptred ; and his realmless eyes were closed ;
While his bow'd head seem'd list'ning to the Earth,
His ancient mother, for some comfort yet (Hyp. i. 17-31),
are 3xamples of his power of concentrating an emotion into a
supreme moment and presenting it in pure outline against the
sky, with the calm dignity and the sublime grace which is the
supreme tiiumph of the sculptor's art.
But if at times he showed in his handling of classical legends
a naivete of feeling and a simple lucidity of expression sufficient
to win the enthusiastic praise of Shelley, " He was a Gi-eek ! ", his
attitude to his subject and his presentation of it are as a nde
far different from this. Nor can it be wondered at. Keats was
no scholai", and of the literature in which the Greek spirit found
true expi-ession he could know nothing. But just as it was
through his devotion to Spenser that he became a poet, so was it
through his kinship, both in spirit and taste, with the Eliza-
bethans, that he became the poet of ancient Greece. In his own
day he was accused of vereifying Lempriere, and the Dictionary-
is still regarded as the main source of his classical inspiration.
Yet it is highly probable that if he had found the legends of
ancient mythology in Lempriere alone he would have left them
there,^ and it is certain that if he had never seen a dictionary his
debt to the world of Greece would have been the same. Homer
1 He had read Lempriire at school, but was never, as far as we know, inspired to
write poetry till he read Spenser, and if Spenser was his inspiration, why should it be
supposed that he drew from Lempriire what can be found in Spenser and kindred
sources? It is noticeable moreover that bis earliest verses have very little classical
allusion in them, though at that period Lempriere would naturally be fresh in his mind.
It is only after he has become soaked in the Elizabethans that classical story and
allusion gain a real bold over him. C/. notes to the poems, passim.
INTRODUCTION xlv
had been known to him in the veraion of Pope, at least, one
would have thought, as inspiring as Lempriere, but had left him
cold ; the Homer that he came to love appeared to him in the
goi'geous but exuberant phraseology of Chapman. It seems
indeed as if a story of the ancient world had to assume an
Elizabethan dress before it cguld kindle his imagination. A
careful examination of the legends which he employs in his
poems will tend to show that though, doubtless, he became ferst
acquainted with many of them in the dull pages of Lempriere
or Tooke or Spence, and continued to make occasional use of the
Dictionary as a work of reference, there is hardly an allusion that
cannot be traced to an Elizabethan source. The legend of
Endymion and Cynthia was well known to him in Lyly, in
Fletcher, in Drayton ; and of the main episodes and the wealth of
illustration to which the poem owes much of its beauty, all that
cannot be trstced to Sj)enser or Chapman or Browne can be found
in the Metamorphoses of Ovid, that book especially dear to the
Renaissance and known to Keats in a late Elizabethan form.
Keats possessed a'^opy of Ovid in the original, but the Ovid that
he read and re-i'ead was the famous version of George Sandys
which delighted him as it had delighted the seventeenth centmy
by " the sumptuous bravery of that rich attire " in which the
translator had clothed it. Seeing then that Lempriere had no
material to give him that he could not have met elsewhere, and
often in the Sandys which we know him to have studied with
^assiduity, whilst Sandys supplied him with details of incident and
phrase for which Lempriere may be searched in vain, we are
justified in the inference that in cases where both Lempriere and
Sandys are possible sources, Keats owed his inspii-ation to a living
work of art and not to a museum of dead antiquities.
There is no reason to suppose that the case is different with
Hyperion or Lamia. References to the wai- between the Titans
and the Olympians are commonplaces in Elizabethan literature,
and Keats would be familial- with them in Spenser, in Shake-
speare, in Milton, as well as in Chapman and Sandys. Apart
from one or two names of fallen Titans, there is no detail which
cannot be traced to the influence of some passage within the
xlvi INTRODUCTION
certain limits of Keats's poetic reading. In the general conduct
of his stoiy, where he does not accept hints from the structure of
Paradise Lost, he is entirely original, and it is surely a significant
fact that the only passages in the Iliad which allude to the
Titans are suggestive of the main situations of the first and
second books of Hyperion. ITie picture of the solitary dejection
of Saturn, buried deep from the light of the sun and the noise
of the breath of wind, must owe something to Chapman's beauti-
ful rendering of the arigiy words of Zeus
I weigh uot thy displeased spleen, tho' to th' ertremest bounds
Of earth and seas it carry theie, where endless night confounds '
Japhet, and my dejected sire, who sit so far beneath
They never see the flying sun, nor hear the winds that breathe.
Near to profoundest Tartarus. (II. viii. 420-24) ;
and in the slight reference to " the gods of the infernal state,
which circled Saturn " (Chap. II. xiv. p. 230) we may have the
bare idea of the marvellous group of fallen Titans of the second
book with which, however, Keats.has blended,^y an iiresistible
romantic association, a reminiscence of a scene T^ich had ari'ested
his imagination on his travels in the English lakes. In Lamia
his story, which had more affinity with mediaeval magic than
with Greek mythology, is di-awn fi-om Burton's Anatomy of
Melancholie, and its classical embellishments Jshow similar traces
of Elizabethan origin. It is time, indeed, that the Lempriei-e
myth assumed its proper proportions and that it was fully re-
co^ised that Keats's classical inspiration was the inspii^tion of
the Renaissance, as it appears in English literature &om Spenser
to Milton. And what is true of the matter is even ti'uer of the
spirit which informs it. He had, indeed, travelled around
the western islands . . .
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold
' It is worth noting, as corroborative evidence of the impression made by this
' passage upon the mind of Keats, that the phrase nigAi confounds, though with a dif-
ferent application, reappears in Hyperion (ii. 80). It is thus that a great poet always
borrows, if such it can be called, from his predecessors.
Both the phrase "night confounds" and the epithet " dejected" so significant in its
relation to Hyperion, have no counterpart in the Greek, but are Chapman's additions.
Keats had been reading Chapman just before he started for the Lakes, for almost the
last letter he received before leaving London was from Haydon, asking him to return
bis copy of Chapman.
INTRODUCTION xlvii
and when he came to view the land of Apollo, perfect in its
limitation, he gazed upon it with the eyes of a romanticist —
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
Here is expressed the sense of awe, the feeling of wonder, some-
thing, too, of the spirit of adventui'e, which impelled the Eliza-
bethan to go even to meet his death as a traveller
Goes to discover countries yet unknown.
And for Keats, as for his predecessors, to see was to take pos-
session. The world of ancient mythology, which had just dawned
on theii" horizon, seemed but an extension of their own kingdom.
Their vivid imagination absoi-bed its beauty and found in it a
wealth of material by which to illustrate and to interpret their
own most deeply felt emotions, so that it became, for all its
apparent aloofiiess, only another means of passionate self-ex-
pression. For them the distinctions of classic and ix)mantic, aiid
distinctions of the schools, would appear at their best a meaningless
piece of pedantry, and at their y\rorst a denial of what was to them
a vital truth — the essential unity of human feeling and human
experience wherever and whenever it is to be found. And so it is
for Keats. He has been blamed, for example, for the introduction
of the figure of Hope into Hyperion, but the criticism by which
this can be condemned must logically include in its attack the
work of every writer, except perhaps Ben Jonson, &om the
eai'liest Elizabethan who caught fii-e at the recital of a classic
theme down to Milton, who offended the piety of Di'. Johnson
by his blending of pagan mythology with Christianity ; most of
all must it denounce Keats's great master Spenser, fifom whom in
all likelihood this very picture of Hope ^ was drawn, who enriches
his poetry with stories taken at random from fairy lore, &om
Greek legend, and from tales of mediaeval chivalry.
It is no surpiise therefore to find that these thi-ee poems
of Greek inspiration exhibit no traces of the influence of classical
literature, but ai* detei'mined in each case by the influence of
' Cf. Faerie Queene, i. lo, 14 : —
Upon her arme a silver anchor lay,
^Hiereon she leaned ever, as befell.
xlviii INTRODUCTION
difFerent models of English poetry. Endymion, the firat fi-uits
of his whole-hearted devotion to his art, has no single definite
model, but shows the natural influence of Spenser and the seven-
teenth-century Spenserians upon an immature, exuberant genius,
which had already an intuitive sympathy with the laxer qualities
of their style and method. It may indeed be regarded as the
consummation of his early work, more ambitious in design than
anything he had hitherto accomplished, and inspired by a gi-eater
purpose, but tainted with the same faults of style, execution
and sentiment. " A trial," he calls it, " of my powei-s of imagina-
tion, by which I must make 4000 lines of one bare circumstance
and fill them with poetry " ; and the statement inevitably suggests
that much of the poetry is independent of the real subject. For
" the one bare circumstance " is embellished by incidents which
retard the natural development of the action and by episodes
which have no organic relation with the main story, but are only
explicable after a full comprehension of their application and
inner meaning. The progress of the involved allegory, itself
sufficiently unclassical, finds ample precedent in seventeenth-
century poets, and bears more resemblance to the rambling
inconsequence of Britannia's Pastorals than to any work of more
definitely artistic construction ; and whilst the inner significance
of the poem gives clear evidence of the spirit in which Keats had
come to view his art, its general conduct shows him to be as yet
fai" from attaining to the ideal which he sets forth in it. When
he touches upon everyday life, as at the beginning of the third
book, he is vague or trivial, and the general characterisation of
Endymion in his relations with Peona, Cynthia and the Indian
maiden, conceived with a delicate and imaginative insight into the
ideal beauty of the legend, is vitiated throughout by the insipid
sentimentality of expression, which the influence of Hunt, brought
to bear upon his own lack of training, had led him to mistake
for the universal language of the heart.
But there is nothing in this criticism which Keats did not
admit himself, at least after he had completed the poem. He
speaks of the mawkishness of his imagination, confessing that the
work shows " inexperience, immaturity and every enxir denoting
INTRODUCTION xlix
a feverish attempt rather than a deed accomplished," and remai-ks
in a letter, " I have most likely but moved into the go cart from
the leading strings. If it serves me as a pioneer I ought to be
content." Yet notwithstanding its failure as a whole, its ob-
scurity, its vicious \ack of reticence, its banaUty, it is redeemed
by passages of glowing beauty which take then* place with
anything of their kind in our literature. Nowhei-e have the
subtle influence of nature on the imaginative mind and a mystic
yearning after her illimitable beauty found more impassioned
expression, and however often the elaborate treatment of the
main characters may fail in truth to life as a whole and to the
Greek conceptions in particulai', no poet has ever more fully
possessed that creative power by which in a few lines, at times
in a mere phi-ase, he can penetrate to the heart of a story long
since dead and with magic touch biing it back to Ufe, so that
we see it in its essential and vital truth. That same spirit of
old piety which bi-eathes in the allusion to Apollo's shiine
when upon the breeze
Some holy bark let forth an anthem sweet
To cheer itself to Delphi (End. ii. 80-82), ,,
the same tender fancy which pictures Aiiadne as become a
vintager for love of Bacchus, and recalls the music of " Dryope's
lone lulling of her child," finds ample scope thi'oughout the
poem for revealing the universal significance of ancient legend.
" I hope I have not in too late a day touched the beautiful
mythology of Greece, and dulled its brightness : for I wish to try
once more, before I bid it fai-ewel." So wrote Keats in his
preface to Endymion in the April of 1818. A little later he tells
a friend that he is meditating on the charactei-s of Saturn and
Ops and before the end of the year he was at work upon
Hyperion. The subject that ,he had chosen was well calculated
to express most clearly his essential kinship with the thought of^
Greece. But the wonderful advance in style and ti-eatment was
due entu'ely to his subservience to a stricter model, and the
change from Endymion to Hyperion is not the change from a
romance to a classical epic, but the change from the influence
d
I INTRODUCTION
pf %^ Spenserians to thp seyei-er ^obopl of Milton. Milton's
eai'ly ppems h^ long been known to him; now for the fii'st
tipifi h^ came upder the potent spell pf Paradise Lost. And
npw he learned his &;e^ gi'e^t lesson in artistic cpncentr^ti^n,
and constructed his poem on a plan which bieai's obvious re-
semblanipe to Milto^'^ Epic His style, tpp, was deeply affected.
fj Many a Mijtowc echp can be caught in fft/perion, and in his
; vpcabwla^y Rea,t?i replaeies the limp and effeminate coinage and
I the e;xvibeiant Ayiprdiwess pf his fprmer work by a vii-ility of
l^^igu^e afld fli stern compression of all superfluity. The ex-
Bimple pf MiUfPP g^ve ju^t the necessary cm'b to the fa,ults
nailjUjra], tP< a ppet of ^eats's tempieraiment, and he gain{e4 a
stsfajigl^ and a dignity, sp|Dpieitbipg> as Hunt, remarked*
Of the large utteranee ol'tlie earlT gods,
for which Endymiprt may be searched in vain. It is only by the
side of his gi-eat and una,pproachable model that the blank verse
of Hyperion seems at times to be monotonous, that the debate
of the fallen Titans seems to lack something both in subtleiy and
passion ; and if Keats cannot rival either the majesty or the stu-
pendous range both of thought and melody that is the wonder
pjf Fana/^e iiost, there is in Hyperion that ^lamtaur- of romance,
thjai same exquislte> reading o£ the magic of nature which gave
ijf E^ifi^mwn i\s piviceless chai'iu. Not d»sskal, certainly, nor
Miltoi^ either* are the lines that tell how the
Tall oaks, branch-charmed by the earnest stars.
Dream, and so. dii;eam all! night without a stir ;
or the picture of Hyperion gazing into the night —
And still lit.^jr were the same l^ight,. j^i^tient stars ;
' or the picture of the &llen Titans —
like a dismal cirque
Of' Druid stoves, upon a forlorn mooi*.
When the chill rain begins at shut of eve,
Iv, dHll No|ve|fal^er,. an^ th^ir phaujCQl vault.
The H^a,ven itself, ig, blinded throughout night,
or the incomparable opening of the whole poem ; but for such as
FNTRODUCTION li
these, in some moods at least, we would gladly give all but the
noblest lines of Paradise Lost.
But as Keats proceeded with his work he became more and
mwce convinced that the model which he had chosen was not :
suited to his genius. " I have given up Hyperwm," he writes ;
"there are too many Miltonie inversions in it — Mil tonic verse :
cannot be written but in an artful, or rather artist's humour. I
wish to give myself up to other sensations. English ought to be ,
kept up." 1 Milton's classicism of style, though it was the natural
expression of a scholar to whom Greek and Latin were as familiar^
as his mother tongue, could never be the language of a purely
native poet, and much as he admired the form in which Milton
had cast the woi'k, it was too much aloof from his own sphere of
methods, and so he broke off his poem abruptly just as he
appi-oached the central conception of the whole.
Later, when the hand of death was akeady laid upon him,
he took up Hyperion once more and attempted to remodel it
in the form of an allegorical vision expounded to him by one of
the fallen goddesses. Criticism is right in pointing out that thet'
attempt was not successful, that he spoilt many lines in the pro-j \
cess, and that the Fall of Hyperion, as it is called, shows a
distinct decline of artistic power. But it is at least a question i
whether if his powers had i-emained at their height, he would
not have done the same thing and succeeded, whether he would
not have tui-ned what is, after all, a magnificent literary torn- de |
force, into a poem fully expressive of the essential qualities of |
his own peculiar genius. For an artist is never at his highest '
when he is forcing his ast into an uncongenial channel, and if he
' Letter to Reynolds, 22nd September, 1819. In the same strain he wrote to h^
brother : " The Paradise Lost, though so fine in itself, is a corruption of our language. I
It should be Kept as it is, unique, a curiosity, a beautiful and grand curiosity, the most I
remarkable production of the world ; a northern dialect accommodating itself to Greek I
and Latin inversions and intonations. The purest English, I think— or what ought to /
be purest — is Chatterton's. The language had existed long enough to be entirely incor- \
rupted of Chaucer's Gallicisms, and still the old words are used. Chatterton's language t
is entirely northern. I prefer t&e native music of it to Milton's, cut by feet. I have but h^
lately stood on my guard against Milton. Life to him would be death to me. Miltonie j
verse cannot be written, but is the verse of art. I wish to devote myself to another verse »
alone." Letter to Geo. Keats, September, 18*9.
Hi INTRODUCTION
spoiled some of his earlier lines it must also be remembered
that some of those which he added in the Vision are among the
finest that he ever wrote. For Keats, romantic to the core,
could find no freedom in the restraint of a classical or even a
Miltonic Epic.
For his model in Lamia he turned to the Fables of Diyden, the
best modeiTi example of the use of the heroic couplet in nsirrative
verae. The versification and style of Lamia give clear evidence
that he had made a careful study of Dryden. In contrast with
the eai'lier couplets of the 1817 volume and of EndymUm his
employment of the run-on line and the feminine and weak endings
is now cai-efuUy controlled, and he trusts to a careful use of the
tiiplet and the Alexandrine to give his vei"se the necessaiy variety.
Moreover, without direct imitation, such as would allow a com-
parison of special passages in the two poets, thei'e ai-e lines in
Lamia which have caught with great eflect the ring and the
rapidity which are essential chai'acteristics of Dryden's best work.
Descriptions such as that of the nymph —
At whose white feet the languid Tritons poured .
Pearls, while on land they witber'd and adored ;
or of the angry god of love, who
jealous grown of so complete a pair,
Hover'd and buzz'd his wings, with fearful roar,
Above the lintel of their chamber door.
And down the passage cast a glow upon the floor ;
or still more, perhaps, of the
song of love, too sweet for earthly lyres.
While, like held breath, the stars drew in their panting fires,
suggest the rhythmical use of language peculiarly i-emai'kable
in Dryden, whilst they are touched with a glowing imagination
which is fai' beyond his reach.
Equally evident is the influence of Dryden on the construc-
tion of the poem. The story instead of being tm-gid, involved,
incomprehensible, is related simply and effectively with emphasis
only upon the more important dramatic effects. We pass from
the finding of the snake by Hermes, her metamorphosis (with
INTRODUCTION liii
the skilfully introduced digression to explain the antecedent
action) and her meeting with Lycius, to the arrival at Corinth,
the preparation for the fatal banquet and the tragic close. It is
a masterpiece of naiTative, in construction not equalled elsewhere
by Keats, whilst the conflict of emotion between the worehip of
beauty and the calls of higher reason gives a passionate force to
the whole.
But his close study of Dryden was perhaps responsible for
the recurrence of certain faults which mar the effect of an
otherwise perfect work of art. His desire to attain to the
masterly ease and fluency of Dryden's manner led him into
frequent false rhymes and to some return of the unhappy
characteristics of his early vocabulary. And the careless levity
expected of a Restoration poet in his treatment of love, and
rarely present in Dryden without the compensating charm of
urbanity and airy grace, appears in Keats in the form of
that vulgarity which he seemed elsewhere to have out-grown.
The execrable taste of the description of a woman's charms
(i. 329-339) and the feeble cynicism of the opening to the
second book, both, in all probability, traceable to this cause,
are alien to the whole spiiit in which Lamia was conceived.
It is where Lamia is farthest removed from the Greek spirit,
farthest too from the spirit of Diyden, that it is most
characteristic of Keats. The brilliant picture oif midnight
Coiinth, the glowing magnificence of the phantasmal palace ai-e
triumphs of romantic description ; nor is theiie wanting to the
poem that magical felicity of phi-ase, that singular power over
the deeply charged epithet, something, too, of the mood which
loves "to touch the stiings into a mysteiy" and by its tender
imaginative insight go straight to the heart of the situation.
Such is the wistful thought of Hermes as he seeks for the
nymph : —
Ah, what a world of love was at her feet !
Or the poet's own reflection on the pathos of Lamia's beauty —
And for her eyes : what could such eyes do there
But weep, and weep, that they were born so fair ?
As Proserpine still weeps for her Sicilian air.
liv INTRODUCTION
Itese qualities find their fullest and most unfettered
expression where Keats is freest ffom external restrictions erf
style and method, in the treatment of romantic themes di-awn
from mediasval sources — in Isabella, in the Eve of St. Agnes, in
the fragmentai-y Eve of St. Mark and in La Belle Dame sans
Merci.
Of these Isabella, or the Pot of Basil was the first to be
written and was finished only a month after the final revision of
Endymian. Keats turned to Italy for his source, on the
suggestion of his friend Reynolds, who was planning a volume
of the Tales of Boccaccio, retold in English vei-se ; and it is
significant of the bent of his mind at this time that Keats's only
contribution was this weird and fantastic story, in tone and
conception belonging to the age which Boccaccio had arisen to
supersede. But whereas to the novelist the interest lay wholly
in the incidents of the plot, Keats concentrated all his powers on
realising the passion which it implied. The poem is uneven in
execution, and it would be easy to point out faults both in the
taste and in the workmanship, which are all the more noticeable
in compaiison with their suiToundings. Moreover the studied
emphasis which he lays upon the avaaice and piide of the wicked
brothers and upon the limp ecstasy of Lorenzo's passion, serves
in reality to weaken that very effect which he desired to
intensify. But these flaws are easily outweighed by the vivid
poetic feeling and essential truth with which he has grasped the
fundamental emotion of tiie stoiy. The opening stanzas, in
their delineation of the delicate susceptibility of the lovers to
each other's presence, ai-e in their way perfect, and form a fitting
prelude to the marvellous picture of the tragic climax. And
never, perhaps,, has the complete absoiption of grief found a more
impassioned and at the same time a more ideal utteiunce than in
the lines in which the poet presents Isabella weeping beside her
pot of basil, oblivious of that changeful loveliness in the world
. about her, which is creative of all the pleasure and the health of
life, but canies now no meaning to her heart: —
And she forgot the stars, the moon, and sun,
And she forgot the blue above the trees.
INTRODUCTION Iv
And she forgot the dells where waters runj
And she forgot the chiUy autumn breeze ;
She had no knowledge when the day was done,
And the new morn she saw not.
With imagination still more penetrative, turning again to the
natural world as the only means of effectual expression, the poet
reveals the tragic loneliness of the muitlered lover by dwelling on
his dim ghostlike perception of the sounds and sights of eai"th : —
" I am a shadow now, alas I alas {
Upon the skirts of human nature dwelling
Alone : I chant alone the holy mass.
While little sounds of life are round me knelling.
And glossy bees at noon do iieldward pass.
And nlany a chapel btsll the houl- is telling,
Paining me through : those sounds grow strange to me.
And thou art distant in Humanity."
Poetiy such as this, alike by its beaiily of latiguage and its
sympathy with the sUbjfect, raises the tale which in Boccaccio is
merely horrible, into tiie i«g5on of genuihe ttagedjr.
But fai- more suctessful as a whole is the Eve of St. Agnes,
which stands chronologically in the same relation to Hyperion as
did Isabella to Endymion, and is^i3jltlessly executed in the s|jiiit
of the legend which inspired it_in his revulsion from the magnifi-
eence Of Paradise Lost, Keats had tumed his tiioughts once more
to Chatterton, who had fascinated his youth ; and it was Chatter-
ton, doubtless, that guided him both here and in the companion
fragment the Eve of St. Mark, to seek a subject in mediaeval
legend and to invest it with an atmosphere of mystery and en-
chantment. To his admu-ation for the Rowley dialect naa^,
probably be traced the unfortuhate littetBpE, in the later poem,
to reproduce_tbfi hrtnnl InnguwcT* ftf thf Mi<lHI° -Ages On the
Eve of St. Agnes heis_contgiL J^tir-earbdHBg- art- daWotial
~cadence~from the^ ExceUent Battad of Charitie and leaving the
fStto Els power over a diction chosen not for its antiquity but
for its intrinsic beauty. Rut if he owed something to Chatter-
top hejowed still more. to Spenser, and there are clear indications
both in the wealth of imagery and vivid colouring of the diction
and in the use of the metre, never before seriously attempted
lyi 'INTRODUCTION
by him, that he was renewing the study of his earlier master.
The stanza is not mei-ely fonnally Spenserian, i^is employed
with a truly Spenserian effect; and the subtle Stdulation of
the melody, and in particular the lingering sweetness of the
Alexandrine, are nowhere else so effective outside the Faerie
Queer^^ With the fonn Keats has at last perhaps caught some-
thing of that spuit of chivaUy inherent in Spenser which from
the firet he had desu-ed to emulate. Qn his conception of
Madeline, whose deeply felt sensuous beauty is expressive of
a beauty of soul which breathes its pure influence over all that
meet it, and whilst it fires the blood sanctifies the heai't, Eeats
had realised the fi-ame of mind which conceived of Una or
Pastorella, and which inspired the Epithalammm, and is free at
last from the mawkish sentimentality and misdii-ected sensuous-
ness of his early love-poetr;^~)
To a full sympathy with, the dominant emotion of the poem he
YAttunes us by his consummate mastery over the nicest methods
of romantic art, heightening the effect throughout by a series
of vivid contrasts, and enveloping the whole in a di'eamlike
atmosphere of enchantment and wonder. Young Poiphyi-o,
his heai-t on fire for Madeline, who braves m their castle the
whole bloodthii-sty race of foemen, stands out in fine relief
against the figm-e of the ancient beadsman, and of the beldame
Angela :— ^^
a feeble soul,
A poor, weak, palsy-stricken, churchyard thing.
Whose passing-bell may ere the midnight toll.
Cwith similar effect, the boisterous riot of the wassailere, fit
echo to the howling of the elfin storm without, breaks upon
our ears " though but in dying tone " to deepen oui- sense of
peace which reigns where Madeline sleeps "an azure-lidded
sleep ". But nowhere is this sense of contrast more exquisitely
developed than in the treatment of the shifting moonhght whidi
pervades the poem, at times adding the last supreme touch of
colour to a picture of cai-efuUy elaborated detail, at times, by
its weird suggestiveness, rendering all detail superfluous. No
description of the castle is given us, yet as Porphyix) stands
i'(i*fr
INTRODUCTION * Ivii
" buttress'ahom moonlight " we see it outlined in black massive-
ness against ^e sky ; languid shines the moon upon the little
room, " pale,"attic'd, chill," where he unfolds his plan to the
beldame, and awaits the moment of its fulfilment ; its full glory
is veiled until it gleams upon the lusti'ous salvei-s of the mysteri-
ous feast, or bui-sts in magic splendour through the casement of
the shrine of love :—j
Full on this casement shone the wintry moon.
And threw warm gules on Madeline's fair breast.
As down she knelt for heaven's grace and boon ;
Rose-bloom fell on her hands, together prest.
And on her silver cross soft amethyst, .
And on her hair a glory, like a saint.
(^Thus, over the whole, the moon sits arbiti-ess, shedding sweet
influence upon Madeline, though cold to all but her, moving
the poet's heaii; as potently as in Endyrmm, and now receiving
frona^him his ripest tiibute to her powei-s of inspiration^/?
r The Eve of St. Agnes expresses, as perfectly as Keats could
express it, the romance and the delight of a love satisfying and
victorious. But side by side with it he gave the picture of a love
which is at once a fascination and a doom, delineated in the same
mediaeval atmosphere, with the same passionate conviction, and
with even deeper significance in its reflection upon actual life.
Whilst he was still at work on the Eve of St. Agnes the com-
panion picture was in his mind. For he tells how Porphyro
took Madeline's lute
Tumultuous, — and, in chords that tenderest be,
He play'd an ancient ditty, long since mute.
In Provence call'd " La belle dame sans mercy^ >
In La Belle Dame sans Merci the oiediaeval revival reaches its
consummation. The depth of passion which it expresses, or rather
implies, for thei-e is not the least suspicion of raving, the intense
lyrical feeling, though the poet's personality is absolutely merged
in the dramatic conception, the exquisite art by which eveiy
detail of the weird landscape and every cadence of the wild but
subtle melody contribute to the general effect of mysteiy and
of desolation, produce together an effect elsewhere unequalled in
the poetry of romance.
Iviii INTRODUCTION
After reading such a work one is tettljjted to ask whether art
can go further than this, or what room there is for development
in an artist who at the age of twenty-four can produce such a
masteipiece. And perhaps if art could be viewed in itself, apart
from all other consideration*, an answer would be difficult. But
the gr-eatest aitists have always been in the fullest sense realists,
have lit up with their imagination the real woi'ld and not been
satisfied with reflecting, however beautifully, a world of dreams.
And Keats was not satisfied. However much he might turn
away from his own life to an ideal past, he knew, with Words-
worth, that " beauty was a living presence in the earth," and that
both the subject and the atmosphere for the greatest art was
this world
Which is the world of all of us^ wherein
We find or happiness our not at all,
a happiness to the aitist, and to all men if they only knew it,
only obtainable by recognising in it the presence of ideal beauty,
hether he turned to the Elgin marbles or to the tragedies of
Shakespeare, he found himself face to face with the same great
truth, in the light of which he looked upon his mediaeval poems,
in spite of all their magic loveliness, as a stepping stone by which
he was to reach the summit of his ambition and become indeed
" the mighty poet of the human heai't ". The mai'vellous was
still " the most enticiqg and the surest guarantee of haiTnonious
numbers". But the marvellous alone no longer satisfied him.
" Wondera," he writes, " ai-e no wonders to me ; I am more at
home amongst men and women. I had rather I'ead Chaucer than
Aiiosto. The little dramatic skill I may as yet have, however
badly it might show in a drama, would I think be sufficient for
a poem. I wish to diffuse the coloming of St. Agnes Eve
thi'oughout a poem in which character and sentiment would be
the figures to such drapery. Two or three such poems, if God
should spare me, written in the course of the next six yeai-s would
be a famous gradus ad Parnassum altissimum. I mean they
would neiTe^me up to the writing of a few fine plays — my gi'eatest
ambition."^ J
1 To John Taylor, 17th November, 1819.
UliJ
INTRODUCTION lis
How far he might have realised this ambition it is difficult to
coDJectwe. Genius for dramatic writing is never developed
eai'ly, and it must be admitted that in the nan-ative poems that
he had already written he had exhibited as subtle and sympathetic
an insight into certain phases of human emotion as is exemplified
in Venus and Adonis or the Rape <of Lucrece^ and a far keener
sense of dramatic propiiety. Otho the Great, the only drama he
lived to finish, was written in collaboration with Brown, under
circumstances which pi'ecluded the possibility of successful charac-
teiisation ; but its versification, at least, shows him to have studied
with profit in the finest school of dramatic art, and he did not
shai-e that contempt for the stage under which not a few of our
poets have veiled their chagrin at failure in di-amatic composi-
tion. Lastly it must be admitted that of all his contem-
poraiies he had the gi-eatest objective power. "As to the
poetical chai-acter," he writes, "(I mean that sort of whidi, if
I am anything I am a member), it is not itself, it has no self,
it has no character, it enjoys light and shade ; it lives in
gusto, be it foul or fair, high or low, rich or poor, mean or
elevated. It has as much delight in conceiving an lago as an
Imogen. What shocks the virtuous philosopher delights the
chameleon poet ... a poet is the most unpoetical of anything
in existence, because he has no identity — he is continually in for
and filling some other body." ^ This Protean quality of mind,
an essential characteristic of the dramatic genius, he possessed
in an eminent degree.
But whatever might have been his success in the drama, he
had already discovered, in the Ode, a form of lyrical utterance
well fitted to give expression to the essential qualities of his
genius. In simple outbui-sts of unpremeditated art he could
equal neither the spontaneity of the Elizabethan Ivrist nor the
glowing intensity of Shelley, and despite his success in using an
occasional short line, he could never gain the lightness of touch
which gave an unfailing sweetness and grace to the foui'-accent verse
of Fletcher and Milton. But in his freedom from the faults that
' To Woodkouse, aTth October, 1818.
Ls INTRODUCTION
spriftg from too close a dependence on classic models — that stiff-
ness of phraseology and over-elaboration of form which mar the
veree of Diyden, of Gray, even at times of Collins — ^he stands
without a rival as the poet of the richly meditative Ode. It is
here that the long drawn out line which seems to bi-ood over its
own sweetness is used with most effect, that his poetry suiprises
with a fine excess, yet never cloys with exaggeration, that all
the different elements that moulded or inspired his genius are
completely harmonised in the imaginative expression of his present
mood. The independence for which from the fii-st he had sbiven
is gloriously attained. In the Odes he has no master ; and their
indefinable beauty is so direct and so distinctive an effluence of
his soul that he can have no disciple.
His first poem of sustained perfect loveliness had been the
Ode to Sorrow, to be found in the fourth book of End^mion, and
the exquisite fragment of an Ode to Maia had followed in the
next year. The rest belong to 1819, the maturest period of his
workmanship, and all but Autumn to the early months of the
year. Bound together not only by a continual recunience of
phrase and cadence but by a similar train of thought and a unity
of feeling they sum np hi^ ftfti+nHpfn life. They are the ex-
pression in vai'ying keys of emotiMi of^a mind which has loved
the principle ofjieauty in all things, and seeks in a world of
change and decay, among the fleetmg foi-ms of loveliness, for
something permanmt and eternalr—
The Ode to a N^iJikigale, the fii-st of them to be given
to the world, is the most deeply chai'ged with human feeh'ng.
Bowed down beneath a crushing pei'sonal bereavement, the poet
is tortured by, the mystery of human suffering and decay in a
world
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and diesj
_aad in the song of the bird he detects, for the time at least, a
symbol of the beauty for which there is no death nor change ;
which^as power by reason of its subtle chai-m to dtffiwth6.ffi0i:lds
of nature and romance closer to that stem reality ip_ which, wor-
shipper of beauty though he be, he has yet perforce to bear his
part.
INTRODUCTION Ixi
In the Ode on a Grecian Urn, the mutability of life finds its
contrast with the immortali^ of the principle of beauty as ex-
pressed in art
All breathing human passion far above.
Art is thus emotion recollected in tranquillity ; the eternal type,
true for all time, of that beauty which gives the key to the
interpretation of life. But though he does not falter in his
fidelity to the idealyits contrast with the sadness of hisexperience
weighs heavy upon hiip,^o that-his prevailing temper at this
period is perhaps most clearly expr^sed in the Ode onMelanch^._
True Melancholy, he writej_is no vulgar passion exerted upon the
common objects of son'ow.
She dwells with Beauty — Beauty that must die ;
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding adieu.
It is an emotion which none can ^gerience save him who
Can burst Joy's grape against his palate iine.
And yet, if this is profoun^y true, it is true also that the heart
which feels it has its-4HKn compensations. Beauty as we see it
may be transient, but it carries with it the power to rise above
that very melancholy which the thought of its transience must \
often bring. The conti'adiction is only apparent, not real. For
the poet who loves beauty enough to be troubled by the thought
that its diiFerent manifestations are visionary loves it enough to
lose himself in the vision. The immediate appeal of nature or
art or romance is irresigtible ; and the moment, enjoyed for its
own sake, gives comfort and sustaining strength to. the mind for
its jomney towards tha.^oal. — Stieh a mood as this is reflected
in the Ode on Indolence, wherein not Love, nor Ambition, nor
even Poesy can draw him from his exquisite enjoyment of the
pi-esent ; they cannot raise his
head cool-bedded in the flowery grass.
And in the Ode to Autumn his serenity of mind, as truly
characteristic of him as the passionate sense of change, reaches its
perfect expression ; and all vain questioning laid aside, he is now
content to enjoy the beauty and the peace of the season.
bdi INTRODUCTION
jWher© are the songs of Spring ? Ay> where are they ?
Xhink not of them, thou hast thy music too.
While barr6d clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue.
Even the gathering swallows, sure harbingers of winter, suggest
no soiTow to Jbis heart; he is intuitively consdous of the im-
mortality of beauty as the eternal possession of him who has
realised it.
How gladly would we sacrifice even the recast of Hyperion
and the superb last sonnet if this poem could have been indeed
his swan-songj as it is assuredly his last work of full and conscious
power, if he could have been spai-ed the agony of mind which can
be read in the fevered attempts at self-expression and still more
ominously in the months of silence that followed, when he could
find no "heart-easing things" to allay the tortures of a pos-
thumous life ! It was otherwise decreed. : yet the significanoe of
the Ode to Autvmm. in its place among his poem^ should not be
forgotten either in a consideration of what he might have become,
or in a final estimate of what he had actually achieved. For as
an interpreter of nature to the heart of man he was already, in
his way, unapproachable.
Of his treatment of nature so much has been said incL-
dfentally that little need be added. Here, as in his relation with
litei-ature and art, he owes his distinctive qualities to a delicate
sensitiveness to impression, rai-e even among poets. Several of
his friends testify to it. Brown bore witness to the ecstasy with
which he caught his firat glimpse of the mountains, and Severn,
with an artist's instinct, loved to watch his fece as they walked
together, and to notice reflected in his wondei-ftil eyes his acute
perception of each dletail aa-ound' him. " Nothing seemed to
escape him, the song of a bird and the undemote of response
from covert or hedge, the rustle of some animal, the changing
of the green and brown lights and furtive shadows, the motions
of the wind — ^^just how it took certain tall flowera and plants
— the wayfaring of the clouds : even the featui"es and gestures
of passing tramps, the colour of one woman?s hair, the smile
on one child's face, the fui-tive animalism below the dec^tive
INTRODUCTION Ixiii
humanity in many of the vagrants, even the hat, clothes, shoes,
wherever these conveyed the remotest hint as to the real self
of the weai-er. . . . Cei-tain things affected him exb-emely, pai--
ticularly when 'a wave was billowing thi'ough a tree,' as he
described the uplifting surge of air among swaying masses of
chestnut or oak foliage, or when, afar off, he heard the wind
coming across woodlands. ' The tide ! the tide ! ' he would cry
delightedly, and spiing on to some stile, or upon the low bough
of a wayside tree, and watoh the passage of the wind upon the
meadow-gi'asses or young corn, not stining till the flow of air
was all around him, while an expression of rapture made his eyes
gleam and his face glow till he would look 'like a wild fawn
waiting for some ciry from the forest depths,' or like ' a young
eagle staling with proud joy,' before taking flight."^ With
such vivid sensations he had no need to picture imaginaay scenes ;
he had only to draw upon his actual experience. The epithet
"Cockney," justifiable in its application to certain qualities of
his early style, is wholly misleading wben it cojijveys the jpiprea-
sion of a town-bred poet Keats had known the country from
boyhood ; the woods, the meadows, the birds, " the simple
flowei-s of spring," had been his constant delight, and the
peculiar charm of an English stream had so deeply affected
his imagination that even of the river Nile he can only think
in terms of what he has, himself serai and loved : —
Thou dost bedew
Green rushes like, our rivers, and dost taste
The pleasant 8iui,-riAe. Gtreeti^ isles ha^t thou too,
And to the sea as happily dost haste.
The richness of hi» poetry ought have led us to expect him to
be aiTested by the colour and magnificence of Oriental scenery.
Yet in the Ode to Sorrow the gorgeous pageant of Baqchus and
'ii/fe and Letters of Joseph Severn, ed. William Sharp, 189a, pp. ao, ai. The
passage i$ not given by Mr. Sharp entirely, in the words q{ Severn, bi^ is put together by
him from Severn's diaries and reminiscences. Cf., too, Haydon's well-known descrip-
tion of Keats : " He was in bis glory in the fields. The hummmg of a bee, the sight of
a flower, the glitter of the sun, seemed to malca his nature tremble ; then his ^es Sashed,
his cheek glowed, his mouth quivered " (Life ofHaydon, ed. T. Taylor, ^8^. "• ?)•
Ixiv INTRODUCTION
his crew is for him, as for the Indian maiden thiiough whom
he speaks, only a passing splendour — ^it has no power to touch
his heart. It may induce forgetfulness
as the berried holly
By shepherds is forgotten, when, in June,
Tall chesnuts keep away the sun and moon ;
(End. iv. 206-8)
but the dominant emotion of the Ode, to which the mood of
Bacchus affords no more than a glowing contrast, is felt in the
allusions to the wild rose, the daisy and the cowshp, to the
glowworm and the nightingale. Phoebe has strayed far to seek
her poet — she has found him in an English wood.
Keats's sea pictures are in the same chai'acteristic manner
transcripts of actual expexience. When he tells how
Old Ocean rolls a lengthened wave to the shore,
Down whose green back the short-Iiv'd foam, all hoar.
Bursts gradual, with a wayward indolence, {End. ii. 348-50)
or relates to Reynolds how he sate
Upon a Lampit rock of green sea-weed
Among the breakers ; 'twas a quiet eve.
The rocks were silent, the wide sea did weave
An untumultous fringe of silver foam
Along the flat brown sand, (£/>. to Reynolds 88-92)
— ^in every case the impression owes its power not to its strange-
ness but to its essential truth and to its exquisite familiarity.
Yet these pictures ax-gue no mex-e seixsitiveness to literal fact,
they exhibit a special power of x'ealising the emotion which the
bare fact expresses. The poet, Keats tells us, is one who " finds
his way to all the instincts" of wx-en or eagle, to whom the
tiger's yell
Comes articulate and presseth
On his ear like mother-tongue,
{Where's the Poet? 14, 16) ;
who has no identity, but is often mex-ely the ix-x<esponsible medium
between the natural wox4d and univex-sal human feeling. This
being so, his power of catching xiatui-e's mood must lax'gely
depend, not only upon his sympathy with nature, but also upon
INTRODUCTION kv
his wide and sympathetic understanding of humanity, and the
«ffectiveness of his expression will depend upon his sympathy
with both. And we may, in fact, trace in his poetry an ever
gi'owing sense of their intimate relationship. At first there
is noticeable in his descriptions a definite and even awkward
"transition fi'om a fresh and chai-ming landscape to the human
iSgure ill sorted with its environment ; then, as his understanding
of human life became more real and more intense, his insight
into the heart of nature grew deeper, and his pictures of nature
gathered emotional force, so that when he is at his greatest
he can only speak of the one in terms of the other. Just as
his feeling for nature can only find voice in language applicable
to human emotion, so the beauty of nature is his unfailing
resource for the expression of the deepest and subtlest emotions
of the soul. Herein lay the secret of the spell which Greek
nlythology exercised over him. He realised instinctively the
spirit in which the legends had taken theh rise, and by that
same artistic sense which led the Greek to incarnate in human
form the spirit recognised by his religion in the beauty and the
power about him, Keats made it his own. When he tells how
the dead lovers lifted their heads at the passing of Endymion
As doth a flower at Apollo's touch
here is no idle personification ; he has embodied in an image of
perfect simplicity and truth his sense of the healing power of a
radiant presence. And the reality of these stories to his imag-
ination is strikingly coiToborated by the fact that nowhere does
he more faithfully depict the actual appeai-ance of moon and
sun than in his dramatic account of them under the names of
Cynthia and Hyperion.
'Tis She, but lo !
How chang'd, how full of ache, how gone in woe !
She dies at the thinnest cloud ; her loveliness
Is wan on Neptune's blue ; yet there's a stress
Of love-spangles, just off yon cape of trees.
Dancing upon the waves, as if to please
The curly foam with amorous influence. {End. iii. 79-86.)
This is not the less true to fact because it is painted to the
Ixvi INTRODUCTION
imagination, because it associates the loveliness of the moon
with the yearning of human passion. So too Hypexion's final
depai-ture from his palace, of tragic import in the development
of the stoiy, is only realised in a vivid conception of a gloomy
sunrise, the ominous prelude to a day of darkness and storm.
Those silver wiugs expanded sisterly,
Eager to sail their orh ; the porches wide
Open'd upon the dusk demesnes of night ;
And the bright Titan, phrenzied with new woes,
Unus'd to bend, by hard compulsion bent
His spirit to the sorrow of the time ;
And all along a dismal rack of clouds.
Upon the boundaries of day and night.
He stretch'd himself in grief and radiance faint.
{Hyp. i. 296-304.}
It is, by but a slight extension of this same poetic instinct
that the whole spirit of Autumn seems to pass into the figui-es
of the reaper, the gleaner, the maiden at the cider-press, and
they are touched wilii a sublime grace which is not their own.
Keats did not labour after this effect, it was natural to his vision
Yet even in these days so far retir'd
From happy pieties. . . .
I see, and sing, by my own eyes inspired.
{Ode to Psyche, 40-43.)
He has resumed, unconsciously, something of the naivete of the
ancient world.
But remarkable as is his affinity in cei-tain respects with the
Greek attitude to nature, he is at the same time in the closest
sympathy with the temper of his own day. For in an age whose
ideals find fittest utterance in the " Renascence of Wonder," it
was given to him, pei-haps, most of all, to interpret the wonders
of the natural world. Whether he leads us
Through the green evening quiet in the sun,
Through buried paths, where sleepy twilight dreams
The summer time away {End. ii. 71-73)
or calls upon us to gaze with him
on the new soft fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors {Sonnet, p. 288)
INTRODUCTION
— whatever his imagination has touched thrills us with a sense of
the mystery and awe which underlie the common things of earth ;
in aJl nature we read with him, as on the face of night, the
symbols of a high romance, which finite language can never
utter, but which answers none the less to the infinite longings
of the human soul.
In all this there is no attempt at explanation. Even th&
most philosophic of our poets delighted to picture himself as
Contented if he might enjoy
The things which others understand,
and in the poetry of Keats this mood is entirely dominant. " Un-
less poetry come like leaves to the tree it had better not come at
all," he writes, and there is something of defiance in his tone
when he claims as the inalienable prerogative of the poet identifi-
cation with his subject rather than criticism of it.
What sea-bird o'er the sea
Is a philosopher the while he goes
Winging his way where the great water throes ?
Nature presents perforce analogies with human life, on which
othei-s may speculate as they will, it may even suggest lessons of
direct beaiing upon conduct ; but the supreme truth to the poet
is not to be found in the lessons of nature, but in her mysterious
beauty, and in her never failing power, whehcesoever it may
spring, to respond to every mood of the changing heart of man.
Nature does not call upon him to understand this, but simply to
recognise it. The message of the thrush, heard by Eeats in the
glory of a February morning, was but the echo of Nature's
voice : —
O fret not after knowledge. I have none,
And yet my song comes native with the warmth.
O fret not after knowledge ! I have none.
And yet the evening listens.
Here lies the mystery : here, too, in a world of baiTen facts, of
arid controvei-sies, of idle speculations, the iiTesistible appeal. In
moments of supreme enjoyment, when the heart seems to beat
in consonance with the mighty heart of the universe, it is difScult
to deny a belief in the conscious life and conscious sympathy
bcviii INTRODUCTION
of nature, but her sovereignty depends on no such faith. Even
if she beam upon us in blank splendour,
like the mild moon.
Who comforts those she sees not, who knows not
What eyes are upward cast, (Fall of Hyp. i. 246-47)
the ti'uth remains immutable, unassailed, that the eyes are still
cast upward, that the splendour is thei-e, that the comfort is
never sought in vain. Keats knew, no less than Wordsworth,
that " Nature never did betray the heart that loved her," and
that the true worehip of beauty, associated, as he had learnt to
associate it, with a passionate sense of the son-ows of the world,
is its own justification, and its own reward.
POEMS
PUBLISHED IN 1817
" What more felicity can fall to creatureQ
Than to enjoy delight with liberty "
Fate of the Butterfly — Spenser
DEDICATION
/
TO LEIGH HUNT, ESQ
GLORY and loveliness have passed away
For if we wander o^t in early mom,
No wreathed incense do we see upborne
Into the east, to meet the smiling day :
No crowd of nymphs soft voic'd and young, and gay.
In woven baskets bringing ears of com,
Roses, and pinks, and violets, to adorn
The shrine of Flora in her early May.
But there are left delights as high as these.
And I shall ever bless my destiny.
That in a time, when under pleasant trees
Pan is no longer sought, I feel a free
A leafy luxury, seeing I could please
With these poor offerings, a man hke thee.
[The Short Pieces in the middle of the Book, as well as some of the Sonnets, were
written at an earlier periqd thaq the rest of the Poems.]
POEMS
" Places of nestling green for Poets made."
Story of Rimini. ''.
I STOOD tip-toe upon a little hill.
The air was cooling, and so very still.
That the sweet buds which with a modest pride
Pull droopingly, in slanting curve aside.
Their scantly leaved, and finely tapering stems.
Had not yet lost those starry diadems
Caught from the early sobbing of the morn.
The clouds were pure and whiteasHocSTiew shorn.
And fresh from the clear brook J'swggH^ they slept
On the blue fields of heaven, and then there crept lo
A little noiseless j^e among the leaves.
Bom of the very sigh that silence heaves :
For not the faintest motion could be seen
Of all the shades that slanted o'er the green.
There was wide wand'ring for the greediest eye.
To peer about upon variety ;
Far round the horizon's crystal air to skim.
And trace the dwindled edgings of its brim ;
To picture out the quaint, and curious bending
Of a fresh woodland alley, never ending ; 20
Or by the bowery clefts, and leafy shelves,
Guess where the jaimty streams refresh themselves.
I gazed awhile, and felt as light, and free
As though the fanning wings of Mercury
Had played upon my heels : I_w^Jight-heMted,
And many pleasures to my visiOTi"starte37
So I straightway began to pluck a posey
Of luxuries bright, milky, soft and rosy.
A bush of May flowers with the bees about them ;
Ah, sure no tasteful nook would be without them ; 30
]^
JOHN KEATS
And let a lush laburnum oversweep them.
And let long grass grow round the roots to keep them
Moist, cool and green ; and shade the violets.
That they may bend the moss in leafy nets.
A filbert hedge with wUd briar overtwined.
And clumps of woodbine taking the soft wind
Upon their summer thrones ; there too should be
The frequent chequer of a youngUng tree.
That with a score of light green brethren shoots
From the quaint mossiness of aged roots : 40
Round which is heard » spring-head of clear waters
Babbling so wildly of its lovely daughters
The spreading blue bells : it may haply mourn
That such feir clusters should be rudely torn
From their fresh beds, and scattered thoughtlessly
By infant hands, left on the path to die.
Open afresh your round of starry folds.
Ye ardent marigolds !
Dry up the moisture from your golden lids.
For great Apollo bids . 50
That in these days your praises should be sung
On many harps, which he has lately strung ;
And when again your dewiness he kisses.
Tell him, I have you in my world of blisses :
So haply when I rove in some far vale.
His mighty voice may come upon the gale.
Here are sweet peas, (on tip- toe for a flight :!
With wings of gentle flush o'er delicate white.
And taper fingers catching at all things.
To bind them all about with tiny rings. 60
I
Linger awhile upon some bending planks
That lean against a streamlet's rushy banks.
And watch intently Nature's gentle doings :
They will be found softer than ring-dove's cooings.
How silent comes the water round that bend ;
Not the minutest whisper does it send
To the o'erhanging sallows : blades of grass
Slowly across the chequer'd shadows pass.
Why, you might read two sonnets, ere they reach
To where the hurrying freshnesses aye preach 70
A natural sermon o'er their pebbly beds ;
Where swarms of minnows show their little heads.
Staying their wavy bodies 'gainst the streams,
I STOOD TIP-TOE UPON A LITTLE HILL 5
To taste the luxury of sunny beams
Temper'd with coolness. How they ever wrestle
With their own sweet delight, and ever nestle
Their silver bellies on the pebbly sand.
If you but scantily hold out the hand.
That very instant not one will remain ;
But turn your- eye, and they are there again. 80
The ripples seem right glad to reach those cresses.
And cool themselves among the em'rald tresses ;
The while they cool themselves, they freshness give,
And moisture, that the bowery green may live :
So keeping up an interchange of favours.
Like good men in the truth of their behaviours.
Sometimes goldfinches one by one will drop
From low hung branches ; little space they stop ;
But sip, and twitter, and their feathers sleek ;
Then off at once, as in a wanton freak : go
Or perhaps, to show their black, and golden wings.
Pausing upon their yellow flutterings.
Were I in such a place, I sure should pray
That nought less sweet, might call my thoughts away,
Than the soft rustle of a maiden's gown
Fanning away the dandelion's down ;
Than the light music of her nimble toes
Patting against the sorrel as she goes.
How she would start, and blush, thus to be caught
Playing in aU her innocence of thought. 100
O let me lead her gently o'er the brook.
Watch her half-smiling lips, and downward look ;
O let me for one moment touch her wrist ;
Let me one moment to her breathing list ;
And as she leaves me may she often turn
Her feir eyes looking through her locks aubitrne.
What next } A tuft of evening primroses.
O'er which the mind may hover till it dozes ;
O'er which it well might take a pleasant sleep.
But that 'tis ever startled by the leap no
Of buds into ripe flowers ; or by the flitting
Of diverse moths, that aye their rest are quitting ;
Or by the moon lifting her silver rim
Above a cloud, and with a gradual swim
Coming into the blue with all her light.
O Maker of sweet poets, dear delight
Of this fair world, and all its gentle livers ;
Spangler of clouds, halo of crystal rivers,
Mingler with leaves, and dew and tumbling streams.
Closer of lovely eyes to lovely dreams, 120
JOHN KEATS
Lover of loneliness, and wandering.
Of upcast eye, and tender pondering !
Thee must I praise above all other glories
That smile us on to tell delightful stories.
^ forwKaTKas made the sage or poet write
But the fair paradise of Nature's light ?
In the calm grandeur of a sober line.
We see the waving of the mountain pine ;
And when a tale is beautifully staid.
We feel the safety of a hawthorn glade : 130
When it is moving on luxurious wings.
The soul is lost in pleasant smotherings :
Fair dewy roses brush against our feces.
And flowering laurels spring from diamond vases ;
O'er head we see the jasmine and sweet briar.
And bloomy gra;^eslaughing from green attire ;
While at our feeVtEevoiceof crystal bubbles
Charms us at once away from all our troubles :
So that we feel uplifted from the world.
Walking upon the white clouds wreath'd and curl'd. 140
So felt he, who first told, how Psyche went
On the smooth wind to realms of wonderment ;
What Psyche felt, and Love, when their full lips
First touch'd ; what amorous, and fondling nips
They gave each other's cheeks ; with all their sighs.
And how they kist each other's tremulous eyes :
The silver lamp, — the ravishment, — ^the wonder —
The darkness, — loneliness, — the fearful thunder ;
Their woes gone by, and both to heaven upflown.
To bow for gratitude before Jove's throne. 150
So did he feel, who puU'd the boughs aside.
That we might look into a forest wide.
To catch a glimpse of Fawns, and Dryades
Coming with softest rustle through the trees ;
And garlands woven of flowers wild, and sweet.
Upheld on ivory wrists, or sporting feet :
Telling us how feir, trembling Syrinx fled
Arcadian Pan, with such a fearful dread.
Poor nymph, — poor Pan, — how he did weep to find.
Nought but a lovely sighing of the wind 160
Along the reedy stream ; a half heard strain.
Full of sweet desolation — ^balmy pain.
What first inspired a bard of old to sing }|-
Narcissus pining o'er the untainted spring.'' ,. ,»'
In some delicious ramble, he had found
A little space, with boughs all woven round ;
1 STOOD TIP-TOE UPON A LITTLE HILL 7
And in the midst of all, a clearer pool
Than e'er reflected in its pleasant cool,
The blue sky here, and there, serenely peeping
Through tendril wreaths fantastically creeping. 170
And on the bank a lonely flower he spied,
A meek and forlorn flower, with naught of pride.
Drooping its beauty o'er the watery clearness.
To woo its own sad image into nearness :
Deaf to light Zephyrus it would not move ;
But still would seem to droop, to pine, to love.
So while the poet stood in this sweet spot.
Some fainter gleamings o'er his fancy shot ;
Nor was it long ere he had told the tale
Of young Narcissus, and sad Echo's bale. 180
Where had he been, from whose warm head out-flew
That sweetest of all songs, that ever new.
That aye refreshing, pure deliciousness.
Coming ever to bless
The wanderer by moonlight .'' to him bringing
Shapes from the invisible world, unearthly singing
From out the middle air, from flowery nests,
And from the pillowy silkiness that rests
Full in the speculation of the stars.
Ah ! surely he had burst our mortal bars ; igo
Into some wond'rous region he had gone.
To search for thee, divine Endymion !
He was a Poet, sure a lover too.
Who stood on Latmus' top, what time there blew
Soft breezes from the myrtle vale below ;
And brought in faintness solemn, sweet, and slow
A hymn from Dian's temple ; while upswelling.
The incense went to her own starry dwelling.
But though her face was clear as infant's eyes,
Though she stood smilmg_o'er the sacrifice, 200
The Poet wept at ner so piteous fate.
Wept that such beauty should be desolate :
So in fine wrath some golden sounds he won.
And gave meek Cynthia her Endymion.
Queen of the wide air ; thou most lovely queen
Of all the brightness that mine eyes have seen !
As thou exceedest all things in thy shine,
So every tale, does this sweet tale of thine.
O for three words of honey, that I might
Tell but one wonder of thy bridal night ! 210
JOHN KEATS
Where distant ships do seem to show their keels,
Phoebus awhile delayed his mighty wheels.
And turned tD,|nule upon thy bashful eyes.
Ere he his unseen pomp would solemnize.
The evening weather was so bright, and clear.
That men of health were of unusual cheer ;
Stepping like Homer at the trumpet's call.
Or young Apollo on the pedestal :
And lovely women were as fair and warm,
As Venus looking sideways in alarm. 220
The breezes were ethereal, and pure.
And crept through half-closed lattices to cure
The languid sick ; it cool'd their fever'd sleep.
And soothed them into slumbers full and deep.
Soon they awoke clear eyed : nor burnt with thirsting.
Nor with hot fingers, nor with temples bursting :
And springing up, they met the wond'ring sight
Of their dear friends, nigh foolish with delight ;
Who feel their arms, and breasts, and kiss and stare.
And on their placid foreheads part the hair. 230
Young men, and maidens at each other gaz'd
With hands held back, and motionless, amaz'd
To see the brightness in each other's eyes ;
And so they stood, fiU'd with a sweet surprise,
Until their tongues were loos'd in poesy.
Therefore no lover did of anguish die :
But the soft numbers, in that moment spoken.
Made silken ties, that never may be broken.
Cynthia ! I cannot tell the greater blisses.
That follow'd thine, and thy dear shepherd's kisses : 240
Was there a poet born ? — but now no more.
My wand'ring spirit must no farther soar. —
SPECIMEN
OF AN
jINDUCTION TO A POEM
LO ! I must tell a tale of chivalry ;
For large white plumes are dancing in mine eye.
ike the formal crest of latter days :
But bending in a thousand graceful ways ;
So graceful, that it seems no mortal hand,
Or e'en the touch of Archimago's wand.
SPECIMEN OF AN INDUCTION TO A POEM 9
Could charm them into such an attitude.
We must think rather, that in playful mood,
Some mountain breeze had tum'd its chief delight,
To show this wonder of its gentle might. lo
Lo ! I must tell a tale of chivalry ;
For while I muse, the lance points slantingly
Athwart the morning air : some lady sweet, ?
Who cannot feel for cold her tender feet.
From the worn top of some old battlement
Hails it with tears, her stout defender sent :
And from her own pure self no joy dissembling.
Wraps round her ample robe with happy trembling.
Sometimes, when the good Knight his rest would take.
It is reflected, clearly, in a lake, 20
With the yoimg ashen boughs, 'gainst which it rests.
And th' half seen mossiness of linnets' nests.
Ah ! shall I ever tell its cruelty.
When the fire flashes from a warrior's eye.
And his tremendous hand is grasping it.
And his dark brow for very wrath is knit ?
Or when his spirit, with more calm intent.
Leaps to the honors of a tournament.
And makes the gazers round about the ring
Stare at the grandeur of the ballancing .'' 30
No, no ! this is far off": — then how shall I
. Revive the dying tones of minstrelsy.
Which linger yet about long gothic arches.
In dark green ivy, and among wild larches ?
How sing the splendoiu- of the revelries.
When buts of wine are drunk off" to the lees ?
And that bright lance, against the fretted waU,
Beneath the shade of stately banneral,
Is slung with shining cuirass, sword, and shield ?
Where ye may see a spur in bloody field. 40
Light-footed damsels move with gentle paces
Round the wide hall, and show their happy faces ;
Or stand in courtly talk by fives and sevens :
Like those fair stars that twinkle in the heavens.
Yet must I tell a tale of chivalry :
Or wherefore comes that steed so proudly by ?
Wherefore more proudly does the gentle knight.
Rein in the swelling of his ample might ?
Spenser ! thy brows are arched, open, kind.
And come like a clear sun-rise to my mind ; 50
And always does my heart with pleasure dance.
When I think on thy noble countenance :
10 JOHN KEATS
Where never yet was ought more earthly seen
Than the pure freshness of thy laurels green.
Therefore, great bard, I not so fearfully
Call on thy geintle spirit to hover nigh
My daring steps : or if thy tender care.
Thus startled unaware.
Be jealous that the foot of other wight
Should madly follow that bright path of light 60
Trac'd by thy lov'd Libertas ; he will speak.
And tell thee that my prayer is very meek ;
That I will follow with due reverence.
And start with awe at mine own strange pretence.
Him thou wilt hear ; so I wiU rest in hope
To see wide plains, fair trees and lawny slope :
The mom, the eve, the light, the shade, the flowers ;
Clear streams, smooth lakes, and overlooking towers.
CALIDORE
A Fragment
YOUNG Calidore is paddling o'er the lake ;
His healthful spirit eager and awake
To feel the beauty of a silent eve.
Which seem'd full loath this happy world to leave ;
The light dwelt o'er the scene so lingeringly.
He bares his forehead to the cool blue sky.
And smiles at the far clearness all around,
Until his heart is well nigh over wound.
And turns for calmness to the pleasant green
Of easy slopes, and shadowy trees that lean
So elegantly o'er the waters' brim
And show their blossoms trim.
Scarce can his clear and nimble eye-sight follow
The freaks, and dartings of the black-wing'd swallow.
Delighting much, to see it half at rest.
Dip so refreshingly its wings, and breast
'Gainst the smooth surface, and to mark anon.
The widening circles into nothing gone.
And now the sharp keel of his little boat
Comes up with ripple, and with easy float.
And glides into a bed of water lillies :
Broad leav'd are they and their white canopies
CALIBORE 11
Are upward tum'd to catch the heavens' dew.
Near to a little island's point they grew ;
Whence Calidore might have the goodliest view
Of this sweet spot of earth. The bowery shore
Went off in gentle windings to the hoar
And light blue mountains : but no breathing man
With a warm heart, and eye prepared to scan
Natiu-e's clear beauty, could pass lightly by 30
Objects that look'd out so invitingly
On either side. These, gentle Cadidore
Greeted, as he had known them long before.
The sidelong view of swelling leafiness.
Which the glad setting sun, in gold tloth dress ;
Whence ever, and anon the jay outsprings.
And scales upon the beauty of its wings.
The lonely turret, shatter' d, and outworn.
Stands venerably proud ; too proud to mourn
Its long lost grandeur : fir trees grow around, 40
Aye dropping their hard fruit upon the ground.
The little chapel with the cross above
Upholding wreaths of ivy ; the white dove.
That on the window spreads his feathers light.
And seems from purple clouds to wing its flight.
Green tufted islands casting their soft shades
Across the lake ; sequester'd leafy glades.
That through the dimness of their twilight show
Large dock leaves, spiral foxgloves, or the glow
Of the wild cat's eyes, or the silvery stems 50
Of delicate birch trees, or long grass which hems
A little brook. The youth had long been viewing
These pleasant things, and heaven was bedewing
The mountain flowers, when his glad senses caught
A trumpet's silver voice. Ah ! it was fraught
With many joys for him : the warder's ken
Had found white coursers prancing in the glen :
Friends very dear to him he soon will see ;
So pushes off his boat most eagerly.
And soon upon the lake he skims along, 60
Deaf to the nightingale's first under-song ;
Nor minds he the white swans that dream so sweetly :
His spirit flies before him so completely.
And now he turns a jutting point of land.
Whence may be seen the Castle gloomy, and grand :
12 JOHN KEATS
Nor will a bee buzz round two swelling peaches.
Before the point of his light shallop reaches
Those marble steps that through the water dip :
Now over them he goes with hasty trip.
And scarcely stays to ope the folding doors ; 70
Anon he leaps along the oaken floors
Of halls and corridors.
Delicious sounds ! those little bright-eyed things
That float about the air on azure wings.
Had been less heartfelt by him than the clang
Of clattering hoofs ; into the.court he sprang,
Just as two noble steeds, and palfreys twain.
Were slanting out their necks with loosened rein ;
While from beneath the threat'ning portcullis
They brought their happy burthens. What a kiss, 80
What gentle squeeze he gave each lady's hand !
How tremblingly their delicate ancles spann'd !
Into how sweet a trance his soul was gone.
While whisperings of affection
Made him delay to let their tender feet
Come to the earth ; with an incline so sweet
From their low palfreys o'er his neck they bent :
And whether there were tears of languishinent.
Or that the evening dew had pearl'd their tresses.
He feels a moisture on his cheek, and blesses go
With lips that tremble, and with glistening eye.
All the soft luxury
That nestled in his arms. A dimpled hand.
Fair as some wonder out of fairy laud.
Hung from his shoulder like the drooping flowers
Of whitest Cassia, fresh from summer showers :
And this he fondled with his happycheek
As if for joy he would no further seek ;
When the kind voice of good Sir Clerimond
Came to his ear, like something from beyond 100
His present being : so he gently drew
His warm arms, thrilling now with pulses new.
From their sweet thrall, and forward gently bending,
Thank'd heaven that his joy was never ending ;
While 'gainst his forehead he devoutly press'd
A hand heaven made to succour the distress'd ;
A hand that from the world's bleak promontory
Had lifted Calidore for deeds of glory.
Amid the pages, and the torches' glare.
There stood a knight, patting the flowing hair no
Of his proud horse's mane : he was withal
CALIDORE 13
A man of elegance, and stature tall :
So that the waving of his plumes would be
High as the berries of a wild ash tree.
Or as the winged cap of Mercury.
His armour was so dexterously wrought
In shape, that sure no living man had thought
It hard, and heavy steel : but that indeed
It was some glorious form, some splendid weed.
In which a spirit new come from the skies 120
Might live, and show itself to human eyes.
'Tis the fer-fam'd, the brave Sir Gondibert,
Said the good man to Calidore alert ;
While the young warrior with a step of grace
Came up, — a courtly smile upon his fiice.
And mailed hand held out, ready to greet
The large-eyed wonder, and ambitious heat
Of the aspiring boy ; who as he led
Those snuUng ladies, often turned his head
To admire the visor arched so gracefully 130
Over a knightly brow ; while they went by
The lamps that from the high roof d hall were pendent.
And gave the steel a shining quite transcendent.
Soon in a pleasant chamber they are seated ;
The sweet-lipp'd ladies have already greeted
All the green leaves that round the window clamber.
To show their purple stars, and bells of amber.
Sir Gondibert has dofiTd his shining steel,
Qlgddening in the free, and airy feel
Of aEght mantle ; and while Clerimond 140
Is looking round about him with a fond.
And placid eye, young Calidore is burning
To hear of knightly deeds, and gallant spuming
Of all unworthiness ; and how the strong of arm
Kept off dismay, and terror, and alarm
From lovely woman : while brimful of this.
He gave each damsel's hand so warm a kiss.
And had such manly ardour in his eye.
That each at other look'd half staringly ;
And then their features startgdinto smiles 150
Sweet as blue heavens o'er encKanfed isles.
Softly the breezes from the forest came.
Softly they blew aside the taper's flame ;
Clear was the soi^ from Philomel's far bower ;
Grateful the incense from the lime-tree flower ;
Mysterious, wild, the far heard trumpet's tone ;
14 JOHN KEATS
Lovely the moon in ether, all alone :
Sweet too the converse of these happy mortals.
As that of busy spirits when the portals
Are closing in the west ; or that soft humming i6o
We hear around when Hesperus is coming.
Sweet be their sleep. *********
SOME LADIES
WHAT though while the wonders of nature exploring,
I cannot your light, mazy footsteps attend ;
Nor listen to accents, that almost adoring.
Bless Cynthia's face, the enthusiast's friend :
Yet over the steep, whence the mountain stream rushes.
With you, kindest friends, in idea I rove ;
Mark the clear tumbling crystal, its passionate gushes,
Its spray that the wild flower kindly bedews.
Why linger you so, the wild lab)nrinth strolling ?
Why breathless, unable your bliss to declare .' jo
Ah ! you list to the nightingale's tender condohng.
Responsive to sylphs, in the moon beamy air.
'Tis mom, and the flowers with dew are yet drooping,
I see you are treading the verge of the sea :
And now ! ah, I see it — you just now are stooping
To pick up the keep-sake intended for me.
If a cherub, on pinions of silver descending.
Had brought me a gem from the fret-work of heaven ;
And smiles, with his star-cheering voice sweetly blending.
The blessings of Tighe had melodiously given ; 20
It had not created a warmer emotion
Than the present, fair n3rmphs, I was blest with from you,
Than the shell, from the bright golden sands of the ocean
Which the emerald waves at your feet gladly threw,
/ For, indeed, 'tis a sweet and peculiar pleasure,
' (And blissful is he who such happiness finds,)
To possess but a span of the hour of leisure,
In elegant, pure, and aerial minds.
ON RECEIVING A CURIOUS SHELL 15
On receiving a curious Shell, and a Copy of Verses, from the same
Ladies
HAST thou from the caves of Golconda, a gem
Pure as the ice-drop that froze on the mountain ?
Bright as the humming-bird's green diadem.
When it flutters in sun-beams that shine through a fountain ?
Hast thou a goblet for dark sparkling wine ?
That goblet right heavy, and massy, and gold ?
And splendidly mark'd with the story divine
Of Armida the &ir, and Rinaldo the bold ?
Hast thou a steed with a mane richly flowing ?
Hast thou a sword that thine enemy's smart is ? lo
Hast thou a trumpet rich melodies blowing ?
And wear'st thou the shield of the fam'd Britomartis ?
What is it that hangs from thy shoulder, so brave.
Embroidered with many a spring peering flower ?
Is it a scarf that thy fair lady gave ?
And hastest thou now to that fair lady's bower ?
Ah ! courteous Sir Knight, with large joy thou art crown'd ;
Full many the glories that brighten thy youth !
I will tell thee my blisses, which richly abound
In magical powers to bless, and to sooth, 20
On this scroll thou seest written in characters fair
A sun-beamy tale of a wreath, and a chain ;
And, warrior, it nurtures the property rare
Of charming ray mind from the trammels of pain.
This canopy mark : 'tis the work of a fay ;
Beneath its rich shade did King Oberon languish.
When lovely Titania was far, far away.
And cruelly left him to sorrow, and anguish.
There, oft would he bring from his soft sighing lute
Wild strains to which, spell-bound, the nightingales listened ; 30
The wondering spirits of heaven were mute.
And tears 'mong the dewdrops of morning oft glistened.
16 JOHN EEATS
In this little dome, all those melodies strange.
Soft, plaintive, and melting, for ever will sigh ;
Nor e'er will the notes from their tenderness change ;
Nor e'er will the music of Oberon die.
So, when I am in a voluptuous vein,
I pillow my head on the sweets of the rose.
And list to the tale of the wreath, and the chsiu,
TiU its echoes depart ; then I sSrik to repose. 40
Adieu, valiant Eric ! withjoy^ou art crown'd ;
Full many the glories that brighten thy youth,
I too have my blisses, which richly abound
• In magical powers, to bless atnd to' sootji.
TO * * * *
HADST thou liv'd in days of old,
O what wonders had been told
Of thy lively countenance.
And thy humid eyes that dance
In the midst of their own brightness ;
In the very fane of lightness.
Over which thine eyebrows, leaning.
Picture out each lovely meaning :
In a dainty bend they lie.
Like to streaks across the sky, 10
Or the feathers from a crow,
Fallen on a bed of snow.
Of thy dark hair that extends
Into many graceful bends :
As the leaves of Hellebore
Turn to whence they sprung before.
And behind each ample curl
Peeps the richness of a pearl
Downward too flows many a tress
With a glossy waviness ; ao
Full, and round like globes that rise
From the censer to the skies
Through sunny air. Add too, the sweetness
Of thy honied voice ; the neatness
Of thine ankle lightly tum'd :
With those beauties, scarce discem'd,
Kept with such sweet privacy,
That they seldom meet the eye
fO » * * * 17
Of the little loves that fly
Round about with eager pry. 30
Saving when, with freshening lave,
Thou dipp'st them in the taintless wave ;
Like twin water lillies, bom
In the coolness of the morn.
O, if thou hadst breathed then.
Now the Muses had been ten.
Couldst thou wish for lineage higher
Than twin sister of Thalia ?
At least for ever, evermore,
Will I call the Graces four. 40
Hadst thou liv'd when chivalry
Lifted up her lance on high.
Tell me what thou wouldst have been ?
Ah ! I see the silver sheen
Of thy broidered, floating vest
Cov'ring half thine ivory breast ;
Which, O heavens ! I should see.
But that cruel destiny
Has placed a golden cuirass there ;
Keeping secret what is &ir. 50
Like sunbeams in a cloudlet nested
Thy locks in knightly casque are rested :
O'er which bend four milky plumes
Like the gentle lilly's blooms
Springing from a costly vase.
See with what a stately pace
Comes thine alabaster steed ;
Servant of heroic deed !
O'er his loins, his trappings glow
Like the northern lights on snow. 60
Moimt his back ! thy sword unsheath !
Sign of the enchanter's death ;
Bane of every wicked spell ;
Silencer of dragon's yelL
Alas ! thou this wilt never do :
Thou art an enchantress too.
And wilt surely never spill
Blood of those whose eyes can kill.
18 JOHN KEATS
hope/-
WHEN by my solitary hearth I sit.
And hateful thoughts enwrap my soul in gloom ;
When no fair dreams before my " mind's eye " flit.
And the bare heath of life presents no bloom ;
Sweet Hope, ethereal balm upon me shed.
And wave thy silver pinions o'er my head.
Whene'er I wander, at the fall of night.
Where woven boughs shut out the moon's bright ray.
Should sad Despondency my musings fright.
And frown, to drive fair Cheerfulness away, lo
Peep with the moon-beams through the leafy roof.
And keep that fiend Despondence far aloof.
Should Disappointment, parent of Despair,
Strive for her son to seize my careless heart ;
When, like a cloud, he sits upon the air.
Preparing on his spell-bound prey to dart :
Chace him away, sweet Hope, with visage bright,
And fright him as the morning frightens night !
Whene'er the fate of those I hold most dear
Tells to my fearful breast a tale of sorrow, 20
O bright-eyed Hope, my morbid fancy cheer ;
Let me awhile thy sweetest comforts borrow :
Thy heaven-born radiance around me shed.
And wave thy silver pinions o'er my head !
Should e'er unhappy love my bosom pain.
From cruel parents, or relentless fair ;
O let me think it is not quite in vain
To sigh out sonnets to the midnight air !
Sweet Hope, ethereal balm upon me shed.
And wave thy silver pinions o'er my head ! 3°
In the long vista of the years to roll.
Let me not see our country's honour fede :
O let me see our land retain her soul.
Her pride, her freedom ; and not freedom's shade.
From thy bright eyes unusual brightness shed —
Beneath thy pinions canopy my head !
IMITATION OF SPENSER 19
Let me not see the patriot's high bequest.
Great liberty ! how great in plain attire !
With the base purple of a court oppress' d.
Bowing her head, and ready to expire : 40
But let me see thee stoop from heaven on wings
That fill the skies with silver gUtterings !
And as, in sparkling majesty, a star
Gilds the bright summit of some gloomy cloud ;
Brightening the half veil'd face of heaven a&r :
So, when dark thoughts my boding spirit shroud.
Sweet Hope, celestial influence round me shed.
Waving thy silver pinions o'er my head.
February, 1815.
IMITATION OF SPENSER
*******
NOW Morning from her orient chamber came.
And her first footsteps touch'd a verdant hill ;
Crowning its lawny crest with amber flame,
Silv'ring the untainted gushes of its rill ;
Which, pure from mossy beds, did down distill.
And after parting beds of simple flowers.
By many streams a little lake did fill,
Which round its marge reflected woven bowers.
And, in its middle space, a sky that never lowers..
There the king-fisher saw his plumage bright 10
Vieing with fish of brilUant dye below ;
Whose silken fins, and golden scales' Ught
Cast upward, through the waves, a ruby glow :
There saw the swan his neck of arched snow.
And oar'd himself along with majesty ;
Sparkled his jetty eyes ; his feet did show
Beneath the waves like Afric's ebony.
And on his back a fay reclined voluptuously.
Ah ! could I tell the wonders of an isle |
That in that fairest lake had placed been,
I could e'en Dido of her grief beguile ;
Or rob from aged Lear his bitter teen :
For sure so fair a place was never seen.
Of all that ever charm'd romantic eye :
It seem'd an emerald in the silver sheen I J^
Of the bright waters ; or as when on highj '
Through clouds of fleecy white, laughs the ccErulean sky.
20 JOHN KEATS
And all Ground it dipp'd luxuriously
Slopings of verdure through the glossy tide,
WWeh, as it were in gentle amity, 30
Rippled delighted up the flowery side ;
As if to glean the ruddy tears, it tried.
Which fell profusely from the rose-tree stem !
Haply it was the workings of its pride.
In strife to throw upon the shore a gem
Outvieing all the buds in Flora's diadem.
*******
WOMAN ! when I behold thee flippant, vain.
Inconstant, childish, proud, and full of fancies ;
Without that modest softening that enhances
The downcast eye, repentant of the pain
That its mild light creates to heal again :
E'en then, elate, my jmntkaps^^nd prances.
E'en then my soul wimexultationTdances
For that to love, so long, I've dormant lain :
But when I see thee meek, and kind, and tender.
Heavens ! how desperately do I adore 10
Thy winning graces ; — to be thy defender
I hotly bum — to be a Calidore —
A very Red Cross Knight — a stout Leander —
Might I be loved by thee like these of yore.
Light feet, dark violet eyes, and parted hair ;
Soft dimpled hands, white neck, and creamy breast.
Are things on which the dazzled senses rest
Till the fond, fixed eyes, forget they stare.
From such fine pictures, heavens ! I cannot dare
To turn my admiration, though unpossess'd 20
They be of what is worthy, — though not drest
In lovely modesty, and virtues rare.
Yet these I leave as thoughtless as a lark ;
These lures I straight forget, — e'en ere I dine,
Or thrice my palate moisten : but when I mark
Such charms with mild intelligences shine,
My ear is open like a greedy shark,
To catch the tunings of a voice divine.
Ah ! who can e'er forget so fair a being .'
Who can forget her half retiring sweets ? 30
God ! she is like a milk-white lamb that bleats
WOMAN! WHEN I BEHOLD THEE 21
For man's protection. Surely the All-seeing,
Who joys to see us with his gifts agreeing,
Will never give him pinions, who intreats
Such innocence to ruin, — who vilely cheats
A dove-like bosom. In truth there is no freeing
One's thoughts from such a beauty ; when I hear
A lay that once I saw her hand awake.
Her form seems floating palpable, and near ;
Had I e'er seen her from an arbour take 40
A dewy flower, oft would that hand appear.
And o'er my eyes the trembling moisture shake.
JOHN KEATS
EPISTLES
" Among the rest a shepheard (though but young
Yet hartned to his pipe) with all the skill
His few yeeres could, began to fit his quill."
Britannia's Pastorals. — Browne.
TO
GEORGE FELTON MATHEW
SWEET are the pleasures that to verse belong.
And doubly sweet a brotherhood in song ;
Nor can remembrance, Mathew ! bring to view
A fate more pleasing, a delight more true
Than that in which the brother Poets joy'd.
Who with combined powers, their wit employ' d
To raise a trophy to the drama's muses.
The thought of this great partnership diffuses
Over the genius loving heart, a feeling
Of all that's high, and great, and good, and healing.
Too partial friend ! fain would I follow thee
Past each horizon of fine poesy ;
Fain would I echo back each pleasant note
As o'er Sicilian seas, clear anthems float
'Mong the light skimming gondolas far parted,
Just when the sun his ferewell beam has darted :
But 'tis impossible ; far different cares
Beckon me sternly from soft " Lydian airs,"
And hold my faculties so long in thrall,
That I am oft in doubt whether at all
I shall again see Phoebus in the morning :
Or flush'd Aurora in the roseate dawning !
Or a white Naiad in a rippling stream ;
Or a rapt seraph in a moonlight beam ;
Or again witness what with thee I've seen,
The dew by fairy feet swept from the green,
EPISTLE TO GEORGE FELTON MATHEW 23
After a night of some quaint jubilee
Which every elf and fey had come to see :
When bright processions took their airy march
Beneath the curved moon's triumphal arch. 30
But might I now each passing moment give
To the coy muse, with me she would not live
In this dark city, nor would condescend
'Mid contradictions her delights to lend.
Should e'er the fine-eyed maid to me be kind,
Ah ! surely it must be whene'er I find
Some flowery spot, sequester' d, wUd, romantic.
That often must have seen a poet frantic ;
Where oaks, that erst the Druid knew, are growing.
And flowers, the glory of one day, are blowing ; 40
Where the dark-leav'd laburnum's drooping dusters
Reflect athwart the stream their yellow lustres.
And intertwin'd the cassia's arms unite.
With its own drooping buds, but very white.
Where on one side are covert branches himg,
'Along which the nightingales have always sung
In leafy quiet : where to pry, aloof,
Atween the pillars of the sylvan roof.
Would be to find where violet beds were nestUng,
And where the bee with cowslip bells was wrestling. 50
There must be too a ruin dark, and gloomy.
To say "joy not too much in all that's bloomy."
Yet this is vain — O Mathew lend thy aid
To find a place where I may greet the maid —
Where we may soft humanity put on.
And sit, and rhyme and thix^ on Chatterton ;
And that warm-hearted Shakspeare sent to meet him
Four laurell'd spirits, heaven-ward to intreat him.
With reverence would we speak of all the sages
Who have left streaks of light athwart their ages : 60
And thou shouldst moralize on Milton's blindness.
And mourn the fearfiil dearth of human kindness
To those who strove with the bright golden wing
Of genius, to flap away each sting
Thrown by the pitiless world. We next could tell
Of those who in the cause of freedom fell ;
Of our own Alfred, of Helvetian Tell ;
Of him whose name to ev'ry heart's a solace.
High-minded and unbending William Wallace.
While to the rugged north our musing turns 70
We well might drop a tear for him, and Bums.
24 JOHN KEATS
Felton ! without incitements such as these,
How vain for me the niggard Muse to tease :
For thee, she will thy every dwelling grace.
And make " a sun-sUne in a shady place : "
For thou wast once a flowret blooming wild.
Close to the source, bright, pure, and undefil'd.
Whence gush the streams of song : in happy hour
Came chaste Diana from her shady bower.
Just as the sun was from the east uprising ; 80
And, as for him some gift she was devising.
Beheld thee, pluck'd thee, cast thee in the stream
To meet her glorious brother's greeting beam.
I marvel much that thou hast never told
How, from a flower, into a fish of gold
Apollo chang'd thee ; how thou next didst seem
A black-eyed swan upon the widening stream ;
And when thou first didst in that mirror trace
The placid features of a human fe,ce :
That thou hast never told thy travels strange, go
And all the wonders of the mazy range
O'er pebbly crystal, and o'er golden sands ;
Kissing thy daily food from Naiad's pearly hands.
November, 1815.
MY BROTHER GEORGE
FULL many a dreary hour have I past.
My brain bewilder'd, and my mind o'ercast
With heaviness ; in seasons when I've thought
No spherey strains by me could e'er be caught
From the blue dome, though I to dimness gaze
On the far depth where sheeted lightning plays ;
Or, on the wavy grass outstretch'd supinely.
Pry 'mong the stars, to strive to think divinely :
That I should never hear Apollo's song.
Though feathery clouds were floating all along
The purple west, and, two bright streaks between.
The golden lyre Itself were dimly seen :
That the still murmur of the honey bee
Would never teach a rural song to me :
That the bright glance from beauty's eyelids slanting
Would never ijiake a lay of mipe enchanting.
EPISTLE TO GEORGE KEATS 25
Or warm my breast with ardour to unfold
Some tale of love and arms in time of old.
But there are times, when those that love the bay.
Fly from aU sorrowing far, fer away ; 20
A sudden glow comes on them, nought they see
In water, earth, or air, but poesy.
It has been said, dear George, and true I hold it,
(For knightly Spenser to Libertas told it,)
That when a Poet is in such a trance,
In air he sees white coursers paw, and prance,
Bestridden of gay knights, in gay apparel.
Who at each other tilt in playful quarrel.
And what we, ignorantly, sheet-lightning call.
Is the swift opening of their wide portal, 30
When the bright warder blows his trumpet clear.
Whose tones reach nought on earth but Poet's ear.
When these enchanted portals open wide.
And through the light the horsemen swiftly glide.
The Poet's eye can reach those golden halls.
And view the glory of their festivals :
Their ladies £iir, that in the distance seem
Fit for the silv'ring of a seraph's dream ;
Their rich brimm'd goblets, that incessant run
Like the bright spots that move about the sun ; 40
And, when upheld, the wine from each bright jar
Pours with the lustre of a falling star.
Yet further off, are dimly seen their bowers.
Of which, no mortal eye can reach the flowers ;
And 'tis right just, for well Apollo knows
'Twould make the Poet quarrel with the rose.
All that's reveal'd fi'om that far seat of blisses.
Is, the clear fountains' interchanging kisses.
As gracefully descending, light and thin.
Like silver streaks across a dolphin's fin, 50
When he upswimmeth from the coral caves.
And sports with half his tail above the waves.
These wonders strange he sees, and many more.
Whose head is pregnant with poetic lore.
Should he upon an evening ramble fare
With forehead to the soothing breezes bare.
Would he naught see but the dark, silent blue
With all its diamonds trembling through and through ?
Or the coy moon, when in the waviness
Of whitest clouds she does her beauty dress, 60
And staidly paces higher up, and higher,
26 JOHN KEATS
Like a sweet nun in holy-day attire ?
Ah, yes ! much more would start into his sight —
The revebies, and mysteries of night :
And should I ever see them, I will tell you
Such tales as needs must with amazement spell you.
These are the living pleasures of the bard :
But richer far posterity's award.
What does he murmur with his latest breath.
While his proud eye looks through the film of death .' 70
"What though I leave this dull, and earthly mould.
Yet shall my spirit lofty converse hold
With after times. — The patriot shall feel
My stem alarum, and unsheath his steel ;
Or, in the senate thunder out my numbers
To startle princes from their easy slumbers.
The sage will mingle with each moral theme
My happy thoughte sententious ; he will teem
With lofty periods when my verses fire him.
And then I'll stoop from heaven to inspire him. go
Lays have I left of such a dear delight
That maids will sing them on their bridal night.
Gay villagers, upon a morn of May,
When they have tir'd their gentle limbs with play.
And form'd a snowy circle on the grass.
And plac'd in midst of all that lovely lass
Who chosen is their queen, — with her fine head
Crowned with flowers purple, white, and red :
For there the lily, and the musk-rose, sighing.
Are emblems true of hapless lovers dying : 90
Between her breasts, that never yet felt trouble,
A bunch of violets full blown, and double.
Serenely sleep : — she from a casket takes
A little book, — and then a joy awakes
About each youthftd heart, — with stifled cries.
And rubbing of white hands, and sparkling eyes :
For she's to read a tale of hopes, and fears ;
One that I foster'd in my youthful years :
The pearls, that on each glist'ning circlet sleep.
Gush ever and anon with silent creep, i»o
Lur'd by the innocent dimples. To sweet rest
Shall the dear babe, upon its mother's breast,
Be lull'd with songs of mine. Fair world, adieu !
Thy dales, and hills, are fading £rom my view :
Swiftly I mount, upon wide spreading .pinions.
Far from the narrow bounds of thy dominions.
Full joy I feel, while thus I cleave the air,
EPISTLE TO GEORGE KEATS 27
That my soft verse will charm thy daughters fair.
And warm thy sons ! " Ah, my dear friend and brother.
Could I, at once, my mad ambition smother, no
For tasting joys like these, sure I should be
Happier, and dearer to society.
At times, 'tis true, I've felt relief from pain
When some bright thought has darted through my brain :
Through all that day I've felt a greater pleasure
Than if I'd brought to light a hidden treasure.
As to my sonnets, though none else should heed them,
I feel delighted, still, that you should read them.
Of late, too, I have had much calm enjoyment,
Stretch'd on the grass at my best lov'd employment 120
Of scribbling lines for you. These things I thought
While, in my &ce, the freshest breeze I caught.
E'en now I'm pillow'd on a bed of flowers
That crowns a lofty clift, which proudly towers
Above the ocean-waves. The stalks, and blades.
Chequer my tablet with their quivering shades.
On one side is a field of drooping oats.
Through which the poppies show their scarlet coats ;
So pert and useless, that they bring to mind
The scarlet coats that pester human-kind. 130
And on the other side, outspread, is seen
Ocean's blue mantle streak'd with purple, and green.
Now 'tis I see a canvass'd ship, and now
Mark the bright silver curling round her prow.
I see the lark down-dropping to his nest.
And the broad winged sea-gull never at rest ;
For when no more he spreads his feathers free,
His breast is dancing on the restless sea.
Now I direct my eyes into the west.
Which at this moment is in sunbeams drest : 140
Why westward turn ? 'Twas but to say adieu !
'Twas but to kiss my hand, dear George, to you !
August, 1816.
TO
CHARLES COWDEN CLARKE
OFT have you seen a swan superbly frowning.
And with proud breast his own white shadow crowning ;
He slants his neck beneath the waters bright
So silently, it seems a beam of light
28 JOHN KEATS
Come from the galaxy : anon he sports, —
With outspread wings the Naiad Zephyr courts.
Or ruffles all the surface of the lake
In striving from its crystal face to take
Some diamond water drops, and them to treasure
In milky nest, and sip them off at leisure. lo
But not a moment can he there insure them,
Nor to such downy rest can he allure them ;
For down they rush as though they would be free.
And drop like hours into eternity.
Just like that bird am I in loss of time.
Whene'er I venture on the stream of rhyme ;
With shatter'd boat, oar snapt, and canvass rent,
I slowly sail, scarce knowing my intent ;
Still scooping up the water with my fingers,
In which a trembling diamond never lingers. jo
By this, friend Charles, you may fuU plainly see
Why I have never penn'd a line to thee :
Because my thoughts were never free, and clear.
And little fit to please a classic ear ;
Because my wine was of too poor a savour
For one whose palate gladdens in the flavour
Of sparkling Helicon : — small good it were
To take him to a desert rude, and bare.
Who had on Baiae's shore reclin'd at ease.
While Tasso's page was floating in a breeze 30
That gave soft music from Armida's bowers,
Mingled with fragrance from her rarest flowers :
Small good to one who had by Mulla's stream
Fondled the maidens with the breasts of cream ;
Who had beheld Belphcebe in a brook.
And lovely Una in a leafy nook.
And Archimago leaning o'er his book :
Who had of all that's sweet tasted, and seen.
From silv'ry ripple, up to beauty's queen ;
From the sequester'd haunts of gay Titania, 40
To the blue dwelling of divine Urania :
One, who, of late, had ta'en sweet forest walks
With him who elegantly chats, and talks —
The wrong'd Libertas, — who has told you stories
Of laurel chaplets, and Apollo's glories ;
Of troops chivalrous prancing through a city,
And tearful ladies made for love, and pity :
With many else which I have never known.
Thus have I thought ; and days on days have flown
Slowly, or rapidly — unwilling still 50
EPISTLE TO CHARLES COWDEN CLARKE 29
For you to try my dull, unlearned quill.
Nor should I now, but that I've known you long ;
That you first taught me aU the sweets of song :
The grand, the sweet, the terse, the free, the fine ;
What swell'd with pathos, and what right divine :
Spenserian vowels that elope with ease.
And float along Uke birds o'er summer seas ;
Miltonian storms, and more, Miltonian tenderness ;
Michael in arms, and more, meek Eve's feir slendemess.
Who read for me the sonnet swelling loudly 60
Up to its climax and then dying proudly ?
Who found for me the grandeur of the ode.
Growing, like Atlas, stronger from its load ?
Who let me taste that more than cordial dram.
The sharp, the rapier-pointed epigram ?
Show'd me that epic was of all the king.
Round, vast, and spanning all like Saturn's ring ?
You too upheld the veil from Clio's beauty.
And pointed out the patriot's stem duty ;
The might of Alfred, and the shaft of "reU ; 70
The hand of Brutus, that so grandly fell
Upon a tj^'ant's head. Ah ! had I never seen
O* known your kindness, what might I have been ?
What my enjojnnents in my youthful years.
Bereft of all that now my life endears ?
And can I e'er these benefits forget ?
And can I e'er repay the friendly debt }
No, doubly no ; — yet should these rhymings please,
I shall roll on the grass with two-fold ease :
For I have long time been my fancy feeding 80
With hopes that you would one day think the reading
Of my rough verses not an hour misspent ;
Should it e'er be so, what a rich content !
Some weeks have pass'd since last I saw the spires
In lucent Thames reflected : — warm desires
To see the sun o'erpeep the eastern dimness.
And morning shadows streaking into slimness
Across the lawny fields, and pebbly water ;
To mark the time as they grow broad, and shorter ;
To feel the air that plays about the hills, go
And sips its freshness from the little rills ;
To see high, golden com wave in the light
When Cynthia smiles upon a summer's night.
And peers among the cloudlets jet and white.
As though she were reclining in a bed
Of bean blossoms, in heaven freshly shed.
No sooner had I stepp'd into these pleasures
30 JOHN KEATS
Than 1 began to think of rhymes and measures :
The air that floated by me seem'd to say
"Write ! thou wilt never have a better day." loo
And so I did. When many lines I'd ■written.
Though with their grace I was not oversmitten.
Yet, as my hand was warm, I thought I'd better
Trust to my feelings, and 4vrite you a letter.
Such an attempt requir'd an inspiration
Of a peculiar sort, — a consummation ; —
Which, had I felt, these scribblings might have been
Verses from which the soul would never wean :
But many days have passed since last my heart
Was warm'd luxuriously by divine Mozart ; no
By Ame delighted, or by Handel madden'd ;
Or by the song of Erin pierc'd and sadden'd :
What time you were before the music sitting.
And the rich notes to each sensation fitting.
Since I have walk'd with you through shady lanes
That freshly terminate in open plains.
And revel'd in a chat that ceased not
When at night-&ll among your books we got :
No, nor when supper came, nor after that, —
Nor when reluctantly I took my hat ; 120
No, nor till cordially you shook my hand
Mid-way between our homes : — ^your accents bland
Still sounded in my ears, when I no more
Could hear your footsteps touch the grav'ly floor.
Sometimes I lost them, and then found again ;
You chang'd the footpath for the grassy plain^
In those still moments I have wish'd you joys
That well you know to honor : — " Life's very toys
With him," said I, "will take a pleasant charm ;
It cannot be that ought will work him harm." 130
These thoughts now come o'er me with all their might : —
Again I shake your hand, — friend Charles, good night.
September, 1816.
SONNETS
TO MY BROTHER GEORGE
MANY the wonders I this day have seen :
The sun, when first he kist away the tears
That fill'd the eyes of mom ; — the laurel'd peers
Who from the feathery gold of evening lean ; —
The ocean with its vastness, its blue green,
Its ships, its rocks, its caves, its hopes, its fears,—
Its voice mysterious, which whoso hears
Must think on what will Gte>sand what has been,
E'en now, dear George, while this for you I write,
Cynthia is from her silken curtains peeping
So scantly, that it seems her bridal night.
And she her half-discover'd revels keeping.
But what, without the social thought of thee.
Would be the wonders of the sky and sea >
II
TO ******
HAD I a man's fair form, then might my sighs
Be echoed swiftly through that ivory shell
Thine ear, and find thy gentle heart ; so well
Would passion arm me for the enterprize :
But ah ! I am no knight whose foeman dies ;
No cuirass glistens on my bosom's swell ;
I am no happy shepherd of the deU
Whose lips have trembled with a maiden's eyes.
Yet must I dote upon thee, — call thee sweet.
Sweeter by far than Hybla's honied roses
When steep'd in dew rich to intoxication.
Ah ! I will taste that dew, for me 'tis meet.
And when the moon her pallid face discloses,
I'll gather some by spells, and incantaticm.
JOHN KEATS
III
Written on the day thai Mr. Leigh Hunt left Prison
WHAT though, for showing truth to flatter'd state.
Kind Hunt was shut in prison, yet has he.
In his immortal spirit, been as free
As the sky-searching lark, and as elate.
Minion of grandeur ! think you he did wait ?
Think you he nought but prison walls did see.
Till, so unwilling, thou untum'dst the key ?
Ah, no ! far happier, nobler was his fate !
In Spenser's halls he strayed, and bowers fair.
Culling enchanted flowers ; and he flew
With daring Milton through the fields of air :
To regions of his own his genius true
Took happy flights. Who shall his fame impair
When thou art dead, and all thy wretched crew }
IV
HOW many bards gQd the lapses of time ! "^
A few of them have ever been the food '~
Of my delighted fancy, — I could brood a .
Over their beauties, earthly, or sublime : «^
And often, when I sit me down to rhyme, '•>
These will in throngs before my mind intrude s
But no confusion, no disturbance rude »■
Do they occasion ; 'tis a pleasing chime. ^
So the unnumber'd sounds that evening store : -
The songs of birds — ^the whisp'ring of the leaves-^^
The voice of waters — the great bell that heaves '
With solemn sound, — and thousand others more.
That distance of recognizance bereaves, "
Make pleasing music, and not wild uproar.
SONNETS 33
To a Friend who sent me some Roses
AS late I rambled in the happy fields.
What time the sky-lark shakes the tremulous dew
From his lush clover covert ; — ^when anew
Adventurous knights take up their dinted shields :
I saw the sweetest flower wild nature jdelds,
A fresh-blown musk-rose ; 'twas' the first that threw
Its sweets upon the summer : graceful it grew
As is the wand that queen Titania wields.
And, as I feasted on its fiagrancy,
I thought the garden-rose it far excell'd :
But when, O Wells ! thy roses came to me
My sense with their deliciousness was spell'd :
Soft voices had they, that with tender plea
Whisper'd of peace, and truth, and fnendliness unquell'd.
VI
TO G. A. W.
N' YMPH of the downward smUe, and sidelong glance.
In what diviner moments of the day
Art thou most lovely ? — when gone fer astray
Into the labjrrinths of sweet utterance.
Or when serenely wand' ring in a trance
Of sober thought ? — or when starting away
With careless robe, to meet the morning ray.
Thou spar'st the flowers in thy mazy dance ?
Haply 'tis when thy ruby lips part sweetly.
And so remain, because thou listenest :
But thou to please wert nurtured so completely
That I can never tell what mood is best.
I shall as soon pronounce which Grace more neatly
Trips it before Apollo than the rest.
34 JOHN KEATS
VII
O SOLITUDE ! if I must with thee dwell.
Let it not be among the jumbled heap
Of murky buildings ; climb with me the steep, —
Nature's observatory — whence the dell.
Its flowery slopes, its river's crystal swell.
May seem a span ; let me thy vigils keep
'Mongst boughs pavillion'd, where the deer's swift leap
Startles the wild bee from the fox-glove bell.
But though I'll gladly trace these scenes with thee,
Yet the sweet converse of an innocent mind.
Whose words are images of thoughts refin'd.
Is my soul's pleasure ; and it sure must be
Almost the highest bliss of human-kind.
When to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee.
VIII
TO MY BROTHERS
SMALL, busy flames play through the fresh laid coals.
And their faint cracklings o'er our silence creep
Like whispers of the household gods that keep
A gentle empire o'er fraternal souls.
And while, for rhymes, I search around the poles.
Your eyes are fix'd, as in poetic sleep.
Upon the lore so voluble and deep.
That aye at fall of night our care condoles.
This is your birth-day Tom, and I rejoice
That thus it passes smoothly, quietly.
Many such eves of gently whisp'ring noise
May we together pass, and calmly try
What are this world's true joys, — ere the great voice,
From its fair face, shall bid our spirits fly.
ffovember i8, x8i6,
SONNETS 35
IX
KEEN, fitfol gusts are whisp'ring here and there
Among the bushes half leafless, and dry ;
The stars look very cold about the sky.
And I have many miles on foot to fere.
Yet feel I little of the cool bleak air.
Or of the dead leaves rustling drearily.
Or of those silver lamps that bum on high.
Or of the distance from home's pleasant 1^:
For I am brimfull of the friendliness
That in a little cottage I have found ;
Of feir-hair'd Milton's eloquent distress.
And all his love for gentle Lycid drown'd ;
Of lovely Laura in her light green dress.
And faithful Petrarch gloriously crown'd.
TO one who has been long in city pent,
'Tis very sweet to look into the feir
And open fece of heaven, — to breathe a prayer
FuU in the smile of the blue firmament
Who is more happy, when, with heart's content,
'T'afegueS'^esinks into some pleasant lair
Of wavy grass, and reads a debonair
And gentle tale of love and languishment }
Returning home at evening, with an ear
Catching the notes of Philomel, — an eye
Watching the sailing cloudlet's bright career.
He mourns that day so soon has glided by :
E'en like the passage of an angel's tear
That fells through the clear ether silently.
36 JOHN KEATS
XI
On first looking into Chapman's Homer
MUCH have I travell'd in the realms of gold.
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen ;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. \iS
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told C jlP
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his 'demesne ;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene ^-
TiU I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold : {/
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken ; iwA.
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes ifNT^'^'"^
He stared at the Pacific — and all his men ^
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise-
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
XII
On leaving some Friends at an early Hour
GIVE me a golden pen, and let me lean
On heap'd up flowers, in regions clear, and far ;
Bring me a tablet whiter than a star.
Or hand of hymning angel, when 'tis seen
The silver strings of heavenly harp atween :
And let there glide by many a pearly car.
Pink robes, and wavy hair, and diamond jar.
And half 'discovered wings, and glances keen.
The while let music wander round my ears.
And as it reaches each delicious ending.
Let me write down a line of glorious tone.
And full of many wonders of the spheres :
For what a heightjay spirit is contending !
" Tis nolt content so soon to be alone.
SONNETS 37
XIII
ADDRESSED TO HAYDON
HIGHMINDEDNESS, a jealousy for good,
A loving-kindness for the great nuin's £ime.
Dwells here and there with people of no name.
In noisome alley, and in pathless wood :
And where we think the truth least understood.
Oft may be found a " singleness of aim,"
That ought to frighten into hooded shame
A money-mong'ring, pitiable brood.
How glorious this affection for the cause
t)f sted£>tst genius, toiling gallantly !
What when a stout unbending champion awes
Envy, and Malice to their native sty ?
Unnnmber'd souls breathe out a still applause.
Proud to behold him in his country's eye.
XIV
ADDRESSED TO THE SAME
GREAT spirits now on earth are sojourning ;
He of the cloud, the cataract, the lake,
Who on HelveUyn's summit, wide awake.
Catches his freshness from Archangel's wing :
He of the rose, the violet, the spring.
The social smile, the chain for Freedom's sake :
AndTot— whose stedfastness would never take
A meaner sound than Raphael's whispering.
And other spirits there are standing apart
Upon the forehead of the age to come ;
These, these will give the world another heart.
And other pulses. Hear ye not the hum
Of mighty workings .'
Listen awhile ye nations, and be dumb.
38 JOHN KEATS
XV
On the Grasshopper and Cricket
THE poetry of earth is never dead :
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead ;
That is the Grasshopper's — he takes the lead
In summer luxury, — he has never done
With his delights ; for when tired_out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never :
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stqve there shrills
The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever.
And seems to one in drowsiness half -lost.
The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.
December 30, 1816.
XVI
TO KOSCIUSKO
GOOD Kosciusko, thy great name alone
Is a full harvest whence to reap high feeling ;
It comes upon us like the glorious pealing
Of the wide spheres — an everlasting tone.
And now it tells me, that in worlds unknown,
■ The names of heroes burst from clouds concealing.
And change to harmonies, for ever stealing
Through cloudless blue, and round each silver throne.
It tells me too, that on a happy day.
When some good spirit walks upon the earth.
Thy name with Alfred's, and the great of yore'
Gently commingling, gives tremendous birth
To a loud hymn, that sounds &r, far away
To where the great God lives for evermore.
SONNETS 39
XVII
pPY is. England ! I could be content
_ To see no other verdure than its own ;
To feel no other breezes than are blown
Through its tall woods with high romances blent :
Yet do I sometimes feel a languishment
For skies Italian, and an inward groan
To sit upon an Alp as on a throne.
And half forget what world or worldling meant.
Happy is England, sweet her artless daughters ;
Enough their simple loveliness for me.
Enough their whitest arms in silence clinging :
Yet do I often warmly bum to see
Beauties of deeper glance, and hear their singing.
And float with them about the summer waters.
40 JOHN KEATS
SLEEP AND POETRY
" As I lay in my bed slepe full unmete
Was unto me; but why that I ne might
Rest I ne wist, for there n'as erthly wight
[As I suppose] had more of hertis ese
Than I, for I n'ad sicknesse nor disese."
Chaucer.
WHAT is more gentle than a wind in summer ?
What is more soothing than the pretty hummer
That stays one moment in an open flower.
And buzzes ^emlj from bower to bower ?
What is more tranquil than a musk-rose blowing
In a green island, far from all men's knowing ?
More healthful than the leafiuess of dales ?
More secret than a nest of nightingales ?
More serene than Cordelia's countenance ?
More frill of visions than a high romance ? lo
What, but thee Sleep ? Soft closer of our eyes !
Low murmurer of tender lullabies !
Light hoverer around our happy pillows !
Wreather of poppy buds, and weeping willows !
Silent entangler of a beauty's tresses !
Most^ljaggy listener ! when the morning blesses
Thee for enlivening all the cheerful eyes
That glance so brightly at the new sun-rise.
But what is higher beyond thought than thee ?
Fresher than berries of a mountain tree ? 20
More strange, more beautiful, more smooth, more regal.
Than wings of swans, than doves, than dim-seen eagle ?
What is it } And to what shall I compare it .'
It has a glory, and nought else can share it :
The thought thereof is awful, sweet, and holy,
Chacing away all worldliness and folly ;
Coming sometimes like fearful claps of thunder.
Or the low rumblings earth's regions under ;
And sometimes like a gentle whispering
Of all the secrets of some wond'rous thmg' 30
SLEEP AND POETRY 41
That breathes about us in the vacant air ;
So that we look around with prying stare.
Perhaps to see shapes of light, aerial Ijnnning,
And catch soft floatings from a faint-heard hymning ;
To see the laurel wreath, on high suspended,
That is to crown our name when life is ended.
Sometimes it gives a glory to the voice.
And from the heart up-springs,^j:gjjjicg_Lj^ice !
Sounds which will reach the Framer of all things.
And die away in ardent mutterings. 40
No one who once the glorious sun has seen.
And all the clouds, and felt his bosom clean
For his great Maker's presence, but must know
What 'tis I mean, and feel his being glow :
Therefore no insult will I give his spirit,
By telling what he sees from native merit.
O Poesy ! for thee I hold my pen
That am not yet a glorious denizen
Of thy wide heaven — Should I rather kneel
Upon some mountain-top until I feel 50
A glowing splendour round about me hung.
And echo back the voice of thine own tongue ?
O Poesy ! for thee I grasp my pen
That am not yet a glorious denizen
Of thy wide heaven ; yet, to my ardent prayer.
Yield from thy sanctuary some clear air.
Smoothed for intoxication by the breath
Of flowering bays, that I may die a death
Of luxury, and my young spirit follow
The morning sun-beams to the great Apollo 60
Like a fresh sacrifice ; or, if I can bear
The o'erwhelming sweets, 'twill bring to me the fair
Visions of all places : a bowery nook
Will be elysium — an eternal book
Whence I may copy many a lovely saying
About the leaves, and flowers — about the playing
Of nymphs in woods, and fountains ; and the shade
Keeping a silence round a sleeping maid ;
And many a verse from so strange influence
That we must ever wonder how, and whence 70
It came. Also imaginings will hover
Roimd my fire-side, and haply there discover
Vistas of solemn beauty, where I'd wander
In happy silence, like the clear Meander
42 JOHN KEATS
Through its lone vales ; and where I found a spot
Of awfuUer shade, or an enchanted grot.
Or a green hill o'erspread with chequered dress
Of flowers, and fearful from its loveliness.
Write on my tablets all that was permitted.
All that was for our human senses fitted. 80
Then the events of this wide world I'd seize
Like a strong giant, and my spirit teaze
Till at its shoulders it should proudly see
Wings to find out an immortality.
Stop and consider ! life is but a day ;
A fragile dew-drop on its perilous way
From a tree's summit ; a poor Indian's sleep
While his boat hastens to the monstrous steep
Of Montmorenci. WhYsosadjt_moan ?
Life is the rose's hopewhileyet unblown ; 90
The reading of an ever-changing tale ;
The light uplifting of a maiden's veil ;
A pigeon tumbling in clear summer air ;
A laughing school-boy, without grief or care,
Riding the springy branches of an elm.
O for ten years, that I may overwhelm
Myself in poesy ; so I may do the deed
That my own soul has to itself decreed.
Then will I pass the countries that I see
In long perspective, and continually 100
Taste their pure fountains. First the realm I'll pass
Of Flora, and old Pan : sleep in the grass,
Feed upon apples red, and strawberries.
And choose each pleasure that my fancy sees ;
Catch the white-handed nymphs in shady places.
To woo sweet kisses from averted faces, —
Play with their fingers, touch their shoulders white
Into a pretty shrinking with a bite
As hard as lips can make it : till agreed,
A lovely tale of human life we'll read. no
And one will teach a tame dove how it best
May fan the cool air gently o'er my rest ;
Another, bending o'er her nimble tread.
Will set a green robe floating round her head.
And still will dance with ever varied ease,
Sjniling upon the flowers and the trees :
An9flr8r'will entice me on, and on
Through almond blossoms and rich cinnamon ;
SLEEP AND POETRY 43
Till in the bosom of a leafy world
We rest in silence, Uke two gems upcurl'd 120
In the recesses of a pearly shell.
And can I eY§r.bjid,_the§e4oy§,fee3«ell ?
Yes, I must pass them for a nobler life.
Where I may find the agonies, the strife
Of human hearts : for I'o ! I see afar.
O'er sailing the blue cragginess, a car
And steeds with streamy manes — the charioteer
Looks out upon the winds with glorious fear :
And now the numerous tramplings quiver lightly
Along a huge cloud's ridge ; and now with sprightly 130
Wheel downward come they into fresher skies,
Tipt round with silver from the sun's bright eyes.
Still downward with capacious whirl they glide ;
And now I see them on a green-hill's side
In breezy rest among the nodding stalks.
The charioteer with wond'rous gesture talks
To the trees and mountains ; and there soon appear
Shapes of delight, of mystery, and fear.
Passing along before a dusky space
Made by some mighty oaks : as they would chase 140
Some ever-fleeting music on they sweep.
Lo ! how they murmur, laugh, and smUe, and weep :
Some with upholden hand and mouth severe ;
Some with their faces muiHed to the ear
Between their arms ; some, clear in youthful bloom.
Go glad and smilingly athwart the gloom ;
Some looking back, and some with upward gaze ;
Yes, thousands in a thousand different ways
Flit onward — now a lovely wreath of girls
Dancing their sleek hair into tangled curls ; 130
And now broad wings. Most awfully intent
The driver of those steeds is forward bent.
And seems to listen : O that I might know
All that he writes with such a hurrying glow.
The visions all are fled — the car is fled
Into the light of heaven, and in their stead
A sense of real things comes doubly strong,
And, like a muddy stream, would bear along
My soul to nothingness : but I will sthve
Against all doubtings, and wiU keep alive 160
The thought of that same chariot, and the strange
Journey it went.
44 JOHN KEATS
Is there so small a range
In the present strength of manhood, that the high
Imagination cannot freely fly
As she was wont of old ? prepare her steeds,
Paw up against the light, and do strange deeds
Upon the clouds ? Has she not shown us all ?
From the clear space of ether, to the small
Breath of new buds unfolding ? From the meaning
Of Jove's large eye-brow, to the tender greening 170
Of April meadows ? Here her altar shone.
E'en in this isle ; and who could paragon
The fervid choir that lifted up a noise
Of harmony, to where it aye will poise
Its mighty self of convoluting sound,
Huge as a planet, and like that roll round,
Eternally around a dizzy void ?
Ay, in those days the Muses were nigh cloy'd
With honors ;" nor had any other care
Than to sing out and sooth their wavy hair. 180
Could all this be forgotten ? Yes, a schism
Nurtured by foppery and barbarism.
Made great Apollo blush for this his land-
Men were thought wise who could not understand
His glories : with^a puling infant's force
They sway'd about upon a rocking horse.
And thought it Pegasus. Ah dismal soul'd !
The winds of heaven blew, the ocean roU'd
Its gathering waves — ye felt it not. The blue
Bared its eternal bosom, and the dew 19a
Of summer nights collected still to make
The morning precious : beauty was awake !
Why were ye not awake ? But ye were dead
To things ye knew not of, — were closely wed
To musty laws lined out with wretched rule
And compass vile : so that ye taught a school
Of dolts to smooth, inlay, and clip, and fit.
Till, like the certain wands of Jacob's wit.
Their verses tallied. Easy was the task :
A thousand handicraftsmen wore the mask 200
Of Poesy. Ill-fated, impious race 1
That blasphemed the bright Lyrist to his face.
And did not know it, — no, they went about,
Holding a poor, decrepid standard out
Mark'd with most flimsy mottos, and in large
The name of one Boileau !
SLEEP AND POETRY 45
Oh ye whose charge
It is to hover round our pleasant hills !
Whose congregated majesty so fills
My boundly reverence, that I cannot trace
Your hallowed names, in this unholy place, 210
So near those common folk ; did not their shames
Aflfright you ? Did our old lamenting Thames .
Delight you ? Did ye never cluster round
Delicious Avon, with a mournful sound.
And weep ? Or did ye wholly bid adieu
To regions where no more the laurel grew ?
Or did ye stay to give a welcoming
To some lone spirits who could proudly Sing
Their youth away, and die ? 'Twas even so :
But let me think away those times of woe : 220
Now 'tis a fairer season ; ye have breathed
Rich benedictions o'er us ; ye have wreathed
Fresh garlands : for sweet music has been heard
In many places ; — some has been upstirr'd
From out its crystal dwelling in a lake.
By a swan's ebon bill ; from a thick brake.
Nested and quiet in a valley mild.
Bubbles a pipe ; fine sounds are floating wild
About the earth : hagmr are ye and glad.
These things are doubtless : yet in truth we've had 230
Strange thunders from the potency of song ;
Mingled indeed with what is sweet and strong.
From majesty : but in clear truth the themes
Are ugly clubs, the Poets Polyphemes
Disturbing the grand sea. A drainless shower
Of light is poesy ; 'tis the supreme of power ;
'Tis might half slumb'ring on its own right arm.
The very archings of her eye-lids charm
A thousand willing agents to obey.
And still she governs with the mildest sway : 240
But strength alone though of the Muses bom
Is like a fallen angel : trees uptom.
Darkness, and worms, and shrouds, and sepulchres
Delight it ; for it feeds upon the burrs.
And thorns of life ; forgetting the great end
Of poesy, that it should be a friend
To soQth the cares, and lift the thoughts of man.
Yet I rejoice : a myrtle fairer than
E'er grew in Paphos, from the bitter weeds
Lifts its sweet head into the air, and feeds 250
46 JOHN KEATS
A silent space with ever sprouting green.
All tenderest birds there find a pleasant screen.
Creep through the shade with jaunty fluttering.
Nibble the little cupped flowers and sing.
Then let us clear away the choaking thorns
From round its gentle stem ; let the young fawns.
Yeaned in after times, when we are flown,
Find a fresh sward beneath it, overgrown
With simple flowers : let there nothing be
^QjjeJjoistCTOusthan a lover's bended knee ; 260
Nought more ungentle than the placid look
Of one who leans upon a closed book ;
Nought more untranquil than the grassy slopes
Between two hills. All hail delightful hopes !
As she was wont, th' imagination
Into most lovely labyrinths will be gone.
And they shall be accounted poet kings
Who simply tell the most heart-easing things.
O may these joys be ripe before I die.
Will not some say that I presumptuously 270
Have spoken ? that from hastening disgrace
'Twere better far to hide my foolish face ?
That whining boyhood should with reverence bow
Ere the dread thunderbolt could reach ? How !
If I do hide myself, it sure shall be
In the very fane, the light of Poesy :
If I do fall, at least I will be laid
Beneath the silence of a poplar shade ;
And over me the grass shall be smooth shaven ;
And there shall be a kind memorial graven. 280
But oiF Despondence ! miserable bane !
They should not know thee, who athirst to gain
A noble end, are thirsty every hour.
What though I am not wealthy in the dower
Of spanning wisdom ; though I do not know
The shiftings of the mighty winds that blow
Hither and thither all the changing thoughts
Of man : though no great minist'ring reason sorts
Out the dark mysteries of human souls
*To clear conceiving : yet there ever rolls ssgo
A vast idea before me, and I glean
Therefrom my liberty ; thence too I've seen
The end and aim of Poesy. 'Tis clear
As anything most true ; as that the year
Is made of the four seasons — manifest
As a large cross, some old cathedral's crest,
SLEEP AND POETRY 47
Lifted to the white clouds. Therefore should I
Be but the essence of deformity,
A coward, did my very eye-lids wink
At speaking out what I have dared to think. 300
Ah ! rather let me like a madman run
Over some precipice ; let the hot sun
Melt my Dedalian wings, and drive me down
Convuls'd arid headlong ! Stay ! an inward frown
Of conscience bids me be more calm awhile.
An ocean dim, sprinkled with many an isle.
Spreads awfully before me. How much toil ]
How many days ! what desperate turmoil !
Ere I can have explored its widenesses.
Ah, what a task ! upon my bended knees, 310
I could unsay those — no, impossible !
Impossible !
For sweet relief I'll dwell
On humbler thoughts, and let this strange assay
Begun in gentleness die so away.
E'en now all tumult from my bosom fades :
I turn full hearted to the friendly aids
That smooth the path of honour ; brotherhood.
And friendliness the nurse of mutual good.
The hearty grasp that sends a pleasant sonnet
Into the brain ere one can think upon it ; 320
The silence when some rhymes are coming out ;
And when they're come, the very pleasant rout :
The message certain to be done to-morrow.
'Tis perhaps as well that it should be to borrow
Some precious book from out its snug retreat.
To cluster round it when we next shall meet.
Scarce can I scribble on ; for lovely airs
Are fluttering round the room like doves in pairs ;
Many delights of that glad day recalling.
When first my senses caught their tender falling. 330
And with these airs come forms of elegance
Stooping their shoulders o'er a horse's prance.
Careless, and grand — fingers soft and round
Parting luxuriant curls ; — and the swift bound
Of Bacchus from his chariot, when his eye
Made Ariadne's cheek look blushingly.
Thus I remember all the pleasant flow
Of words at opening a portfolio.
Things such as these are ever harbingers
To trains of peaceful images : the stirs 340
Of a swan's neck unseen among the rushes ;
A linnet starting all about the bushes :-
48 JOHN KEATS
A butterfly, with golden wings broad parted.
Nestling a rose, convuls'd as though it smarted
With over pleasure — many, many more,
Might I indulge at large in all my store
Of luxuries : yet I must not forget
Sleep, quiet with his poppy coronet :
For what there may be worthy in these rhymes
I partly owe to him : and thus, the chimes 350
Of friendly voices had just given place
To as sweet a silence, when I 'gan retrace
The pleasant day, upon a couch at ease.
It was a poet's house who keeps the keys
Of pleasure's temple. Round about were hung
The glorious features of the bards who sung
In other ages — cold and sacred busts
Smiled at each other. Happy he who trusts
To clear Futurity his darling fame !
Then there were fauns and satyrs taking aim 3^0
At swelling apples with a frisky leap
And reaching fingers, 'mid a luscious heap
Of vine-leaves. Then there rose to view a fane
Of liny marble, and thereto a train
Of nymphs approaching fairly o'er the sward :
One, loveliest, holding her white hand toward
The dazzling sun-rise : two sisters sweet
Bending their graceful figures till they meet
Over the trippings of a little child :
And some are hearing, eagerly, the wild 370
Thrilling liquidity of dewy piping.
See, in another picture, nymphs are wiping
Cherishingly Diana's timorous limbs ; —
A fold of lawny mantle dabbling swims
At the bath's edge, and keeps a gentle motion
With the subsiding crystal : as when ocean
Heaves calmly its broad swelling smoothness o'er
Its rocky marge, and balances once more
The patient weeds ; that now unshent by foam
Feel all about their undulating home. 380
Sappho's meek head was there half smiling down
At nothing; just as though the earnest frown
Of over thinking had that moment gone
From off her brow, and left her all alone.
Great Alfred's too, with anxious, pit3ring eyes.
As if he always listened to the sighs
Of the goaded world ; and Kosciusko's worn
By horrid suffrance— Rjightily forlorn.
SLEEP AND POETRY 49
Petrarch, outstepping from the shady green.
Starts at the sight of Laura ; nor can wean 390
His eyes from her sweet face. Most happy they !
For over them was seen a free display
Of out-spread wings, and from between them shone
The face of Poesy : from off her throne
She overlook'd things that I scarce could tell.
The very sense of where I was might well
Keep Sleep aloof : but more than that there came
Thought after thought to nourish up the flame
Within my breast ; so that the morning light
Surprised me even from a sleepless night ; 400
And up I rose refresh'd, and glad, and gay.
Resolving to begin that very day
These lines ; and howsoever they be done,
I leave them as a father does his son.
ENDYMION
a ipoetic IRomance
' THE STRETCHED METRE OF A^f ANTIQUE SONG "
INSCRIBED
TO THE MEMORY
OF
THOMAS CHATTERTON
ENDYMION
PREFACE
KNOWING within myself the manner in which this Poem has
been produced, it is not without a feeling of regret that I
make it public.
What manner I mean, will be quite clear to the reader, who must
soon perceive great inexperience, immaturity, and every error de-
noting a feverish attempt, rather than a deed accomplished. The
two first books, and indeed the two last, I feel sensible are not of
' such completion as to warrant their passing the press ; nor should
they if I thought a year's castigation would do them any good ; —
it will not : the foundations are too sandy. It is just that this
youngster should die away : a sad thought for me, if I had not
some hope that while it is dwindling I may be plotting, and fitting
myself for verses fit to live.
This may be speaking too presumptuously, and may deserve a
punishment : but no feeling man will be forward to inflict it : he
^ will leave me alone, with the conviction that there is not a fiercer
t hell than the failure in a great object. This is not written with
the least atom of purpose to forestall criticisms of course, but from
the desire I have to conciliate men who are competent to look,
and who do look with a zealous eye, to the honour of EngUsh
literature. '
The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination
of a man is healthy ; but there is a space of life between, in which
the soul is in a ferment, the character undecided, the way of life
uncertain, the ambition thick-sighted : thence proceeds mawkish-
ness, and all the thousand bitters which those men I speak of must
necessarily taste in going over the following pages.
I hope I have not in too late a day touched the beautiful
mythology of Greece, and dulled its brightness : for I wish to try
once more, before I bid it farewel.
Tiignmouth,
April lo, 1818.
ENDYMION
BOOK I
A THING of beauty i|g,jjsx_^». ever ^
jr\_ Its loveliness increases ; it will never
Pass into nothingness ; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth.
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days.
Of all the imhealthy and o'er-darkened ways
Made for our searching : yes, in spite of aU,
I moon.
Trees old, and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep ; and such are daiFodik
With the green world they live in ; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
'Gainst the hot season ; the mid forest brake.
Rich with a sprinkling of fa'ir musk-rose blooms :
And such too is the grandeur- of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead ;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read :
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.
Nor do we merely feel these essences
For one short hoiu" ; no, even as the trees
That whisper round a temple become soon
Dear as the temple's self, so does the moon.
The passion poesy, glories infinite.
Haunt us till they become a cheering light
Unto our souls, and bound to us~so fast.
That, whether there be shine, or gloom o'ercast,
They al-«fay must be with us, or yfe die,
Si JOHN KEATS [book i
Therefore, 'tis with full happiness that I
Will trace the story of Endymion.
The very music of the name has gone
Into my being, and each pleasant scene
Is growing, fresh before me as the green
Of our own vallies : so I wiU begin
Now while I cannot hear the city's din ; 40
Now while the early budders are just new,
And run in mazes of the youngest hue
About old forests ; while the willow trails
Its delicate amber ; and the dairy pails
Bring home increase of milk. And, as the year
Grows lush in juicy stalks, I'll smoothly steer
My little boat, for many quiet hours.
With streams that deepen freshly into bowers.
Many and many a verse I hope to write.
Before the daisies, vermeil rimm'd and white, 50
Hide in deep herbage ; and ere yet the bees
Hum about globes of clover and sweet peas,
I must be near the middle of my story.
O may no wintry season, bare and hoary.
See it half finished : but let Autumn bold.
With universal tinge of sober gold,
Be all about me when I make an end.
And now at once, adventuresome, I send
My herald thought into a wilderness :
There let its trumpet blow, and quickly dress 60
My uncertain path with green, that I may speed
Easily onward, thorough flowers and weed.
Upon the sides of Latmus was outspread
A mighty forest ; for the moist earth fed
So plenteously all weed-hidden roots
Into o'er-hanging boughs, and precious fruits.
And it had gloomy shades, sequestered deep.
Where no man went ; and if from shepherd's keep
A lamb strayed far a-down those inmost glens.
Never again saw he the hapg^ pens 70
Whither his brethren, blea^g with content.
Over the hills at every nightfall went.
Among the shepherds, 'twas believed ever.
That not one fleecy lamb which thus did sever
From the white flock, but pass'd unworried
By angry wolf, or pard with prying head.
Until it came to some unfooted plains
Where fed the herds of Pan : ay great his gains
Who thus one lamb did lose. Paths there were many, '^
BOOK I] ENDYMION 35
Winding through palmy fern, and rushes fenny, 80
And ivy banks ; all leading pleasantly
To a wide lawn, whence one could only see
Stems thronging all around between the swell
Of turf and slanting branches : who could tell
The freshness of the space of heaven above,
Edg'd round with dark tree tops ? through which a dove
Would often beat its wings, and often too
A little cloud would move across the blue.
Full in the middle of this pleasantness
There stood a marble altar, with a tress 90
Of flowers budded newly ; and the dew
Had taken fairy phantasies to strew
Daisies upon the sacred sward last eve.
And so the dawned light in pomp receive.
For 'twas the morn : Apollo's upward fire
Made every eastern cloud a silvery pyre
Of brightness so unsullied, that therein
A melancholy spirit well might win
Oblivion, and melt out his essence fine
Into the winds : rain-scented eglantine ioq^
Gave temperate sweets to that well- wooing sun ;
The lark was lost in him ; cold springs had run
To warm their chilliest bubbles in the grass ;
Man's voice was on the mountains ; and the mass
Of nature's lives and wonders puls'd tenfold,
To feel this sun-rise and its glories old.
Now while the silent workings of the dawn
Were busiest, into that self-same lawn
AU suddenly, with^jpyfiil cries, there sped
A troop of little cliilaren garlanded ; no
Who gathering round the altar, seemed to pry
Earnestly round as wishing to espy
Some folk of holiday : nor had they waited
For many moments, ere their ears were sated
With a faint breath of music, which ev'n then
Fill'd out its voice, and died away again.
Within a little space again it gave
Its airy swellings, with a gentle wave.
To light-hung leaves, in smoothest echoes breaking
Through copse-clad vallies, — ere their death, o'ertaking 120
The surgy murmurs of the lonely sea.
And now, as deep into the wood as we
Might mark a Ijnax's eye, there glimmered light
56 JOHN KEATS [book i
Fair faces and a rush of garments white.
Plainer and plainer shewing, till at last
Into the widest alley they all past,
Making directly for the woodland altar.
O kindly muse ! let not my weak tongue faulter
In telling of this goodly company.
Of their old piety, and of their glee : 130
But let a portion of ethereal dew
Fall on my head, and presently unmew
My soul ; that I may dare, in way&ring.
To stammer where old Chaucer used to sing.
Leading the way, young damsels danced along.
Bearing the burden of a shepherd song ;
Each having a white wicker over briram'd
With April's tender younglings : next, well trimm'd,
A crowd of shepherds with as sunbm-nt looks
As may be read of in Arcadian books ; 1^0
Such as sat listening round Apollo's pipe.
When the great deity, for earth too ripe.
Let his divinity o'erflowing die
In music, through the vales of Thessaly :
Some idly trailed their sheep-hooks on the ground.
And some kept up a shrilly mellow sound
With ebon-tipped flutes : close after these.
Now coming from beneath the forest trees,
A venerable priest full soberly.
Begirt with miuistring looks : alway his eye 150
Stedfast upon the matted turf he kept.
And after him his sacred vestments swept.
From his right hand there swung a vase, milk-white.
Of mingled wine, out-sparkling generous light ;
And in his left he held a basket full
Of all sweet herbs that searching eye could cull :
Wild thyme, and valley-lilies whiter still
Than Leda's love, and cresses from the rill.
His aged head, crowned with beechen wreath,
Seem'd like a poll of ivy in the teeth i6o
Of winter hoar. Then came another crowd
Of shepherds, lifting in due time aloud
Their share of the ditty. After them appear'd.
Up-followed by a multitude that rear'd
Their voices to the clouds, a fair wrought car.
Easily rolling so as scarce to mar
The freedom of three steeds of dapple brown :
Who stood therein did seem of great renown
Among the throng. His youth was fully blown.
BOOK I] ENDYMION 57
Showing like Ganymede to manhood grown : 170
And, for those simple times, his garments were
A chieftain king's : beneath his breast, half bare.
Was hung a silver bugle, and between
His nervy knees there lay a boar-spear keen.
A smile was on his countenance ; he seem'd,
To common lookers on, like one who dream' d
Of idleness in groves Elysian :
But there were some who feelingly could scan
A lurking trouble in his nether lip.
And see that oftentimes the reins would slip igo
Through his forgotten hands : then would they sigh.
And think of yellow leaves, of owlets' cry.
Of logs piled solemnly. — Ah, well-a-day.
Why should our young End}rmion pine away !
Soon the assembly, in a circle rang'd.
Stood silent round the shrine : each look was chang'd
To sudden veneration : women meek
Beckon'd their sons to silence ; while each cheek
Of virgin bloom paled gently for slight fear.
Endymion too, without a forest peer, igo
Stood, wan, and pale, and with an awed face,
Among his brothers of the mountain chase
In midst of all, the venerable priest
Eyed them with joy from greatest to the least,
And, after lifting up his aged hands.
Thus spake he : " Men of Latmos ! shepherd bands !
Whose care it is to guard a thousand flocks :
Whether descended from beneath the rocks
That overtop your mountains ; whether come
From vallies where the pipe is never dumb ; 200
Or from your swelling downs, where sweet air stirs
Blue hare-bells lightly, and where prickly furze
Buds lavish gold ; or ye, whose precious charge
Nibble their fill at ocean's very marge.
Whose mellow reeds are touch'd with sounds forlorn
By the dim echoes of old Triton's horn :
Mothers and wives ! who day by day prepare
The scrip, with needments, for the mountain air ;
And all ye gentle girls who foster up
Udderless lambs, and in a little cup 210
Will put choice honey for a favoured youth :
Yea, every one attend ! for in good truth
Our vows are wanting to our great god Pan.
Are not our lowing heifers sleeker than
Night-swollen mushrooms ? Are not our wide plains
58 JOHN KEATS [book i
Speckled with countless fleeces ? Have not rains
Green'd over April's lap ? No howling sad
Sickens our fearful ewes ; and we have had
Great bounty from Endymion our lord.
The earth is glad : the merry lark has pour'd 220
His early song against yon breezy sky.
That spreads so clear o'er our solemnity."
Thus ending, on the shrine he heap'd a spire
Of teeming sweets, enkindling sacred fire ;
Anon he stain'd the thick and spongy sod
With wine, in honor of the shepherd-god.
Now while the earth was drinking it, and while
Bay leaves were crackling in the fragrant pile,
And gummy frankincense was sparkling bright
'Neath smothering parsley, and a hazy light 230
Spread greyly eastward, thus a chorus sang :
" O THOU, whose mighty palace roof doth hang
From jagged trunks, and overshadoweth
Eternal whispers, glooms, the birth, life, death
Of unseen flowers in heavy peacefulness ;
Who lov'st to see the hamadryads dress
Their rufiled locks where meeting hazels darken ;
And through whole solemn hours dost sit, and hearken
The dreary melody of bedded reeds —
In desolate places, where dank moisture breeds
The pipy hemlock to strange. overgrowth ;
Bethinking thee, how melancholy loth
Thou wast to lose fair Syrinx — do thou now.
By thy love's milky brow !
By all the trembling mazes that she ran.
Hear us, great Pan !
" O thou, for whose soul-soothing quiet, turtles
Passion their voices cooingly 'mong myrtles.
What time thou wanderest at eventide
Through sunny meadows, that outskirt the side
Of thine enmossed realms : O thou, to whom
Broad leaved fig trees even now foredoom
Their ripen'd fruitage ; yeUow girted bees
Their golden honeycombs ; our village leas
Their fairest blossom'd beans and poppied com ;
The chuckling linnet its five young unborn.
To sing for thee ; low creeping strawberries
Their summer coolness ; pent up butterflies
Their freckled wings ; yea, the fresh budding year
BOOK I] ENDYMION 59
All its completions — be quickly near, 260
By every wind that nods the mountain pine,
O forester divine !
" Thou, to whom every fawn and sat3nr flies
For willing service ; whether to surprise
The squatted hare while in half sleeping fit ;
Or upward ragged precipices flit
To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw ;
Or by mysterious enticement draw
BewUdered shepherds to their path again ;
Or to tread breathless round the frothy main, 270
And gather up all fancifuUest shells
For thee to tumble into Naiads' cells.
And, being hidden, laugh at their out-peeping ;
Or to delight thee with fantastic leaping.
The while they pelt each other on the crown
With silvery oak apples, and fir cones brown —
By all the echoes that about thee ring.
Hear us, O sat3rr king !
" O Hearkener to the loud clapping shears
While ever and anon to his shorn peers 280
A ram goes bleating : Winder of the horn.
When snouted wild-boars routing tender corn
Anger our huntsmen : Breather round our farms.
To keep off mildews, and all weather harms :
Strange ministrant of undescribed sounds.
That come a swooning over hollow grounds,
And wither drearily on barren moors :
Dread opener of the mysterious doors
Leading to universal knowledge — see.
Great son of Dryope, 290
The many that are come to pay their vows
With leaves about their brows !
" Be still the unimaginable lodge
For solitary thinkings ; such as dodge
Conception to the very bourne of heaven.
Then leave the naked brain : be still the leaven.
That spreading in this dull and clodded earth
Gives it a touch ethereal — a new birth :
Be still a symbol of immensity ;
A firmament reflected in a sea ; 300
An element filling the space between ;
An unknown — but no more : we humbly screen
With uplift hands our foreheads, lowly bending.
60 JOHN KEATS [book i
And giving out a shout most heaven rending.
Conjure thee to receive our humble P8Ban>
Upon thy Mount Lycean ! "
Even while they brought the burden to a close,
A shout from the whole multitude arose.
That lingered in the air like dpng rolls
Of abrupt thunder, when Ionian shoals 310
Of dolphins bob their noses through the brine.
Meantime, on shady levels, mossy fine,
Young companies nimbly began dancing
To the swift treble pipe, and humming string.
Aye, those fair living forms swam heavenly
To tunes forgotten — out of memory :
Fair creatures ! whose young children's children bred
ThermopylsB its heroes — not yet dead, \ \^^
But in old marbles ever beautiful. / ^^
High genitors, unconscious did they cull 320
Time's sweet first-fruits — they danc'd to weariness.
And then in quiet circles did they press
The hillock turf, and caught the latter end
Of some strange history, potent to send
A young mind from its bodily tenement.
Or they might watch the quoit-pitchers, intent
On either side ; pitying the sad death
Of Hyacinthus, whep the cruel breath
Of Zeph3rr slew him, — Zephjrr penitent.
Who now, ere Phoebus mounts the firmament, 330
Fondles the flower amid the sobbing rain.
The archers too, upon a wider plain.
Beside the feathery whizzing of the shaft.
And the dull twanging bowstring, and the raft
Branch down sweeping from a tall ash top,
Call'd up a thousand thoughts to envelope
Those who would watch. Perhaps, the trembling knee
And frantic gape of lonely Niobe,
Poor, lonely Niobe ! when her lovely young
Were dead and gone, and her caressing tongue 340
Lay a lost thing upon her paly lip.
And very, very deadliness did nip
Her motherly cheeks. Arous'd from this sad mood
By one, who at a distance loud halloo' d.
Uplifting his strong bow into the air.
Many might after brighter visions stare :
After the Argonauts, in blind amaze
Tossing about on Neptune's restless ways,
Until, from the horizon's vaulted side,
BOOK I] ENDYMION 61
There shot a golden splendour far and wide, 350
Spangling those million poutings of the brine
With quivering ore : 'twas even an awfiil shine
From the exaltation of Apollo's bow ;
A heavenly beacon in their dreary woe.
Who thus were ripe for high contemplating,
Might turn their, steps towards the sober ring
Where sat Endymion and the aged priest
'Mong shepherds gone in eld, whose looks increas'd
The silvery setting of their mortal star.
There they discours'd upon the fragile bar 360
That keeps us from our homes ethereal ;
And what our duties there : to nightly call
Vesper, the beauty-crest of summer weather ;
To summon all the downiest clouds together
For the sun's purple couch ; to emulate
In ministring the potent rule of fate
With speed of fire-tailed exhalations ;
To tint her pallid cheek with bloom, who cons
Sweet poesy by moonlight : besides these,
A world of other unguess'd offices. 370
Anon they wander' d, by divine converse,
Into Elysium ; vieing to rehearse
Each one his own anticipated bliss.
One felt heart-certain that he could not miss
His quick gone love, among fair blossom'd boughs.
Where every zephyr-sigh pouts, and endows
Her lips with music for the welcoming.
Another wish'd, mid that eternal spring.
To meet his rosy child, with feathery sails.
Sweeping, eye-earnestly, through almond vales : 380
Who, suddenly, should stoop through the smooth wind.
And with the balmiest leaves his temples bind ;
And, ever after, through those regions be
His messenger, his little Mercury.
Some were athirst in soul to see again
Their fellow huntsmen o'er the wide champaign
In times long past ; to sit with them, and talk
Of all the chances in their earthly walk ;
Comparing, joyfully, their plenteous stores
Of happiness, to when upon the moors, 390
Benighted, close they huddled from the cold.
And shar'd their famish'd scrips. Thus all out-told
Their fond imaginations, — Saving him
Whose eyelids curtain'd up their jewels dim,
Endymion : yet hourly had he striven
To hide the cankering venom, that had riven
JOHN KEATS [book i
His fainting recollections. Now indeed
His senses had swoon'd off: he did not heed
The sudden silence, or the whispers low.
Or the old eyes dissolving at his woe, 400
Or anxious calls, or close of trembling palms.
Or maiden's sigh, that grief itself embalms :
But in the self-same fixed trance he kept.
Like one who on the earth had never stept.
Aye, even as dead-still as a marble man,
Frozen in that old tale Arabian.
Who whispers him so pantingly and close .■"
Peona, his sweet sister : of all those.
His friends, the dearest. Hushing signs she made.
And breath'd a sister's sorrow to persuade 410
A yielding up, a cradling on her care.
Her eloquence did breathe away the curse :
She led him, like some midnight spirit nurse
Of happy changes in emphatic dreams.
Along a path^between two little streams, —
Guarding his forehead, with her round elbow.
From low-grown branches, and his footsteps slow
From stumbling over stumps and hillocks small ;
Until they came to where these streamlets fall.
With mingled bubblings and a gentle rush, 420
Into a river, clear, brimful, and flush
With crystal mocking of the trees and sky.
A little shallop, floating there hard by.
Pointed its beak over the fringed bank ;
And soon it lightly dipt, and rose, and sank.
And dipt again, with the young couple's weight, —
Peona guiding, through the water straight,
Towards a bowery island opposite ;
Which gaining presently, she steered light
Into a shady, fresh, and ripply cove, 430
Where nested was an arbour, overwove
By many a summer's silent fingering ;
To whose cool bosom she was used to bring
Her plajrmates, with their needle broidery.
And minstrel memories of times gone by.
So she was gently glad to see him laid
Under her favourite bower's quiet shade.
On her own couch, new made of flower leaves.
Dried carefully on the cooler side of sheaves
When last the sun his autunm tresses shook, 440
BOOK I] ENDYMION 68
And the tann'd harvesters rich armfids took.
Soon was he quieted to slumbrous rest :
But, ere it crept upon him, he had prest
Peona's busy hand against his lips.
And still, a sleeping, held her finger-tips
In tender pressure. And as a willow keeps
A patient watch over the stream that creeps
Windingly by it, so the quiet maid
Held her in peace : so that a whispering blade
Of grass, a wailful gnat, a bee bustling 450
Down in the blue-bells, or a wren light rustling
Among sere leaves and twigs, might all be heanl.
O magic sleep ! O comfortable bird.
That broodest o'er the troubled sea of the mind
Till it is hush'd and smooth ! O unconfin'd
Restraint ! imprisoned liberty ! great key
To golden palaces, strange minstrelsy.
Fountains grotesque, new trees, bespangled caves.
Echoing grottos, full of tumbling waves
And moonlight ; aye, to all the mazy world 460
Of silvery enchantment ! — ^who, upfurl'd
Beneath thy drowsy wing a triple hour.
But renovates and lives ? — Thus, in the bower,
Endymion was calm'd to life again.
Opening his eyelids with a healthier brain.
He said : " I feel this thine endearing love
All through my bosom : thou art as a dove
Trembling its closed eyes and sleeked wings
About me ; and the pearUest dew not brings
Such morning incense from the fields of May, 470
As do those brighter drops that twinkling stray
From those kind eyes, — ^the very home and haunt
Of sisterly affection. Can I want
Aught else, aught nearer heaven, than such tears ?
Yet dry them up, in bidding hence all fears
That, any longer, I will pass my days
Alone and sad. No, I will once more raise
My voice upon the mountain-heights ; once more
Make my ham parley from their foreheads hoar ;
Again my trooping hounds their tongues shall loll 480
Around the breathed boar : again I'll poll
The fair-grown yew tree, for a chosen bow :
And, when the pleasant sun is getting low.
Again I'll linger in a sloping mead
To hear the speckled thrushes, and see feed
Our idle sheep. So be thou cheered sweet.
64 JOHN KEATS [book i
And, if thy lute is here, softly intreat
My soul to keep in its resolved course."
Hereat Peona, in their silver source.
Shut her pure sorrow drops with glad exclaim, ^go
And took a lute, from which there pulsing came
A lively prelude, fashioning the way
In which her voice should wander. 'Twas a lay
More subtle cadenced, more forest wild
Than Dryope's lone lulling of her child ;
And nothing since has floated in the air
So mournful strange. Surely some influence rare
Went, spiritual, through the damsel's hand ;
For still, with Delphic emphasis, she spann'd
The quick invisible strings, even though she saw 500
Endymion's spirit melt away and thaw
Before the deep intoxication.
But soon she came, with sudden burst, upon
Her self-possession — swung the lute aside.
And earnestly said : " Brother, 'tis vain to hide
That thou dost know of things mysterious.
Immortal, starry ; such alone could thus
Weigh down thy nature. Hast thou sinn'd in aught
Offensive to the heavenly powers ? Caught
A Paphian dove upon a message sent ? 510
Thy deathfiil bow against some deer-herd bent
Sacred to Dian ? Haply, thou hast seen
Her naked limbs among the alders green ;
And that, alas ! is death. No I can trace
Something more high perplexing in thy £ice ! "
Endymion look'd at her, and press'd her hand.
And said, " Art thou so pale, who wast so bland
And 5jeMy in our meadows ? How is this }
Tell meThine ailment : tell me all amiss ! —
Ah ! thou hast been unhappy at the change 520
Wrought suddenly in me. What indeed more strange }
Or more complete to overwhelm surmise ?
Ambition is no sluggard : 'tis no prize.
That toiling years would put within my grasp.
That I have sigh'd for : with so deadly gasp
No man e'er panted for a mortal love.
So all have set my heavier grief above
These things which happen. Rightly have they done :
I, who still saw the horizontal sun
Heave his broad shoulder o'er the edge of the world, 530
Out-facing Lucifer, and then had hurl'd
BOOK I] ENDYMION 65
My spear aloft, as signal for the chace —
I, who, for very sport of heart, would race
With my own steed from Araby ; pluck down
A vulture from his towery perching ; frown
A lion into growling, loth retire —
To lose, at once, all my toil breeding fire.
And sink thus low ! but I will ease my breast
Of secret grief, here in this bowery nest.
" This river does not see the naked sky, 540
TiU it begins to progress silverly
Around the western border of the wood.
Whence, from a certain spot, its winding flood
Seems at the distance like a crescent moon :
And in that nook, the very pride of June,
Had I been used to pass my weary eves ;
The rather for the sun unwilling leaves
So dear a picture of his sovereign power.
And I could witness his most kingly hour.
When he doth tighten up the golden reins, 550
And paces leisurely down amber plains
His snorting four. Now when his chariot last
Its beams against the zodiac-lion cast.
There blossom' d suddenly a magic bed
Of sacred ditamy, and poppies red :
At which I wondered greatly, knowing well
That but one night had wrought this flowery spell ;
And, sitting down close by, began to muse
What it might mean. Perhaps, thought I, Morpheus,
In passing here, his owlet pinions shook ; 560
Or, it may be, ere matron Night uptook
Her ebon urn, young Mercury, by stealth.
Had dipt his rod in it : such garland wealth
Came not by common growth. Thus on I thought.
Until my head was dizzy and distraught.
Moreover, through the dancing poppies stole
A breeze, most softly lulling to my soul ;
And shaping visions all about my sight
Of colours, wings, and bursts of spangly Hght ;
The which became more strange, and strange, and dim, 570
And then were gulph'd in a tumultuous swim :
And then I fell asleep. Ah, can I tell
The enchantment that afterwards befel }
Yet it was but a dream : yet such a dream
That never tongue, although it overteem
With mellow utterance, like a cavern spring.
Could figure out and to conception bring
5
66 JOHN KEATS [book i
All I beheld and felt. Methought I lay
Watching the zenith, where the milky way
Among the stars in virgin splendour pours ;^ 580
And travelling my eye, until the doors
Of heaven appear'd to open for ray flight,
I became loth and fearM to alight
From such high soaring by a downward glance :
So kept me stedfast in that airy trance.
Spreading imaginary pinions wide.
When, presently, the stars began to glide.
And faint away, before my eager view :
At which I sigh'd that I could not pursue,
And dropt my vision to the horizon's verge ; 390
And lo ! from opening clouds, I saw emerge
The loveliest moon, that ever silver'd o'er
A shell for Neptune's goblet : she did soar
So passionately bright, my dazzled soul
Commingling with her argent spheres did roll
Through clear and cloudy, even when she went
At last into a dark and vapoury tent —
Whereat, methought, the lidless-eyed train
Of planets all were in the blue again.
To commune with those orbs, once more I rais'd 600
My sight right upward : but it was quite dazed
By a bright something, sailing down apace.
Making me quickly veil my eyes and fiice :
Again I look'd, and, O ye deities,
Who from Olympus watch our destinies !
Whence that completed form of all completeness ?
Whence came that high perfection of all sweetness ?
Speak, stubborn earth, and tell me where, O where
Hast thou a symbol of her golden hair ?
Not oat-sheaves drooping in the western sun ; 610
Not — thy soft hand, fair sister ! let me shun
Such follying before thee — yet she had.
Indeed, locks bright enough to make me mad ;
And they were simply gordian'd up and braided.
Leaving, in naked comeliness, unshaded.
Her pearl round ears, white neck, and orbed brow ;
The which were blended in, I know not how.
With such a paradise of lips and eyes.
Blush-tinted cheeks, half smiles, and faintest sighs.
That, when I think thereon, my spirit clings 620
And plays about its fancy, till the stings
Of human neighbourhood envenom all.
Unto what awful power shall I call ?
To what high fane ? — Al) ! see her hovering feet.
BOOK 1] ENDYMION 67
More bluely vein'd, more soft, more whitely sweet
Than those of sea-bom Venus, when she rose
From out her cradle shell. The wind out-blows
Her scarf into a fluttering pavillion ;
'Tis blue, and over-spangled with a million
Of little eyes, as though thou wert to shed, 630
Over the darkest, lushest blue-bell bed,
Handfuls of daisies." — " Endjonion, how strange !
Dream within dream ! " — " She took an airy range,
And then, towards me, like a very maid.
Came blushing, waning, willing, and afraid.
And press'd me by the hand : Ah ! 'twas too much ;
Methought I fainted at the charmed touch.
Yet held my recollection, even as one
Who dives three fathoms where the waters run
Gurgling in beds of coral : for anon, 640
I felt upmounted in that region
Where falling stars dart their artillery forth.
And eagles struggle with the buiFeting north
That balances the heavy meteor-stone ; —
Felt too, I was not fearful, nor alone.
But lapp'd and luU'd along the dangerous sky.
Soon, as it seem'd, we left our journeying high.
And straightway into frightful eddies swoop'd ;
Such as ay muster where grey time has scoop'd
Huge dens and caverns in a mountain's side : 650
There hollow sounds arous'd me, and I sigh'd
To faint once more by looking on my bliss —
I was distracted ; madly did I kiss
The wooing arms which held me, and did give
My eyes at once to death : but 'twas to live.
To take in draughts of life from the gold fount
Of kind and passionate looks ; to count, and count
The moments, by some greedy help that seem'd
A second self, that each rnight be redeem'd
And plunder'd of its load of blessedness. 65o
Ah, desperate mortal ! I e'en dar'd to press
Her very cheek against my crowned lip.
And, at that moment, felt my body dip
Into a warmer air : a moment more.
Our feet were soft in flowers. There was store
Of newest joys upon that alp. Sometimes
A scent of violets, and blossoming limes,
Loiter'd around us ; then of honey cells.
Made dehcate from all white-flower beUs ;
And once, above the edges of our nest, 670
An arch face peep'd, — an Oread as I guess'd.
68 JOHN KEATS [book i
" Why did I dream that sleep o'er-power'd me
In midst of all this heaven ? Why not see,
Far off, the shadows of his pinions dark.
And stare them from me ? But no, like a spark
That needs must die, although its little beam
Reflects upon a diamond, my sweet dream
Fell into nothing — into stupid sleep.
And so it was, until a gentle creep,
A careful moving caught my waking ears, G8o
And up I started : Ah ! my sighs, my tears.
My clenched hands ;^for lo ! the poppies hung
Dew-dabbled on their stalks, the ouzel sung
A heavy ditty, and the sullen day
Had chidden herald Hesperus away.
With leaden looks : the solitary breeze
Bluster' d, and slept, and its wild self did teaze
With wayward melancholy ; and I thought,
Mark me, Peona ! that sometimes it brought
Faint fere-thee-wels, and sigh-shrilled adieus ! — 6go
Away I wander' d — ^all the pleasant hues
Of heaven and earth had faded : deepest shades
Were deepest dungeons ; heaths and sunny glades
Were full of pestilent light ; our taintless riUs
Seem'd sooty, and o'er-spread with uptum'd gills
Of dying fish ; the vermeil rose had blown
In frightful scarlet, and its thorns out-grown
Like spiked aloe. If an innocent bird
Before my heedless footsteps stirr'd, and stirr'd
In little journeys, I beheld in it 700
A disguis'd demon, missioned to knit
My soul with under darkness ; to entice
My stumblings down some monstrous precipice :
Therefore I eager followed, and did cm-se
The disappointment. "Time, that aged nurse,
Rock'd me to patience. Now, thank gentle heaven !
These things, with all their comfortings, are given
To my down-sunken hours, and with thee.
Sweet sister, help to stem the ebbing sea
Of weary life."
Thus ended he, and both 710
Sat silent : for the maid was very loth
To answer ; feeling well that breathed words
Would all be lost, unheard, and vain as swords
AgaiQst the enchased crocodile, or leaps
Of grasshoppers against the sun. She weeps.
And wonders ; struggles to devise some blame ;
BOOK I] ENDYMION 69
To put on such a look as would say. Shame
On this poor weakness ! but, for all her strife.
She could as soon have crush'd away the life
From a sick dove. At length, to break the pause, yao
She said with trembling chance : " Is this the cause ?
This all ? Yet it is strange, and sad, alas !
That one who through this middle earth should pass
Most like a sojourning demi-god, and leave
His name upon the harp-string, should achieve
No higher bard than simple maidenhood.
Singing alone, and fearfully, — how the blood
Left his young cheek ; and how he us'd to stray
He knew not where ; and how he would say, nay,
If any said 'twas love : and yet 'twas love ; 730
What could it be but love ? How a ring-dove
Let fall a sprig of yew tree in his path ;
And how he died : and then, that love doth scathe.
The gentle heart, as northern blasts do roses ;
And then the ballad of his sad life closes
With sighs, and an alas ! — Endymion !
Be rather in the trumpet's mouth, — anon
Among the winds at large — that all may hearken !
Although, before the crystal heavens darken,
I watch and dote upon the silver lakes 740
Pictur'd in western cloudiness, that takes
The semblance of gold rocks and bright gold sands.
Islands, and creeks, and amber-fretted strands
With horses prancing o'er them, palaces
And towers of amethyst, — would I so teaze
My pleasant days, because I could not mount
Into those regions ? The Morphean fount
Of that fine element that visions, dreams.
And fitful whims of sleep are made of, streams
Into its airy channels with so subtle, 750
So thin a breathing, not the spider's shuttle.
Circled a million times within the space
Of a swallow's nest-door, could delay a trace,
A tinting of its quality : how light
Must dreams themselves be ; seeing they're more slight
Than the mere nothing that engenders them !
Then wherefore sully the entrusted gem
Of high and noble life with thoughts so sick ?
Why pierce high-fronted honour to the quick
For nothing but a dream ? " Hereat the youth 760
Look'd up : a conflicting of shame and ruth
Was in his plaited brow : yet, his eyelids
Widened a little, as when Zephyr bids
70 JOHN KEATS [BOOK i
A little breeze to creep between the fans
Of careless butterflies : amid his pains
He seem'd to taste a drop of manna-dew,
Full palatable ; and a colour grew
Upon his cheek, while thus he lifeful spake.
" Peona ! ever have I long'd to slake
My thirst for the world's praises : nothing base, 770
No merely slumberous phantasm, could unlace
The stubborn canvas for my voyage prepar'd —
Though now 'tis tatter'd ; leaving my bark bar'd
And sullenly drifting : yet my higher hope
Is of too wide, too rainbow-large a scope.
To fret at myriads of earthly wrecks.
Wherein lies happiness > In that which beqjis
Our ready minds to fellowship divine,
A fellowship with essfencej till we shin^
Full alchemiz'd, and free of space. Behold 780
The clear religion of heaven ! Fold
A rose leaf round thy ■finger's tapemess.
And soothe thy hps : hist, when the airy stress
Of music's kiss impregnates the free winds.
And with a S3na(ipathetic touch unbinds
Molian magic from their lucid wombs :
Then old songs waken from enclouded tombs ;
Old ditties sigh above their father's grave ;
Ghosts of melodious prophecyings rave
Round every spot where trod Apollo's foot ; 790
Bronze clarions awake, and faintly bruit.
Where long ago a giant battle was ;
And, from the turf, a luUaby doth pass
In every place where in&nt Orpheus slept.
Feel we th^se things ? — that moment have we stept
Into a sort ijif nnenpss- and our state
Is like a floating spirit's. But there are
Richer entanglements, enthralments far
More self-destroying, leading, by degrees.
To the chief intensity : the crown of these 800
Is made of love and frifindship. and sits high
Upon the forehead of humanity.
AU its more ponderous and bulky worth
Is friendship, whence there ever issues forth
A steady splendour ; but at the tip-top.
There hangs by unseen film, an orbed drop
Of light, and that is love : its influence.
Thrown in our eyes, genders a novel sense.
At which we start and fret ; till in the end.
BOOK I] ENDYMION 71
Melting into its radiance, we blend, gio
Mingle, and so become a part of it, —
Nor with aught else can our souls interknit
So wingedly : when we combine therewith
Life's self is nourish'd by its proper pith.
And we are nurtured like a pelican brood.
Aye, so delicious is the unsating food.
That men, who might have tower'd in the van
Of all the congregated world, to fan
And winnow from the coming step of time
All chaff of custom, wipe away all slime 820
Left by men-slugs and human serpentry,
Have been content to let occasion die,-
Whilst they did sleep in love's elysium.
And, truly, I would rather be struck dumb.
Than speak against this ardent listlessness :
For I have ever thought that it might bless
The world with benefits unknowingly ;
As does the nightingale, upperched high.
And cloister'd among cool and bunched leaves —
She sings but to her love, nor e'er conceives 830
How tiptoe Night holds back her dark-grey hood.
Just so may love, although 'tis understood
The mere commingling of passionate breath.
Produce more than our searching witnesseth :
What I know not : but who, of men, can tell
That flowers would bloom, or that green fruit would swell
To melting pulp, that fish would have bright maU,
The earth its dower of river, wood, and vale,
The meadows runnels, runnels pebble-stones.
The seed its harvest, or the lute its tones, 840
Tones ravishment, or ravishment its sweet
If human souls did never kiss and greet .''
" Now, if this earthly love has power to make
Men's being mortal, immortal ; to shake
Ambition from their memories, and brim
Their measure of content : what merest whim.
Seems all this poor endeavour after fame.
To one, who keeps within his steadfast aim
A love immortal, an immortal too.
Look not so wilder'd ; for these things are true, 850
And never can be bom of atomies
That buzz about our slumbers, like brain-flies,
Leaving us fancy-sick. No, no, I'm sure,
My restless spirit never could endure
To brood so long upon one luxury.
72 JOHN KEATS [book I
Unless it did, though fearfully, espy
A hope beyond the shadow of a dream.
My sayings will the less obscured seem.
When I have told thee how my waking sight
Has made me scruple whether that same night 860
Was pass'd in dreaming. Hearken, sweet Peona I
Beyond the matron-temple of Latona,
Which we should see but for these darkening boughs.
Lies a deep hollow, from whose ragged brows
Bushes and trees do lean all round athwart
And meet so nearly, that with wings outraught.
And spreaded tail, a vulture could not glide
Past them, but he must brush on every side.
Some moulder'd steps lead into this cool cell.
Far as the slabbed margin of a well, 870
Whose patient level peeps its crystal eye
Right upward, through the bushes, to the sky.
Oft have I brought thee flowers, on their stalks set
Like vestal primroses, but dark velvet
Edges them round, and they have golden pits :
'Twas there I got them, from the gaps and slits
In a mossy stone, that sometimes was my seat.
When all above was faint with mid-day heat.
And there in strife no burning thoughts to heed,
I'd bubble up the water through a reed ; 880
So reaching back to boy-hood : make me ships
Of moulted feathers, touchwood, alder chips.
With leaves stuck in them ; and the Neptune be
Of their petty ocean. Oftener, heavily,
When love-lorn hours had left me less a child,
I sat contemplating the figures wild
Of o'er-head clouds melting the mirror through.
Upon a day, while thus I watch'd, by flew
A cloudy Cupid, with his bow and quiver ;
So plainly character' d, no breeze would shiver 890
The happy chance : so happy, I was fain
To follow it upon the open plain.
And, therefore, was just going ; when, behold !
A wonder, fair as any I have told —
The same bright face I tasted in my sleep,
Smiling in the clear well. My heart did leap
Through the cool depth. — It mov'd as if to flee —
I started up, when lo ! refreshfully.
There came upon my face in plenteous showers
Dew-drops, and dewy buds, and leaves, and flowers, 900
Wrapping all objects from my smothered sight.
Bathing my spirit in a new delight.
BOOK I] ENDYMION 73
Aye, such a breathless honey-feel of bliss
Alone preserved me from the drear abyss
Of death, for the fair form had gone again.
Pleasure is oft a visitant ; but pain
Clings cruelly to us, like the gnawing sloth
On the deer's tender haunches : late, and loth,
'Tis scar'd away by slow returning pleasure.
How sickening, how dark the dreadful leisure gio
Of weary days, made deeper exquisite.
By a fore-knowledge of unslumbrous night !
Like sorrow came upon me, heavier still.
Than when I wander'd from the poppy hill :
And a whole age of lingering moments crept
Sluggishly by, ere more contentment swept
Away at once the deadly yeUow spleen.
Yes, thrice have I this fair enchantment seen ;
Once more been tortured with renewed life.
When last the wintry gusts gave over strife 920
With the conquering sun of spring, and left the skies
Warm and serene, but yet with moistened eyes
In pity of the shatter 'd infant buds, —
That time thou didst adorn, with amber studs,
My hunting cap, because I laugh'd and smil'd,
Chatted with thee, and many days exil'd
All torment from my breast ; — 'twas even then.
Straying about, yet, coop'd up in the den
Of helpless discontent, — hurUng my lance
From place to place, and following at chance, 930
At last, by hap, through some young trees it struck,
And, plashing among bedded pebbles, stuck
In the middle of a brook, — whose silver ramble
Down twenty httle falls, through reeds and bramble,
Tracing along, it brought me to a cave,
Whence it ran brightly forth, and white did lave
The nether sides of mossy stones and rock, —
'Mong which it gurgled blythe adieus, to mock
Its own sweet grief at parting. Overhead,
Hung a lush screen of drooping weeds, and spread 940
Thick, as to curtain up some wood-n)Tnph's home.
' Ah ! impious mortal, whither do I roam f '
Said I, low voic'd : ' Ah, whither ! 'Tis the grot
Of Proserpine, when Hell, obscure and hot,
Ooth her resign ; and where her tender hands
She dabbles, on the cool and sluicy sands :
Or 'tis the cell of Echo, where she sits,
And babbles thorough silence, till her wits
Are gone in tender madness, and anon,
74 JOHN KEATS [book I
Faints into sleep, with many a dying tone 950
Of sadness. O that she would take my vows,
And breathe them sighingly among the boughs,
To sue her gentle ears for whose fair head.
Daily, I pluck sweet flowerets from their bed.
And weave them dyingly — send honey-whispers
Round every leaf, that all those gentle lispers
May sigh my love unto her pitying !
O charitable echo ! hear, and sing
This ditty to her ! — tell her ' — so I stay'd
My foolish tongue, and listening, half afraid, gSo
Stood stupefied with my own empty folly.
And blushing for the freaks of melancholy.
Salt tears were coming, when I heard my name
Most fondly lipp'd, and then these accents came :
' Endymion ! the cave is secreter
Than the isle of Delos. Echo hence shall stir
No sighs but sigh-warm kisses, or light noise
Of thy combing hand, the while it travelling cloys
And tremblesajthrough my lab}nnnthine hair.'
At that oppress'd I hurried in. — Ah ! where gyo
Are those swift moments ? Whither are they fled ?
I'll smile no more, Peona ; nor will wed
Sorrow the way to death ; but patiently
Bear up against it : so farewel, sad sigh ;
And come instead demurest meditation.
To occupy me wholly, and to fashion
My pilgrimage for the world's dusky brink.
No more will I count over, link by link.
My chain of grief : no longer strive to find
A half-forgetfulness in mountain wind gSo
Blustering about my ears : aye, thou shalt see.
Dearest of sisters, what my life shall be ;
What a calm round of hours shall make my days.
There is a paly flame of hope that plays
Where'er I look : but yet, I'll say ' tis naught —
And here I bid it die. Have not I caught,
Already, a more healthy countenance ?
By this the sun is setting ; we may chance
Meet some of our near-dwellers with my car."
This said, he rose, faint-smiling like a star 990
Through autumn mists, and took Peona's hand :
They stept into the boat, and launch'd from land.
BOOK II] ENDYMION 7S
ENDYMION
BOOK II
O SOVEREIGN power of love ! O grief! O balm !
All records, saving thine, come cool, and calm,
And shadowy, through the mist of passed years :
For others, good or bad, hatred and tears
Have become mdolent ; but touching thine.
One sigh doth echo, one poor sob doth pine.
One kiss brings honey-dew from buried days.
The woes of Troy, towers smothering o'er tjjeir blaze,
StifF-holden shields, far-piercing spears, keen blades.
Struggling, and blood, and shrieks — all dimly lades lo
Into some backward comer of the brain ;
Yet, in our very souls, we feel amain
The close of Troilus and Cressid sweet.
Hence, pageant history ! hence, gilded cheat !
Swart planet in the universe of deeds !
Wide sea, that one continuous murmur breeds
Along the pebbled shore of memory !
Many old rotten- timber' d boats there be
Upon thy vaporous bosom, magnified
To goodly vessels ; many a sail of pride, 20
And golden keel'd, is left unlaunch'd and dry.
But wherefore this ? What care, though owl did fly
About the great Athenian admiral's mast ?
What care, though striding Alexander past
The Indus with his Macedonian numbers ?
Though old Ulysses tortured from his slumbers
The glutted Cyclops, what care .<■ — Juliet leaning
Amid her window-flowers, — sighing, — weaning
Tenderly her fancy from its maiden snow.
Doth more avail than these : the sUver flow 30
Of Hero's tears, the swoon of Imogen,
Fair PastoreUa in the bandit's den,
Are things to brood on with more ardency
Than the death-day of empires. Fearfully
Must such conviction come upon his head.
76 JOHN KEATS [boor ii
Who, thus far, discontent, has dared to tread.
Without one muse's smile, or kind behest.
The path of love and poesy. But rest.
In chaffing restlessness, is yet more drear
Than to be crush' d, in striving to uprear 40
Love's standard on the battlements of song.
So once more days and nights aid me along,
Like legion'd soldiers.
Brain-sick shepherd prince.
What promise hast thou faithful guarded since
The day of sacrifice ? Or, have new sorrows
Come with the constant dawn upon thy morrows ?
Alas ! ' tis his old grief. For many days.
Has he been wandering in uncertain ways :
Through wilderness, and woods of mossed oaks ;
Counting his woe-worn minutes, by the strokes 50
Of the lone woodcutter ; and listening still.
Hour after hour, to each lush-leav'd rill.
>/ Now he is sitting by a shady spring.
And elbow-deep with feverous fingering
Stems the upbursting cold : a wild rose tree
Pavilions him in bloom, and he doth see
A bud which snares his fancy: lo ! but now
He plucks it, dips its stalk in the water : how !
It swells, it buds, it flowers beneath his sight ;
And, in the middle, there is sofltly pight 60
A golden butterfly ; upon whose wings
There must be surely character'd strange things.
For with wide eye he wonders, and smiles oft.
Lightly this little herald flew aloft,
Follow'd by glad Endymion's clasped hands :
Onward it flies. From languor's sullen bands
His limbs are loos'd, and eager, on he hies
Dazzled to trace it in the sunny skies.
It seem'd he flew, the way so easy was ;
And like a new-bom spirit did he pass 70
Through the green evening quiet in the sun.
O'er many a heath, through many a woodland dun.
Through buried paths, where sleepy twilight dreams
The summer time away. One track unseams
A wooded cleft, and, far away, the blue
Of ocean fades upon him ; then, anew.
He sinks adown a solitary glen.
Where there was never sound of mortal men.
Saving, perhaps, some snow-light cadences
BOOK II] ENDYMION 77
Melting to silence^ when upon the breeze 80
Some holy bark let forth an anthem sweet.
To cheer itself to Delphi. Still his feet
Went swift beneath the merry-winged guide.
Until it reach'd a splashing fountain's side
That, near a cavern's mouth, for ever pour'd
Unto the temperate air : then high it soar'd.
And, downward, suddenly began to dip.
As if, athirst with so much toil, 'twould sip
The crystal spout-head : so it did, with touch
Most delicate, as though afraid to smutch go
Even with mealy gold the waters clear.
But, at that very touch, to disappear
So fairy-quick, was strange ! Bewildered,
Endymion sought around, and shook each bed
Of covert flowers in vain ; and then he flung
Himself along the grass. What gentle tongue.
What whisperer disturb' d his gloomy rest .''
It was a nymph uprisen to the breast
In the fountain's pebbly margin, and she stood
'Mong lilies, like the youngest of the brood. 100
To him her dripping hand she softly kist.
And anxiously began to plait and twist
Her ringlets round her fingers, sa3dng : " Youth !
Too long, alas, hast thou starv'd on the ruth.
The bitterness of love : too long indeed.
Seeing thou art so gentle. Could I weed
Thy soul of care, by heavens, I would offer
All the bright riches of my crystal coffer
To Amphitrite ; all my clear-eyed fish.
Golden, or rainbow-sided, or purplish, no
Vermilion-tail'd, or finn'd with silvery gauze ;
Yea, or my veined pebble-floor, that draws
A virgin light to the deep ; my grotto-sands
Tawny and gold, ooz'd slowly from far lands
By my diligent springs ; my level lilies, shells,
My charming. rod, my potent river spells ;
Yes, every thing, even to the pearly cup
Meander gave me, — for I bubbled up
To fainting creatures in a desert wild.
But woe is me, I am but as a child 120
To gladden thee ; and all I dare to say.
Is, that I pity thee ; that on this day
I've been thy guide ; that thou must wander far
In other regions, past the scanty bar
To mortal steps, before thou canst be ta'en
From every wasting sigh, from every pain,
78 JOHN KEATS [BOOK ii
Into the gentle bosom of thy love.
Why it is thus, one knows in heaven above :
But, a poor Naiad, I guess not. Farewel !
I have a ditty for my hollow cell." 130
Hereat, she vanished from Endymion's gaze,
Who brooded o'er the water in amaze :
The dashing fount pour'd on, and where its pool
Lay, half asleep, in grass and rushes cool,
' Quick waterflies and gnats were sporting still.
And fish were dimpling, as if good nor ill
Had fallen out that hour. The wanderer.
Holding his forehead, to keep off the burr
Of smothering fancies, patiently sat down ;
And, while beneath the evening's sleepy frown 140
Glow-worms began to trim their starry lamps.
Thus breath'd he to himself: " Whoso encamps
To take a fancied city of delight,
O what a wretch is he ! and when 'tis his.
After long toil and travelling, to miss
The kernel of his hopes, how more than vile :
Yety. for him there's refreshment even in toil ;
Another city doth he set about,
Free from the smallest pebble-head of doubt
That he will seize on trickling honey-combs : 150
Alas, he finds them dry ; and then he foams.
And onward to another city speeds.
But this is human life : the war, the deeds.
The disappointment; the anxiety.
Imagination's struggles, far and nigh.
All human ; bearing in themselves this good,
I That they are still the air, the subtle food.
To make us feel existence, and to shew
How quiet death is. Where soil is men grow.
Whether to weeds or flowers ; but for me, i6a
J There is no depth to strike in : I can see
Nought earthly worth my compassing ; so stand
Upon a misty, jutting head of land —
■' Alone ? No, no ; and by the Orphean lute.
When mad Eurydice is listening to't ;
I'd rather stand upon this misty peak,
With not a thing to sigh for, or to seek.
But the soft shadow of my thrice-seen love.
Than be — I care not what. O meekest dove
Of heaven ! O Cjmthia, ten- times bright and fair ! 17a
From thy blue throne, now filling all the air.
Glance but one little beam of temper'd light
BOOK n] ENDYMION 79
Into my bosom, that the dreadful might
And tyranny of love be somewhat scar'd !
Yet do not so, sweet queen ; one torment spar'd,
Would give a pang to jealous misery.
Worse than the torment's self : but rather tie
Large wings upon my shoulders, and point out
My love's fer dwelling. Though the playful rout
Of Cupids shun thee, too divine art thou, i8o
Too keen in beauty, for thy silver prow
Not to have dipp'd in love's most gentle stream.
O be propitious, nor severely deem
My madness impious ; for, by all the stars
That tend thy bidding, I do think the bars
That kept my spirit in are burst — that I
'•' Am sailing with thee through the dizzy sky !
How beautiful thou art ! The world how deep !
How tremulous-dazzlingly the wheels sweep
Around their axle ! Then these gleaming reins, igo
How lithe ! When this thy chariot attains
Its airy goal, haply some bower veils
Those twilight eyes ? Those eyes ! — my spirit fails —
Dear goddess, help ! or the wide-gaping air
WiU gulph me — ^help ! " — ^At this with madden'd stare.
And lifted hands, and trembling lips he stood ;
Like old Deucalion mountain'd o'er the flood.
Or blind Orion hungry for the mom.
And, but from the deep cavern there was borne
A voice, he had been froze to senseless stone ; 200
Nor sigh of his, nor plaint, nor passion'd moan
Had more been heard. Thus swell' d it forth : " Descend,
Young mountaineer ! descend where alleys bend
Into the sparry hollows of the world !
Oft hast thou seen bolts of the thunder hurl'd
As from thy threshold ; day by day hast been
A little lower than the chilly sheen
Of icy pinnacles, and dipp'dst thine arms
Into the deadening ether that still charms
Their marble being : now, as deep profound 210
' As those are high, descend ! He ne'er is crown'd
With immortality, who fears to follow
Where aiiy voices lead : so through the hollow.
The silent mysteries of earth, descend ! "
He heard but the last words, nor could contend
One moment in reflection : for he fled
Into the fearful deep, to hide his head
From the clear moon, the trees, and coming madness.
80 JOHN KEATS [book n
'Twas far too strange, and wonderful for sadness ;
Sharpening, by degrees, his appetite 220
To dive into the deepest. Dark, nor light,
The region ; nor bright, nor sombre wholly, /
But mingled up ; a gleaming melancholy ; v
A dusky empire and its diadems ;
One faint eternal eventide of gems.
Aye, millions sparkled on a vein of gold.
Along whose track the prince quick footsteps told,
With all its lines abrupt and angular :
Out-shooting sometimes, like a meteor-star.
Through a vast antre ; then the metal woof, ^230
Like Vulcan's rainbow, with some monstrous roof
Curves hugely : now, far in the deep abyss.
It seems an angry lightning, and doth hiss
Fancy into belief: anon it leads
Through winding passages, where sameness breeds
Vexing conceptions of some sudden change ;
Whether to silver grots, or giant range
Of sapphire columns, or fantastic bridge
Athwart a flood of crystal. On a ridge
Now fareth he, that o'er the vast beneath 240
Towers like an ocean-clifF, and whence he seeth
A hundred waterfalls, whose voices come
But as the murmuring surge. Chilly and numb
His bosom grew, when first he, far away
Descried an orbed diamond, set to fray
Old darkness'Trom Tiis throne : 'twas like the sun
Uprisen o'er chaos : and with such a stun
Came the amazement, that, absorb'd in it.
He saw not fiercer wonders — ^past the wit
Of any spirit to tell, but one of those 250
Who, when this planet's sphering time doth close.
Will be its high remembrancers : who they "i
The mighty ones who have made eternal day
For Greece and England. While astonishment
With deep-drawn sighs was quieting, he went
Into a marble gallery, passing through
A mimic temple, so complete and true
In sacred custom, that he well nigh fear'd
To search it inwards ; whence far off appear' d,
Through a long pillar' d vista, a fair shrine, 260
And just beyond, on light tiptoe divine,
A quiver'd Dian. Stepping awfully.
The youth approach'd ; oft turning his veil'd eye
Down sidelong aisles, and into niches old.
And when, more jiear against the marble cold
BOOK II] ENDYMION 81
He had touch'd his forehead, he began to thread
All courts and passages, where silence dead
Rous'd by his whispering footsteps murmured feint :
And long he travers'd to and fro, to acquaint
Himself with every mystery, and awe ; 270
Till, weary, he sat down before the maw
Of a wide outlet, fathomless and dim.
To wild uncertainty and shadows grim.
There, when new wonders ceas'd to float before.
And thoughts of self came on, how crude and sore
The journey homeward to habitual self!
A mad-pursuing of the fog-born elf.
Whose flitting lantern, through rude nettle-briar.
Cheats us into a swamp, into a fire.
Into the bosom of a hated thing. 280
What misery most drowningly doth sing
In lone Endymion's ear, now he has raught
The goal of consciousness ? Ah, 'tis the thought,
The deadly feel of solitude : for lo !
He cannot see the heavens, nor the flow
Of rivers, nor hill-flowers running wild
In pink and purple chequer, nor, up-pil'd.
The cloudy rack slow journeying in the west.
Like herded elephants ; nor felt, nor prest
Cool grass, nor tasted the fresh slumberous air ; 290
But far from such companionship to wear
An unknown time, surcharg'd with grief, away,
Was now his lot. And must he patient stay.
Tracing fantastic figures with his spear ?
" No ! " exclaim'd he, " why should I tarry here ? "
No ! loudly echoed times innumerable.
At which he straightway started, and 'gan tell
His paces back into the temple's chief;
Warming and glowing strong in the belief
Of help from Dian : so that when again 300
He caught her airy form, thus did he plain.
Moving more near the while : " O Haunter chaste
Of river sides, and woods, and heathy waste.
Where with thy silver bow and arrows keen
Art thou now forested ? O woodland Queen,
What smoothest air thy smoother forehead woos ?
Where dost thou listen to the wide halloos
Of thy disparted nymphs ? Through what dark tree
Glimmers thy crescent ? Wheresoe'er it be,
'Tis in the breath of heaven : thou dost taste 310
Freedom as none can taste it, nor dost waste
6
82 JOHN KEATS [book ii
Thy loveliness in dismal elements ;
But, finding in our green earth sweet contents.
There livest blissfully. Ah, if to thee
It feels Elysian, how rich to me,
Aq exil'd mortal, sounds its pleasant name !
Within my breast there lives a choking flame —
O let me cool 't the zephyr-boughs among !
A homeward fever parches up my tongue — -
O let me slake it at the running, spripgs ! 320
Upon my ear a noisy nothing rings —
O let me once more hear the linnet's note !
Before mine eyes thick films and shadows float —
O let me 'noint them with the heaven's light !
Dost thou now lave thy feet and ankles white ?
O think how sweet to me the freshening sluice !
Dost thou now please thy thirst with berry-juice ?
O think how this dry palate would rejoice !
If in soft slumber thou dost hear my voice,
O think how I should love a bed of flowers ! — 330
Young goddess ! let me see my native bowers !
Deliver me from this rapacious deep ! "
Thus ending loudly, as he would o'erleap
His destiny, alert he stood : but when
Obstinate silence came heavily agaia,
Feeling about for its old couch of space
And airy cradle, lowly bow'd his fece
Desponding, o'er the marble floor's cold thrill.
But 'twas not long ; for, sweeter than the rill
To its old channel, or a swollen tide 340
To margin sallows, were the leaves he spied.
And flowers, and wreaths, and ready myrtle crowns
Up heaping through the slab : refreshment drowns
Itself, and strives its own delights to hide—
Nor in one spot alone ; the floral pride
In a long whispering birth enchanted grew
Before his footsteps ; as when heav'd anew
Old ocean rolls a lengthened wave to the shore,
Down whose green back the short-liv'd foam, all hoar.
Bursts gradual, with a wayward indolence. 350
Increasing still in heart, and pleasant sense.
Upon his fairy journey on he hastes ;
So anxious for the end, he scarcely wastes
One moment with his hand among the sweets :
Onward he goes— he stops — his bosom beats
As plainly in his ear, as the faint charm
BOOK II] ENDYMION 83
Of which the throbs were bom. This still alarm.
This sleepy music, forc'd him walk tiptoe :
For it came more softly than the east could blow
Arion's magic to the Atlantic isles ; 360
Or than the west, made jealous by the smiles
Of thron'd Apollo, could breathe back the lyre
To seas Ionian and Tyrian.
O did he ever live, that lonely man.
Who lov'd — and music slew not ? 'Tis the pest
Of love, that feirest joys give most unrest ;
That things of delicate and tenderest worth
Are swallow'd all, and made a seared dearth.
By one consuming flame : it doth immerse
And suffocate true blessings in a curse. 370
Half-happy, by comparison of bliss.
Is miserable. 'Twas even so with this
Dew-dropping melody, in the Carian's ear ;
First heaven, then hell, and then forgotten clear,
Vanish'd in elemental passion.
And down some swart abysm he had gone.
Had not a heavenly guide benignant led
To where thick xayrtle branches, 'gainst his head
Brushing, awakened : then the sounds again
Went noiseless as a passing noontide rain 380
Over a bower, where little space he stood ;
For as the sunset peeps into a wood
So saw he panting light, and towards it went
Through winding alleys ; and lo, wonderment !
Upon soft verdure saw, one here, one there,
Cupids a slumbering on their pinions fair.
After a thousand mazes overgone.
At last, with sudden step, he came upon
A chamber, myrtle wall'd, embowered high.
Full of light, incense, tender minstrelsy, 390
And more of beautiful and strange beside :
For on a silken couch of rosy pride.
In midst of all, there lay a sleeping youth
Of fondest beauty ; fonder, in fair sooth.
Than sighs could fathom, or contentment reach :
And coverlids gold-tinted like the peach.
Or ripe October's faded marigolds.
Fell sleek about him in a thousand folds —
Not hiding up an Apollonian curve
Of neck and shoulder, nor the tenting swerve 400
JOHN KEATS [book n
Of knee from knee, nor ankles pointing light ;
But rather, giving them to the filled sight
Officiously. Sideway his fece repos'd
On one white arm, and tenderly unclos'd.
By tenderest pressure, a faint damask mouth
To slumbery pout ; just as the morning south
Disparts a dew-lipp'd rose. Above his head.
Four lily stalks did their white honours wed
To make a coronal ; and round him grew
All tendrils green, of every bloom and hue, 410
Together intertwin'd and trammel'd iresh :
The vine of glossy sprout ; the ivy mesh.
Shading its Ethiop berries ; and woodbine.
Of velvet leaves and bugle-blooms divine ;
Convolvulus in streaked vases flush ;
The creeper, mellowing for an autumn blush ;
And virgin's bower, trailing airily ;
With others of the sisterhood. Hard by.
Stood serene Cupids watching silently.
One, kneeling to a Ijrre, touch'd the strings, 420
Muffling to death the pathos with his wings ;
And, ever and anon, uprose to look
At the youth's slumber ; while another took
A wiUow-bough, distilling odorous dew.
And shook it on his hair ; another flew
In through the woven roof, and fluttering-wise
Rain'd violets upon his sleeping eyes.
At these enchantments, and yet many more.
The breathless Latmian wonder'd o'er and o'er ;
Until, impatient in embarrassment, 430
He forthright pass'd, and lightly treading went
To that same feather'd lyrist, who straightway.
Smiling, thus whisper'd : " Though firom upper day
Thou art a wanderer, and thy presence here
Might seem unholy, be of happy cheer !
For 'tis the nicest touch of human honour.
When some ethereal and high-favouring donor
Presents immortal bowers to mortal sense ;
As now 'tis done to thee, Endymion. Hence
Was I in no wise startled. So recline 440
Upon these living flowers. Here is wine.
Alive with sparkles — never, I aver.
Since Ariadne was a vintager,
So cool a purple : taste these juicy pears,
Sent me by sad Vertumnus, when his fears
Were high about Pomona : here is cream.
BOOK II] ENDYMION 85
Deepening to richness from a snowy gleam ;
Sweeter than that nurse Amalthea skimm'd
For the boy Jupiter : and here, undimm'd
By any touch, a bunch of blooming plums 450
Ready to melt between an infant's gums :
And here is maima pick'd from Syrian trees.
In starlight, by the three Hesperides.
Feast on, and meanwhile I will let thee know
Of all these things around us." He did so,
Still brooding o'er the cadence of his lyre ;
And thus : " I need not any hearing tire
By telling how the sea-bom goddess pin'd
For a mortal youth, and how she strove to bind
Him all in all unto her doting self. 460
Who would not be so prison'd ? but, fond elf.
He was content to let her amorous plea
, Faint through his careless arms ; content to see
I An unseiz'd heaven d3dng at his feet ;
'Content, O fool ! to make a cold retreat.
When on the pleasant grass such love, lovelorn.
Lay sorrowing ; when every tear was bom
Of diverse passion ; when her lips and eyes
Were clos'd in sullen moisture, and quick sighs
Came vex'd and pettish through her nostrils small. 470
Hush ! no exclaim — yet, justly mightst thou call
Curses upon his head. — I was half glad.
But my poor mistress went distract and mad.
When the boar tusk'd him : so away she flew
To Jove's high throne, and by her plainings drew
Immortal tear-drops down the thunderer's beard ;
Whereon, it was decreed he should be rear'd
Each summer time to life. Lo ! this is he.
That same Adonis, safe in the privacy
Of this still region all his winter-sleep. 480
Aye, sleep ; for when our love-sick queen did weep
Over his waned corse, the tremulous shower
Heal'd up the wound, and, with a balmy power,
Medicined death to a lengthened drowsiness :
The which she fills with visions, and doth dress
In all this quiet luxury ; and hath set
Us young immortals, without any let,
To watch his slumber through. 'Tis well nigh pass'd.
Even to a moment's filling up, and fast
She scuds with summer breezes, to pant through 490
The first long kiss, warm firstling, to renew
Embower'd sports in C)rtherea's isle.
Look ! how those winged listeners all this while
86 JOHN KEATS [book ii
Stand anxious : see ! behold ! " — This clamant word
Broke through the careful silence ; for they heard
A rustling noise of leaves, and out there flutter'd
Pigeons and doves : Adonis something mutter'd
The while one hand, that erst upon his thigh
Lay dormant, mov'd convuls'd and graduaUy
Up to his forehead. Then there was a hum 500
Of sudden voices, echoing, " Come ! come !
Arise ! awake ! Clear summer has forth walk'd
Unto the clover-sward, and she has talk'd
Full soothingly to every nested iinch :
Rise, Cupids ! or we'll give the blue-bell pinch
To your dimpled arms. Once more sweet life begin ! "
At this, from every side they hurried in.
Rubbing their sleepy eyes with lazy wrists.
And doubling over head their little fists
In backward yawns. But all were soon alive : 510
For as delicious wine doth, sparkling, dive
In nectar'd clouds and curls through water feir.
So from the arbour roof down swell'd an air
Odorous and enlivening ; making all
To laugh, and play, and sing, and loudly call
For their sweet queen : when lo ! the wreathed green
Disparted, and far upward could be seen
Blue heaven, and a silver car, air-borne.
Whose silent wheels, fresh wet from clouds of mom.
Spun off a drizzling dew, — which falling chill 520
On soft Adonis' shoulders, made him still
Nestle and turn uneasily about.
Soon were the white doves plain, with neck stretch'd out.
And silken traces lighten'd in descent ;
And soon, returning from love's banishment.
Queen Venus leaning downward open arm'd :
Her shadow fell upon his breast, and charm'd
A tumult to his heart, and a new life
Into his eyes. Ah, miserable strife.
But for her comforting ! unhappy sight, 530
But meeting her blue orbs ! Who, who can write
Of these first minutes ? The unchariest muse
To embracements warm as theirs makes coy excuse.
O it has ruffled every spirit there.
Saving love's self, who stands superb to share
The general gladness : awfully he stands ;
A sovereign quell is in his waving hands ;
No sight can bear the lightning of hi$ bow ;
His quiver is mysterious, none can know
BOOK II] ENDYMION 87
What themselves think of it ; from forth his eyes 540
There darts strange light of varied hues and dyes :
A scowl is sometimes on his brow, but who
Look full upon it feel anon the blue
Of his fair eyes run liquid through their souls.
Endymion feels it, and no more controls
The burning prayer within him ; so, bent low.
He had begun a plaining of his woe.
But Venus, bending forward, said : " My child.
Favour this gentle youth ; his days are wild
With love — he — but alas ! too well I see 550
Thou knoVst the deepness of his misery.
Ah, smile not so, my son : I tell thee true.
That when through heavy hours I us'd to rue
The endless sleep of this new-bom Adon',
This stranger ay I pitied. For upon
A dreary morning once I fled away
Into the breezy clouds, to weep and pray
For this my love : for vexing Mars had teaz'd
Me even to tears : thence, when a little eas'd,
Down-looking, vacant, through a hazy wood, 560
I saw this youth as he despairing stood :
Those same dark curls blown vagrant in the wind ;
Those same full fringed lids a constant blind
Over his sullen eyes : I saw him throw
Himself on wither'd leaves, even as though
Death had come sudden ; for no jot he mov'd.
Yet mutter'd wildly. I could hear he lov'd
Some &ir inmaortal, and that his embrace
Had zoned her through the night. There is no trace
Of this in heaven : I have mark'd each cheek, 570
And find it is the vainest thing to seek ;
And that of all things 'tis kept secretest.
Endymion ! one day thou wilt be blest :
So still obey the guiding hand that fends
Thee safely through these wonders for sweet ends.
'Tis a concealment needful in extreme ;
And if I guess'd not so, the sunny beam
Thou shouldst mount up to with me. Now adieu !
Here must we leave thee." — At these words up flew
The impatient doves, up rose the floating car, 580
Up went the hum celestial. High afar
The Latmian saw them minish into nought ;
And, when all were clear vanish'd, still he caught
A vivid lightning from that dreadful bow.
When all was darkened, with ^tnean throe
The earth clos'd — ^gave a solitary moan —
And lef^ him once again in twi^ght lone.
88 JOHN KEATS [book ii
He did not rave, he did not stare aghast.
For all those visions were o'ergone, and past.
And he in loneliness : he felt assur'd 5go
y Of happy times, when all he had endur'd
Would seem a feather to the mighty prize.
So, with unusual gladness, on he hies
Through caves, and palaces of mottled ore.
Gold dome, and crystal wall, and turquois floor.
Black polish'd porticos of awful shade.
And, at the last, a diamond balustrade.
Leading afar past wild magnificence.
Spiral through ruggedest loopholes, and thence
Stretching across a void, then guiding o'er 600
Enormous chasms, where, all foam and roar.
Streams subterranean tease their granite beds ;
Then heighten'd just above the silvery heads
Of a thousand fountains, so that he could dash
The waters with his spear ; but at the splash,
Done heedlessly, those spouting columns rose
Sudden a poplar's height, and 'gan to enclose
His diamond path with fretwork, streaming round
Alive, and dazzling cool, and with a sound.
Haply, like dolphin tumults, when sweet shells 610
Welcome the float of Thetis. Long he dwells
On this delight ; for, every minute's space.
The streams with changed magic interlace :
Sometimes like delicatest lattices,
Cover'd with crystal vines ; then weeping trees.
Moving about as in a gentle wind.
Which, in a wink, to watery gauze refin'd,
Pour'd into shapes of curtain'd canopies,
Spangled, and rich with liquid broideries
Of flowers, peacocks, swans, and naiads feir. 620
Swifter than lightning went these wonders rare ;
And then the water, into stubborn streams
Collecting, mimick'd the wrought oaken beams.
Pillars, and frieze, and high fantastic roof.
Of those dusk places in times far aloof
Cathedrals call'd. He bade a loth ferewel
To these founts Protean, passing gulph, and dell.
And torrent, and ten thousand jutting shapes,
Half seen through deepest gloom, and griesly gapes.
Blackening on every side, and overhead 630
A vaulted dome like Heaven's, fer bespread
With starlight gems : aye, all so huge and strange.
The solitary felt a hurried cha&ge
Working within him into something dreary, —
BOOK II] ENDYMION 89
Vex'd like a morning eagle, lost, and weary,
And purblind amid foggy, midnight wolds.
But he revives at once : for who beholds
New sudden things, nor casts his mental slough ?
Forth from a rugged arch, in the dusk below.
Came mother Cybele ! alone — alone — 640
In sombre chariot ; dark foldings thrown
About her majesty, and front death-pale,
With turrets crown'd. Four maned lions hale
The sluggish wheels ; solemn their toothed maws,
Their surly eyes brow-hidden, heavy paws
UpUfted drowsily, and nervy tails
Cowering their tawny brushes. Silent sails
This shadowy queen athwart, and fiiints away
In another gloomy arch-
Wherefore delay.
Young traveller, in such a mournful place ? 650^
Art thou wayworn, or canst not fiurther trace „^ ,'
The diamond path ? And does it indeed end r ■
Abrupt in middle air .' Yet earthward bend
Thy forehead, and to Jupiter cloud-borne
Call ardently ! He was indeed wayworn ;
Abrupt, in middle air, his way was lost ;
To cloud-borne Jove he bowed, and there crost
Towards him a large eagle, 'twixt whose wings.
Without one impious word, himself he flings.
Committed to the darkness and the gloom : 660
Down, down, uncertain to what pleasant doom,
Swift as a &thoming plummet down he fell
Through unknown things ; till exhaled asphodel.
And rose, with spicy fannings interbreath'd.
Came sweUing forth where little caves were wreath'd
So thick with leaves and mosses, that they seem'd
Large honey-combs of green, and freshly teem'd
With airs delicious. In the greenest nook
The eagle landed him, and ferewel took.
It was a jasmine bower, all bestrown 670
With golden moss. His every sense had grown
Ethereal for pleasure ; 'hove his head
Flew a delight half-graspable ; his tread
Was Hesperean ; to his capable ears
Silence was music from the holy spheres ;
A dewy luxiury was in his eyes ;
The little flowers felt his pleasant sighs
And stirr'd them &intly. Verdant cave and cell
He wander'd through, oft wondering at such swell
90 JOHN KEATS [book ii
Of sudden exaltation : but, "Alas!" 680
Said he, " will all this gush of feeling pass
Away in solitude ? And must they wane.
Like melodies upon a sandy plain.
Without an echo ? Then shall I be left
So sad, so melancholy, so bereit !
Yet still I feel immortal ! O my love,
My breath of life, where art thou ? High above.
Dancing before the morning gates of heaven ?
Or keeping watch among those starry seven,
Old Atlas' children ? Art a maid of the waters, 6go
One of shell-winding Triton's bright-hair'd daughters ?
Or art, impossible ! a nymph of Dian's,
Weaving a coronal of tender scions
For very idleness ? Where'er thou art,
Methinks it now is at my will to start
Into thine arms ; to scare Aurora's train.
And snatch thee from the morning ; o'er the main
To scud like a wild bird, and take thee off
From thy sea-foamy cradle ; or to doff
Thy shepherd vest, and woo thee mid fresh leaves. 700
No, no, too eagerly my soul deceives
Its powerless self: I know this cannot be.
O let me then by some sweet dreaming flee
To her entrancements : hither sleep awhile !
Hither most gentle sleep ! and soothing foil
For some few hours the coming solitude."
Thus spake he, and that moment felt endued
With power to dream deliciously ; so wound
Through a dim passage, searching till he found
The smoothest mossy bed and deepest, where 710
He threw himself, and just into the air
Stretching his indolent arms, he took, O bliss !
A naked waist : " Fair Cupid, whence is this ? "
A well-known voice sigh'd, " Sweetest, here am I ! "
At which soft ravishment, with doting cry
They trembled to each other. — Helicon !
O fountain'd hill ! Old Homer's Helicon !
That thou wouldst spout a little streamlet o'er
These sorry pages ; then the verse would soar
And sing above this gentle pair, like lark 720
Over his nested young : but all is dark
Around thine aged top, and thy clear fount
Exhales in mists to heaven. Aye, the count
Of mighty Poets is made up ; the scroll
Is folded bjr the Muses ; the bright roll
BOOK n] ENDYMION 91
Is in Apollo's hand : our dazed eyes
Have seen a new tinge in the western skies :
The world has done its duty. Yet, oh yet.
Although the sun of poesy is set.
These lovers did embrace, and we must weep 730
That there is no old power left to steep
A quill immortal in their joyous tears.
Long time ere silence did their anxious fears
Question that thus it was ; long time they lay
Fondling and kissing every doubt away ;
Long time ere soft caressing sobs began
To mellow into words, and then there ran
Two bubbling springs of talk from their sweet lips.
" O known Unknown ! from whom my being sips
Such darling essence, wherefore may I not 740
Be ever in these arms ? in this sweet spot
Pillow my chin for ever ? ever press
These to}ring hands and kiss their smooth excess f
Why not for ever and for ever feel
That breath about my eyes ? Ah, thou wilt steal
Away from me again, indeed, indeed —
Thou wilt be gone away, and wilt not heed
My lonely madness. Speak, my kindest &ir !
Is — is it to be so .' No ! Who will dare
To pluck thee from me ? And, of thine own will, 750
Full well I feel thou wouldst not leave me. Still
Let me entwine thee surer, surer — ^now
How can we part ? Elysium ! who art thou ?
Who, that thou canst not be for ever here.
Or lift me with thee to some starry sphere .'
Enchantress ! tell me by this soft embrace.
By the most soft completion of thy £ice.
Those lips, O slippery blisses, twinkling eyes,
And by these tenderest, milky sovereignties —
These tenderest, and by the nectar-wine, 760
The passion " " O dov'd Ida the divine !
Endjnooion ! dearest ! Ah, unhappy me !
His soul will 'scape us — O felicity !
How he does love me ! His poor temples beat
To the very tune of love — how sweet, sweet, sweet.
Revive, dear youth, or I shall faint and die ;
Revive, or these soft hours will hurry by
In tranced dulness ; speak, and let that spell
Affright this lethargy ! I cannot quell
Its heavy pressure, and will press at least 770
My lips to thine, that they may richly feast
Until we taste the life of love again,
92 JOHN KEATS [book ii
What ! dost thou move ? dost kiss ? O bliss ! O pain !
I love thee, youth, more than I can conceive ;
And so long absence from thee doth bereave
My soul of any rest : yet must I hence :
Yet, can I not to starry eminence
Uplift thee ; nor for very shame can own
Myself to thee : Ah, dearest, do not groan
Or thou wilt force me from this secrecy, 780
And I must blush in heaven. O that I
Had done it already ; that the dreadful smiles
At my lost brightness, my impassion'd wiles.
Had waned from Olympus' solemn height.
And from all serious Gods ; that our delight
Was quite forgotten, save of us alone !
And wherefore so ashamed ? 'Tis but to atone
For endless pleasure, by some coward blushes :
Yet must I be a coward ! — Horror rushes
Too palpable before me — the sad look 790
Of Jove — Minerva's start — no bosom shook
With awe of purity — no Cupid pinion
In reverence vailed — my crystaUne dominion
Half lost, and all old hymns made nullity !
But what is this to love ? O I could fly
With thee into the ken of heavenly powers.
So thou wouldst thus, for many sequent hours.
Press me so sweetly. Now I swear at once
That I am wise, that Pallas is a dunce —
Perhaps her love like mine is but unknown — 800
0 I do think that I have been alone
In chastity : yes, Pallas has been sighing.
While every eve saw me my hair uptjdng
With fingers cool as aspen leaves. Sweet love,
1 was as vague as solitary dove,
v^ Nor knew that nests were built. Now a soft kiss —
Aye, by that kiss, I vow an endless bliss.
An immortality of passion's thine :
Ere long I will exalt thee to the shine
Of heaven ambrosial ; and we will shade 810
Ourselves whole summers by a river glade ;
And I will tell thee stories of the sky.
And breathe thee whispers of its minstrelsy.
My happy love will overwing all bounds !
O let me melt into thee ; let the sounds
Of our close voices marry at their birth ;
Let us entwine hoveringly — O dearth
Of human words ! roughness of mortal speech !
Lispings empyrean will I sometime teach
BOOK n] ENDYMION 93
Thine honied tongue — lute-breathings, which I gasp 820
To have thee understand, now while I clasp
Thee thus, and weep for fondness — I am pain'd,
Endymion : woe ! woe ! is grief contain'd
In the very deeps of pleasure, my sole life ? " —
Hereat, with many sobs, her gentle strife
Melted into a languor. He retum'd
Entranced vows and tears.
Ye who have yeam'd
With too much passion, will here stay and pity,
For the mere sake of truth ; as 'tis a ditty
Not of these days, but long ago 'twas told 830
By a cavern wind unto a forest old ; ^1-'- '
And then the forest told it in a dream ^ ,,;• ''''
To a sleeping lake, whose cool and level gleam ? - I '";
A poet caught as he was joumejdng •
To Phoebus ' shrine ; and in it he did fling
His weary limbs, bathing an hour's space.
And after, straight in that inspired place
He sang the story up into the air.
Giving it universal freedom. There
Has it been ever sounding for those ears 840
Whose tips are glowing hot. The legend cheers
Yon centinel stars ; and he who listens to it
Must surely be self-doom'd or he will rue it :
For quenchless burnings come upon the heart.
Made fiercer by a fear lest any part
Should be engulphed in the eddying wind.
As much as here is penn'd doth always find
A resting place, thus much comes clear and plain ;
Anon the strange voice is upon the wane —
And 'tis but echo'd from departing sound, 850
That the fair visitant at last unwound
Her gentle limbs, and left the youth asleep. —
Thus the tradition of the gusty deep.
Now turn we to our former chroniclers. —
Endymion awoke, that grief of hers
Sweet paining on his ear : he sickly guess'd
How lone he was once more, and sadly press'd
His empty arms together, hung his head.
And most forlorn upon that widow'd bed
Sat silently. Love's madness he had known : 860
Often with more than tortured lion's groan
Meanings had burst from him ; but now that rage
Had pass'd away : no longer did he wage
94. JOHN KEATS [book ii
A rough-voic'd war against the dooming stars.
No, he had felt too much for such harsh jars :
The lyre of his soul iEolian tun'd
Forgot all violence, and but commun'd
With melancholy thought : O he had swoon'd
Drunken from pleasure's nipple ; and his love
Henceforth was doveHtke.-^^^^oth was he to move 870
From the imprinted couch, and when he did,
'Twas with slow, languid paces, and face hid
In muffling hands. So temper'd, out he stray'd
Half seeing visions that might have dismay'd
Alecto's serpents ; ravishments more keen
Than Hermes' pipe, when anxious he did lean
Over eclipsing eyes : and at the last
It was a sounding grotto, vaulted, vast.
O'er studded with a thousand, thousand pearls.
And crimson mouthed shells with stubborn curls, Oo
Of every shape and size, even to the bulk
In which whales arbour close, to brood and sulk
Against an endless storm. Moreover too.
Fish-semblances, of green and azure hue.
Ready to snort their streams. In this cool wonder
Endymion sat down, and 'gan to ponder
On all his life : his youth, up to the day
When 'mid acclaim, and feast, and garlands gay.
He stept upon his shepherd throne : the look
Of his white palace in wild forest nook, 890
And all the revels he had lorded there :
Each tender maiden whom he once thought fair.
With every friend and fellow-woodlander —
Pass'd like a dream before him. Then the spur
Of the old bards to mighty deeds : his plans
To nurse the golden age 'mong shepherd clans :
That wondrous night : the great Pan-festival :
His sister's sorrow ; and his wanderings all.
Until into the earth's deep maw he rush'd :
Then all its buried magic, till it ilush'd goo
High with excessive love. " And now," thought he,
" How long must I remain in jeopardy
Of blank amazements that amaze no more ?
Now I have tasted her sweet soul to the core
All other depths are shallow : essences.
Once spiritual, are like muddy lees,
Meant but to fertilize my earthly root,
And make my branches lift a golden fruit
Into the bloom of heaven : other light.
Though it be quick and sharp enough to blight 910
BOOK II] ENDYMION 96
The Olympian eagle's vision, is dark,
Dark as the parentage of chaos. Hark !
My silent thoughts are echoing from these shells ;
Or they are but tibe ghosts, the dying swells
Of noises fer away ? — list ! " — Hereupon
He kept an anxious ear. The humming tone
Came louder, and behold, there as he lay.
On either side ontgush'd, with misty spray,
A copious spring ; and both together dash'd
Swift, mad, fantastic round the rocks, and lash'd 920
Among the conchs and shells of the lofty grot.
Leaving a trickling dew. At last they shot
Down from the ceiling's height, pouring a noise
As of some breathless racers whose hopes poize
Upon the last few steps, and with spent force
Along the ground they took a winding course.
Endymion follow' d — for it seem'd that one
Ever pursued, the other strove to shun —
FoUow'd their languid mazes, till well nigh
He had left thinking of the mystery, — •- 930
And was now rapt in tender hoverings
Over the vanish'd bliss. Ah ! what is it sings
His dream away > What melodies are these ?
They soimd as through the whispering of trees.
Not native in such barren vaults. Give ear !
" O Arethusa, peerless nymph ! why fear
Such tenderness as mine ? Great Dian, why.
Why didst thou hear her prayer .' O that I
Were rippling round her dainty fairness now.
Circling about her waist, and striving how 940
To entice her to a dive ! then stealing in
Between her luscious lips and eyelids thin.
O that her shining hair was in the sun.
And I distilling from it thence to run
In amorous rillets down her shrinking form !
To linger on her lily shoulders, warm
Between her kissing breasts, and every charm
Touch raptur'd ! — See how painfully I flow :
Fair maid, be pitiful to my great woe.
Stay, stay thy weary course, and let me lead, 950
A happy wooer, to the flowery mead
Where all that beauty snar'd me." — " Cruel god.
Desist ! or my offended mistress' nod
Will stagnate all thy fountains : — tease me not
With syren words — ^Ah, have I really got
Such power to madden thee ? And is it true —
96 JOHN KEATS [book ii
Away, away, or I shall dearly rue
My very thoughts : in mercy then away,
Kindest Alpheus, for should I obey
My own dear will, 'twould be a deadly bane. ggo
O, Oread-Queen ! would that thou hadst a pain
Like this of mine, then would I fearless turn
And be a criminal. Alas, I bum,
I shudder — gentle river, get thee hence.
Alpheus ! thou enchanter ! every sense
Of mine was once made perfect in these woods.
Fresh breezes, bowery lawns, and innocent floods.
Ripe finiits, and lonely couch, contentment gave ;
But ever since I heedlessly did lave
In thy deceitful stream, a panting glow 970
Grew strong within me : wherefore serve me so.
And call it love ? Alas, 'twas cruelty.
Not once more did I close my happy eye
Amid the thrushes' song. Away ! Avaunt !
0 'twas a cruel thing." — " Now thou dost taunt
So softly, Arethusa, that I think
If thou wast playing on my shady brink.
Thou wouldst bathe once again. Innocent maid !
Stifle thine heart no more ; nor be afraid
Of angry powers : there are deities 980
Wm shade us with their wings. Those fitful sighs
'Tis almost death to hear : O let me pour
A dewy balm upon them ! — fear no more.
Sweet Arethusa ! Dian's self must feel
Sometime these very pangS; Dear maiden, steal
Blushing into my soul, and let us fly
These dreary caverns for the open sky.
1 will delight thee all my winding course.
From the green sea up to my hidden source
About Ar<iadian forests ; and will shew 990
The channels where my coolest waters flow
Through mossy rocks ; where, 'mid exuberant green,
I roam in pleasant darkness, more unseen
Than Saturn in his exile ; where I brim
Round flowery islands, and take thence a skim
Of mealy sweets, which m}mads of bees
Buzz from their honied wings : and thou shouldst please
Thyself to choose the richest, where we might
Be incense-pillow'd every summer night.
DofF all sad fears, thou white deliciousness, looo
And let us be thus comforted ; unless
Thou couldst rejoice to see my hopeless stream
Hurry distracted from Sol's temperate beam,
BOOK ii] ENDYMION 97
And pour to death along some hungry sands." —
" What can I do, Alpheus ? Dian stands
Severe before me : persecuting fate !
Unhappy Arethusa ! thou wast late
A huntress free in " — At this, sudden fell
Those two sad streams adown a fearful dell.
The Latmian listen' d, but he heard no more, loio
Save echo, faint repeating o'er and o'er
The name of Arethusa. On the verge
Of that dark gulph he wept, and said : " I urge
Thee, gentle Goddess of my pilgrimage.
By our eternal hopes, to soothe, to assuage,
If thou art powerful, these lovers' pains ;
And make them happy in some happy plains."
Hf turn'd — there was a whelming sound — he slept,
There was a cooler light ; and so he kept
Towards it by a sandy path, and lo ! 1020
More suddenly than doth a moment go.
The vision* of the earth were gone and fled —
He saw the giant sea above his head.
JOHN KEATS [bookiii
'^',
.'
ENDYMION
BOOK III
XHERE are who lord it o'er their fellow-men
With most prevailing tinsel : who unpen
r baaing vanities, to browse away
The comfortable green and juicy hay
From human pastures ; or, O torturing fiwit !
Who, through an idiot blink, will see unpack'd
Fire-branded foxes to sear up and singe
Our gold and ripe-ear'd hopes. With not one tinge
Of sanctuary splendour, not a sight
Able to face an owl's, they still are dight lo
By the blear-eyed nations in empurpled vests.
And crowns, and turbans. With unladen breasts.
Save of blown self-applause, they proudly mount
A To their spirit's perch, their being's high account.
Their tiptop nothings, their dull skies, their thrones —
Amid the fierce intoxicating tones
Of trumpets, shoutings, and belabour' d drums.
And sudden cannon. Ah ! how all this hums.
In wakeful ears, like uproar past and gone —
Like thunder clouds that spake to Babylon, 30
And set those old Chaldeans to their tasks. —
Are then regalities all gilded masks ?
No, there are throned seats unscalable
But by a patient wing, a constant spell.
Or by ethereal things that, unconfin'd.
Can make a ladder of the eternal wind.
And poize about in clpudy thunder-tents
To watch the abysm-birth of elements.
Aye, 'bove the withering of old-lipp'd Fate
A thousand Powers keep religious state, 39
In water, fiery realm, and airy bourne ;
And, silent, as a consecrated urn,
Hold sphery sessions for a season due.
Yet few pf these far majesties, ah, few !
BOOK III] ENDYMION 99
Have bared their operations to this globe —
Few, who with gorgeous pageantrj' enrobe
Our piece of heaven — ^whose benevolence
Shakes hands with our own Ceres ; every sense
Filling with spiritual sweets to plenitude,
As bees gorge full their cells. And, by the feud 40
'Twixt Nothing and Creation, I here swear,
Eteme Apollo ! that thy Sister feir
Is of all these the gentlier-mightiest.
When thy gold breath is misting in the west,
She unobserved steals unto her throne.
And there she sits most meek and most alone ;
As if she had not pomp subservient ;
As if thine eye, high Poet ! was not bent
Towards her with the Muses in thine heart ;
As if the mihistring stars kept not apart, 30
Waiting for silver-footed messages.
O Moon ! the oldest shades 'mong oldest trees
Feel palpitations when thou lookest in :
O Moon ! old boughs lisp forth a holier din
The while they feel thine airy fellowship.
Thou dost bless every where, with silver lip
Kissing dead things to life. The sleeping kine.
Couched in thy brightness, dream of fields divine :
Inniuuerable mountains rise, and rise.
Ambitious for the hallowing of thine eyes ; 60
And yet thy benediction passeth not
One obscure hiding-place, one little spot
Where pleasure may be sent : the nested wren
Has thy fair face within its tranquil ken.
And from beneath a sheltering ivy leaf
Takes glimpses of thee ; thou art a relief
To the poor patient oyster, where it sleeps
Within its pearly house. — The mighty deeps.
The monstrous sea is thine — ^the myriad sea !
O Moon ! far-spooming Ocean bows to thee, 70
And Tellus feels his forehead's cumbrous load.
Cynthia ! where art thou now ? What far abode
Of green or silvery bower doth enshrine
Such utmost beauty ? Alas, thou dost pine
For one as sorrowful : thy cheek is pale
For one whose cheek is pale : thou dost bewail
His tears, who weeps for thee. Where dost thou sigh ?
Ah ! surely that light peeps from Vesper's eye.
Or what a thing is love ! 'Tis She, but lo !
How chang'd, how full of ache, bow gone in woe ! 80
100 JOHN KEATS [book m
She dies at the thinnest cloud ; her loveliness
Is wan on Neptune's blue : yet there's a stress
Of love-spangles, just off yon cape of trees.
Dancing upon the waves, as if to please
The curly foam with amorous influence.
O, not so idle : for down-glancing thence
She fathoms eddies, and runs wild about
O'erwhelming water-courses ; scaring out
The thorny sharks from hiding-holes, and fright'ning
Their savage eyes with unaccustomed lightning. go
Where will the splendor be content to reach ?
O love ! how potent hast thou been to teach
Strange joumeyings ! Wherever beauty dwells.
In gulph or aerie, mountains or deep dells.
In light, in gloom, in star or blazing sun.
Thou pointest out the way, and straight 'tis won.
Amid his toil thou gav'st Leander breath ;
Thou leddest Orpheus through the gleams of death ;
Thou madest Pluto bear thin element ;
And now, O winged Chieftain ! thou hast sent loo
A moon-beam to the deep, deep water-world,
To find Endymion.
On gold sand impearl'd
With lily shells, and pebbles milky white.
Poor Cjmthia greeted him, and sooth'd her light
Against his pallid face : he felt the charm
To breathlessness, and suddenly a warm
Of his heart's blood : 'twas very sweet ; he stay'd
His wandering steps, and half-entranced laid
His head upon a tuft of straggling weeds.
To taste the gentle moon, and freshening beads, no
Lashed from the crystal roof by fishes' tails.
And so he kept, until the rosy veils
Mantling the east, by Aurora's peering hand
Were lifted from the water's breast, and fann'd
Into sweet air ; and sober'd morning came
Meekly through billows : — when like taper-flame
Left sudden by a dallying breath of air.
He rose in silence, and once more 'gan fare
Along his fated way.
Far had he roam'd.
With nothing save the hollow vast, that foam'd, no
Above, around, and at his feet ; save things
More dead than Morpheus' imaginings :
Old rusted anchors, helmets, breast-plates large
BOOK III] ENDYMION 101
Of gone sea-warriors ; brazen beaks and targe ;
Rudders that for a hundred years had lost
The sway of human hand ; gold vase emboss'd
With long-forgotten story, and wherein
No reveller had ever dipp'd a chin
But those of Saturn's vintage ; mouldering scrolls.
Writ in the tongue of heaven, by those souls 130
Who first were on the earth ; and sculptures rude
In ponderous stone, developing the mood
Of ancient Nox ; — then skeletons of man,
Of beast, behemoth, and leviathan.
And elephant, and eagle, and huge jaw
Of nameless monster. A cold leaden awe
These secrets struck into him ; and unless
Dian had chaced away that heaviness.
He might have died : but now, with cheered feel,
He onward kept ; wooing these thoughts to steal 140
About the labyrinth in his soul of love.
" What is there in thee. Moon ! that thou shouldst move
My heart so potently ? When yet a child
I oft have dried my tears when thou hast smil'd.
Thou seem'dst my sister : hand in hand we went
From eve to morn across the firmament.
No apples would I gather from the tree.
Till thou hadst cool'd their cheeks deliciously :
No tumbling water ever spake romance.
But when my eyes with thine thereon could dance : 150
No woods were green enough, no bower divine.
Until thou liftedst up thine eyelids fine :
In sowing time ne'er would I dibble take,
Or drop a seed, till thou wast wide awake ;
And, in the summer tide of blossoming,
No one but thee hath heard me blithly sing
And mesh my dewy flowers aU the night.
No melody was like a passing spright
If it went not to solemnize thy reign.
Yes, in my boyhood, every joy and pain 160
By thee were fashion'd to the self-same end ;
And as I grew in years, stiU didst thou blend
With all my ardours : thou wast the deep glen ;
Thou wast the mountain-top — the sage's pen —
The poet's harp — the voice of friends — the sun ;
Thou wast the river — thou wast glory won ;
Thou wast my clarion's blast — thou wast my steed —
My goblet full of wine — my topmost deed : —
102 JOHN KEATS [book hi
Thou wast the charm of women, lovely Moon !
O what a wild and harmonized tune 170
My spirit struck from all the beautiful !
On some bright essence could I lean, and lull
Myself to immortality : I prest
Nature's soft pillow in a wakeful rest.
But, gentle Orb ! there came a nearer bliss —
My istrange love came — Felicity's abyss !
She came, and thou didst fade, and fade away —
Yet not entirely ; no, thy starry sway
Has been an under-passion to this hour.
Now I begin to feel thine orby pogaaL 180
Is coming fresh upon me : O be kind.
Keep back thine influence, and do not blind
My sovereign vision. — Dearest love, forgive
That I can think away from thee and live ! —
Pardon me, airy planet, that I prize
One thought beyond thine argent luxuries !
How far beyond ! " At this a surpris'd start
Frosted the springing verdure of his heart ;
For as he lifted up his eyes to swear
How his own goddess was past all things fair, 190
He saw far in the concave green of the sea
An old man sitting calm and peacefully.
Upon a weeded rock this old man sat.
And his white hair was awful, and a mat
Of weeds were cold beneath his cold thin feet ;
And, ample as the largest winding-sheet,
A cloak of blue wrapp'd up his aged bones,
O'erwrought with symbols by the deepest groans
Of ambitious magic : every ocean-form
Was woven in with black distinctness ; storm, 200
And cahn, and whispering, and hideous roar,
Quicksand, and whirlpool, and deserted shore.
Were emblem'd in the woof; with every shape
That skims, or dives, or sleeps, 'twixt cape and cape.
The gulphing whale was like a dot in the spell.
Yet look upon it, and 'twould size and swell
To its huge self ; and the D^nutest fish
Would pass the very hardest gazer's wish.
And show his little eye's anatomy.
Then there was pictur'd the regality 210
Of Neptune ; and the sea nymphs round his state.
In beauteous vassalage, look up and wait.
Beside this old man lay a pearly wand.
And in his lap a book, the which he conn'd
So stedfastly, that the new denizen
BOOK in] ENDYMION 103
Had time to keep him in amazed ken,
To mark these shadowings, and stand in awe.
The old man rais'd his hoary head and saw
The wilder'd stranger — seeming not to see.
His features were so lifeless. Suddenly 220
He woke as from a trance ; his snow-white brows
Went arching up, and like two magic ploughs
Furrow'd deep wrinkles in his forehead large.
Which kept as fixedly as rocky marge.
Till round his wither' d lips had gone a smile.
Then up he rose, like one whose tedious toil
Had watch'd for years in forlorn hermitage.
Who had not from mid-life to utmost age
Eas'd in one accent his o'er-burden'd soul.
Even to the trees. He rose : he grasp'd his stole, 230
With convuls'd clenches waving it abroad.
And in a voice of solemn joy, that aw'd
Echo into oblivion, he said : —
" Thou art the man ! Now shall I lay my head
In peace upon my watery pillow : now
Sleep will come smoothly to my weary brow.
O Jove ! I shall be young again, be young !
0 shell-borne Neptune, I am pierc'd and stung
With new-born life ! What shall I do ? Where go.
When I have cast this serpent-skin of woe .'' — 240
I'll swim to the syrens, and one moment listen
Their melodies, and see their long hair glisten ;
Anon upon that giant's arm I'll be.
That writhes about the roots of Sicily :
To northern seas I'll in a twinkling sail.
And mount upon the snortings of a whale
To some black cloud ; tHence down I'll madly sweep
On forked lightning, to the deepest deep.
Where through some sucking pool I will be hurl'd
With rapture to the other side of the world ! 250
O, I am full of gladness ! Sisters three,
1 bow full hearted to your old decree !
Yes, every god be thank'd, and power benign.
For I no more shall wither, droop, and pine.
Thou art the man ! " Endymion started back
Dismay'd ; and, like a wretch from whom the rack
Tortures hot breath, and speech of agony,
Mutter'd : " What lonely death am I to die
In this cold region ? Will he let me freeze.
And float my brittle limbs o'er polar seas ? 260
104 JOHN KEATS [book hi
Or will he touch me with his searing hand.
And leave a black memorial on the sand ?
Or tear me piece-meal with a bony saw.
And keep me as a chosen food to draw
His magian fish through hated fire and flame ?
O misery of hell ! resistless, tame.
Am I to be burnt up ? No, I will shout.
Until the gods through heaven's blue look out ! —
0 Tartarus ! but some few days agone
Her soft arms were entwining me, and on 2^0
Her voice I hung like fruit among green leaves :
Her lips were all my own, and — ah, ripe sheaves
Of happiness ! ye on the stubble droop.
But never may be gamer'd. I must stoop
My head, and kiss death's foot. Love ! love, farewel !
Is there no hope from thee ? This horrid spell
Would melt at thy sweet breath. — By Dian's hind
Feeding from her white fingers, on the wind
1 see thy streaming hair ! and now, by Pan,
I care not for this old mysterious man ! " 280
He spake, and walking to that aged form,
Look'd high defiance. Lo ! his heart 'gan warm
With pity, for the grey-hair'd creature wept
Had he then wrong'd a heart where sorrow kept }
, Had he, though blindly contumelious, brought
Rheum to kind eyes, a sting to human thought.
Convulsion to a mouth of many years .''
He had in truth ; and he was ripe for tears.
The penitent shower fell, as down he knelt
Before that care-worn sage, who trembling felt 290
About his large dark locks, and faultering spake :
" Arise, good youth, for sacred Phcebus' sake !
I know thine inmost bosom, and I feel
A very brother's yearning for thee steal
Into mine own : for why ? thou openest
The prison gates that have so long opprest
My weary watching. Though thou know'st it not.
Thou art commission' d to this fated spot
For great enfranchisement. O weep no more ;
I am a friend to love, to loves of yore : 300
Aye, hadst thou never lov'd an unknown power,
I had been grieving at this joyous hour.
But even now most miserable old,
I saw thee, and my blood no longer cold
Gave mighty pulses : in this tottering case
BOOK III] ENDYMION lOS
Grew a new heart, which at this moment plays
As dancingly as thine. Be not afraid.
For thou shalt hear this secret all display'd,
Now as we speed towards our joyous task."
So saying, this young soul in age's mask 310
Went forward with the Carian side by side :
Resuming quickly thus ; while ocean's tide
Hung swollen at their backs, and jewel'd sands
Took silently their foot-prints.
" My soul stands
Now past the midway from mortality.
And so I can prepare without a sigh
To tell thee briefly all my joy and pain.
I was a fisher once, upon this main,
And my boat dane'd in every creek and bay ;
Rough billows were my home by night and day, — 320
The sea-gulls not more constant ; for I had
No housing from the storm and tempests mad.
But hollow rocks, — and they were palaces
Of silent happiness, of slumberous ease :
Long years of misery have told me so.
Aye, thus it was one thousand years ago.
One thousand years ! — Is it then possible
To look so plainly through them ? to dispel
A thousand years with backward glance sublime ?
To breathe away as 'twere all scummy slime 330
From oiF a crystal pool, to see its deep.
And one's own image from the bottom peep ?
Yes : now I am no longer wretched thrall.
My long captivity and moanings all
Are but a slime, a thin-pervading scum.
The which I breathe away, and thronging come
Like things of yesterday my youthful pleasures.
" I touch'd no lute, I sang not, trod no measures :
I was a lonely youth on desert shores.
^My sports were lonely, 'mid continuous roars, 340
And craggy isles, and sea-mew's plaintive cry
Plaining discrepant between sea and sky.
Dolphins were still my playmates ; shapes unseen
Would let me feel their scales of gold and green.
Nor be my desolation ; and, full oft,
When a dread waterspout had rear'd aloft
Its hungry hugeness, seeming ready ripe
To burst with hoarsest thunderings, and wipe
106 JOHN KEATS [book in
My life away like a vast sponge of fate,
Some friendly monster, pitying my sad state, 350
Has dived to its foundations, gulph'd it down,
And left me tossing safely. But the crown
Of all my life was utmost quietude :
More did I love to lie in cavern rude.
Keeping in wait whole days for Neptune's voice.
And if it came at last, hark, and rejoice !
There blush'd no summer eve but I would steer
My skiff along green shelving coasts, to hear
The shepherd's pipe come clear from aery steep.
Mingled with ceaseless bleatings of his sheep : 360
And never was a day of summer shine,
But I beheld its birth upon the brine :
For I would watch all night to see unfold
Heaven's gates, and JEthon snort his morning gold
Wide o'er the swelling streams : and constantly
At brim of day-tide, on some grassy lea.
My nets would be spread out, and I at rest.
The poor folk of the sea-country I blest
With daily boon of fish most delicate :
They knew not whence this bounty, and elate 370
Would strew sweet flowers on a sterile beach.
" Why was I not contented ? Wherefore reach
At things which, but for thee, O Latmian !
Had been my dreary death ? Fool ! I began
To feel distemper'd longings : to desire
The utmost privilege that ocean's sire
Could grant in benediction : to be free
Of all his kingdom. Long in misery
I wasted, ere in one extremest fit
I plung'd for life or death. To interknit 380
One's senses with so dense a breathing stuff
Might seem a work of pain ; so not enough
Can I admire how crystal-smooth it felt.
And buoyant round my limbs. At first I dwelt
Whole days and days in sheer astonishment ;
Forgetful utterly of self-intent ;
Moving but with the mighty ebb and flow.
Then, like a new fledg'd bird that first doth show
His spreaded feathers to the morrow chill,
I tried in fear the pinions Of my will. 390
'Twas freedom ! and at once I visited
The ceaseless wonders of this ocean-bed.
No need to tell thee of them, for I see
That thou hast been a witness — it must be —
BOOK in] ENDYMION 107
For these I know thou canst not feel a drouth.
By the melancholy comers of that mouth.
So I will in my story straightway pass
To more immediate matter. Woe, alas !
That love should be my bane ! Ah, Scylla fair !
Why did poor Glaucus ever-^ever dare ^oo
To sue thee to his heart ? Kind stranger-youth !
I lov'd her to the very white of truth.
And she would not conceive it. Timid thing !
She fled me swift as sea-bird on the wing,
Round every isle, and point, and promontory.
From where large Hercules wound up his story
Far as Egyptian Nile. My passion grew
The more, the more I saw her dainty hue
Gleam delicately through the azure clear :
Until 'twas too fierce agony to bear ; ^lo
And in that agony, across my grief
It flash'd, that Circe might find some relief —
Cruel enchantress ! So above the water
I rear'd my head, and look'd for Phoebus' daughter.
jEsea's isle was wondering at the moon : —
It seem'd to whirl around me, and a swoon
Left me dead-drifting to that fatal power.
" When I awoke, 'twas in a twilight bower ;
Just when the light of morn, with hum of bees.
Stole through its verdurous matting of fresh trees. 420
How sweet, and sweeter ! for I heard a lyre,
And over it a sighing voice expire.-
It ceas'd — I caught light footsteps ; and anon
The &irest face that morn e'er look'd upon
Push'd through a screen of roses. — Starry Jove !
With tears, and smiles, and honey-words she wove
A net whose thraldom was more bliss than all
The range of flower'd Elysium. Thus did fall
The dew of her rich speech : ' Ah ! Art awake .''
0 let me hear thee speak, for Cupid's sake ! 430
1 am so oppress'd with joy ! Why, I have shed
An urn of tears, as though thou wert cold dead ;
And now I find thee living, I will pour
From these devoted eyes their silver store.
Until exhausted of the latest drop,
So it wiU pleasure thee, and force thee stop
Here, that I too may live : but if beyond
Such cool and sorrowful oiFerings, thou art fond
Of soothing warmth, of dalliance supreme ;
If thou art ripe to taste a long love dream ; 440
108 JOHN KEATS [book ill
If smiles, if dimples, tongues for ardour mute.
Hang in thy vision like a tempting fruit,
0 let me pluck it for thee.' Thus she link'd
Her charming syllables, till indistinct
Their music came to my o'er-sweeten'd soul ;
And then she hover'd over me, and stole
So near, that if no nearer it had been
This furrow'd visage thou hadst never seen.
" Young man of Latmos ! thus particular
Am I, that thou may'st plainly see how far 450
This fierce temptation went : and thou may'st not
Exclaim, How then, was Scylla quite forgot ?
" Who could resist .-' Who in this universe ?
She did so breathe ambrosia ; so immerse
My fine existence in a golden clime.
She took me like a child of suckling time.
And cradled me in roses. Thus condemn'd.
The current of my former life was stemm'd.
And to this arbitrary queen of sense
1 bow'd a tranced vassal : nor would thence 460
Have mov'd, even though Amphion's harp had woo'd
Me back to Scylla o'er the billows rude.
For as Apollo each eve doth devise
A new appareling for western skies ;
So every eve, nay every spendthrift hour
Shed balmy consciousness within that bower.
And I was free of haunts umbrageous ;
Could wander in the mazy forest-house
Of squirrels, foxes shy, and antler'd deer.
And birds from coverts innermost and drear 470
Warbling for very joy mellifluous sorrow —
To me new bom delights !
" Now let me borrow.
For moments few, a temperament as stem
As Pluto's sceptre, that my words not bum
These uttering lips, while I in calm speech tell
How specious heaven was changed to real hell.
" One morn she left me sleeping : half awake
I sought for her smooth arms and lips, to slake
My greedy thirst with nectarous camel-draughts ;
But she was gone. Whereat the barbed shafts 480
Of disappointment stuck in me so sore.
That out I ran and search'd the forest o'er.
BOOK III] ENDYMION 109
Wandering about in pine and cedar gloom
Damp awe assail'd me ; for there 'gan to boom
A sound of moan, an agony of sound.
Sepulchral from the distance all around.
Then came a conquering earth-thunder, and rumbled
That fierce complain to silence : while I stumbled
Down a precipitous path, as if impell'd.
I came to a dark valley. — Groanings swell'd 4go
Poisonous about my ears, and louder grew,
The nearer I approach'd a flame's gaunt blue,
That glar'd before me through a thorny brake.
This fire, like the eye of gordian snake,
Bewitch'd me towards ; and I soon was near
A sight too fearful for the feel of fear :
In thicket hid I curs'd the haggard scene —
The banquet of my arms, my arbour queen,
Seated upon an uptom forest root ;
And all around her shapes, wizard and brute, 300
Laughing, and wailing, groveling, serpenting.
Showing tooth, tusk, and venom-bag, and sting !
O such deformities ! Old Charon's self.
Should he give up awhile his penny pelf,
And take a dream 'mong rushes Stygian,
It could not be so phantasied. Fierce, wan.
And t3rrannizing was the lady's look,
As over them a gnarled staff she shook. ' —
Oft-times upon the sudden she laugh'd out.
And from a basket emptied to the rout 510
Clusters of grapes, the which they raven'd quick
And roar'd for more ; with many a hungry lick
About their shaggy jaws. Avenging, slow.
Anon she took a branch of mistletoe.
And emptied on't a black dull-gurgling phial :
Groan'd one and all, as if some piercing trial
Was sharpening for their pitiable bones.
She lifted up the charm : appealing groans
From their poor breasts went sueing to her ear
In vain ; remorseless as an infant's bier 520
She whisk'd against their eyes the sooty oil.
Whereat was heard a noise of painful toil.
Increasing gradual to a tempest rage.
Shrieks, yells, and groans of torture-pilgrimage ;
Until their grieved bodies 'gan to bloat
And puff from the tail's end to stifled throat :
Then was appalling silence : then a sight
More wildering than all that hoarse affright ;
For the whole herd, as by a whirlwind writhen,
110 JOHN KEATS [book m
Went through the dismal air like one huge Python 530
Antagonizing Boreas, — and so vanish'd.
Yet there was not a breath of wind : she banish 'd
These phantoms with a nod. Lo ! from the dark
Came waggish fauns, and nymphs, and satyrs stark,
With dancing and loud revelry,— and went
Swifter than centaurs after rapine bent. —
Sighing an elephant appear'd and bow'd
Before the fierce witch, speaking thus aloud
In human accent : ' Potent goddess ! chief
Of pains resistless ! make my being brief, 5^0
Or let me from this heavy prison fly :
Or give me to the air, or let me die !
I sue not for my happy crown again ;
I sue not for my phal^^nx on the plain ;
I sue not for my lone, my widow'd wife ;
I sue not for my ruddy drops of life,
My children fair, my lovely girls and boys !
I will forget them ; I will pass these joys ;
Ask nought so heavenward, so too — too high :
Only I pray, as fairest boon, to die, 550
Or be deliver'd from this cumbrous flesh.
From this gross, detestable, filthy mesh.
And merely given to the cold bleak air.
Have mercy. Goddess ! Circe, feel my prayer ! '
" That curst magician's name fell icy numb
Upon my wild conjecturing : truth had come
Naked and sabre-like against my heart.
I saw a fury whetting a death-dart ;
And my slain spirit, overwrought with fright.
Fainted away in that dark lair of night. 560
Think, my deliverer, how desolate
My waking must have been ! disgust, and hate,
And terrors manifold divided me
A spoil amongst them. I prepar'd to flee
Into the dungeon core of that wild wood :
I fled three days — when lo ! before me stood
Glaring the angry witch. O Dis, even now,
A clammy dew is beading on my brow.
At mere remembering her pale laugh, and curse.
'Ha ! ha ! Sir Dainty ! there must be a nurse 570
Made of rose leaves and thistledown, express.
To cradle thee my sweet, and lull thee : yes,
I am too flinty-hard for thy nice touch :
My tenderest squeeze is but a giant's clutch.
So, fairy-thing, it shall have luUabies
BOOK HI] ENDYMION 111
Unheard of yet : and it shall stiU its cries
Upon some breast more lily-feminine.
Oh, no — it shall not pine, and pine, and pine
More than one pretty, trifling thousand years ;
And then 'twere pity, but £fite's gentle shears 580
Cut short its immortality. Sea-flirt !
Young dove of the waters ! truly I'll not hurt
One hair of thine : see how I weep and sigh.
That our heart-broken parting is so nigh.
And must we part ? Ah, yes, it must be so.
Yet ere thou leavest me in utter woe.
Let me sob over thee my last adieus.
And speak a blessing : Mark me I Thou hast thews
Immortal, for thou art of heavenly race : . 1 ,, l, <
But such a love is mine, that here I chase '- -^ '• ' jgo
Eternally away from thee all bloom ■
Of youth, and destine thee towards a tomb.
Hence shalt thou quickly to the watery vast ;
And there, ere many days be overpast.
Disabled age shall seize thee ; and even then
Thou shalt not go the way of aged men ;
But live and wither, cripple and still breathe
Ten hundred years : which gone, I then bequeath
Thy fragile bones to unknown burial.
Adieu, sweet love, adieu ! ' — As shot stars fall, 600
She fled ere I could groan for mercy. Stung
And poisoned was my spirit : despair sung
A war-song of defiance 'gainst all hell.
A hand was at my shoulder to compel
My sullen steps ; another 'fore my eyes
Moved on with pointed finger. In this guise
Enforced, at the last by ocean's foam
I found me ; by my fresh, my native home.
Its tempering coolness, to my life akin.
Came salutary as I waded in ; 610
"> And, with a blind volugtuous. rage, I gave
Battle to the swoUenDillow^ridge, and drave
Large froth before me, while there yet remain'd
Hale strength, nor from my bones all marrow drain' d.
" Young lover, I must weep — such hellish spite
With dry cheek who can tell ? While thus my might
Proving upon this element, dismay'd, , .
Upon a dead thing's face my hand I laid ; . \ '-''"
I look'd — 'twas Scylla ! Cursed, cursed Circe !
O vulture-witch, hast never heard of mercy ? §30
Could pot thy harshest vengeance be content,
112 JOHN KEATS [book hi
But thou must nip this tender innocent
Because I lov'd her ? — ^Cold, O cold indeed
Were her fair limbs, and like a common weed
The sea-swell took her hair. Dead as she was
I clung about her waist, nor ceas'd to pass
Fleet as an arrow through unfiithom'd brine.
Until there shone a fabric crystalline,
Ribb'd and inlaid with coral, pebble, and piearl.
Headlong I darted ; at one eager swirl 630
Gain'd its bright portal, enter'd, and behold !
'Twas vast, and desolate, and icy-cold ;
And all around — But wherefore this to thee
Who in few minutes more thyself shalt see ? —
I left poor Scylla in a niche and fled.
My fever'd parchings up, my scathing dread
Met palsy half way : soon these limbs became
Gaunt, wither'd, sapless, feeble, cramp'd, and lame.
" Now let me pass a cruel, cruel space.
Without one hope, without one faintest trace 640
Of mitigation, or redeeming bubble
Of colour' d phantasy ; for I fear 'twould trouble
Thy brain to loss of reason : and next tell
How a restoring chance came down to quell
One half of the witch in me.
"On a day.
Sitting upon a rock above the spray,
I saw grow up from the horizon's brink '' ^ \
A gallant vessel : soon she seem'd to sink \j~
Away from me again, as though her course I aj*^
Had been resum'd in spite of hindering force-^ 650
So vanish' d : and not long, before arose
Dark clouds, and muttering of winds morose.
Old iEolus would stifle his mad spleen,
But could not : therefore all the billows green
Toss'd up the silver spume against the clouds.
The tempest came : I saw that vessel's shrouds
In perilous bustle ; while upon the deck
Stood trembling creatures. I beheld the wreck ;
The final gulphing ; the poor struggling souls :
I heard their cries amid loud thunder-rolls. 660
O they had all been sav'd but crazed eld
AnnuU'd my vigorous cravings : and thus quell'd
And curb'd think on't, O Latmian ! did I sit
Writhing with pity, and a cursing fit
Against that helj-born Circe. The crew had gone,
BOOK in] ENDYMION 113
By one and one, to pale oblivion ;
And I was gazing on the surges prone.
With many a scalding tear and many a groan.
When at my feet emerg'd an old man's hand,
Grasping this scroll, and this same slender wand. 670
I knelt with pain — ^reached out my hand — ^had grasp'd
These treasures — touch'd the knuckles — they unclasp'd —
I caught a finger : but the downward weight
O'erpowered me — it sank. Then 'gan abate
The storm, and through chill aguish gloom outburst
The comfortable sun. I was athirst
To search the book, and in the wanning air
Parted its dripping leaves with eager care.
Strange matters did it treat of, and drew on
My soul page after page, tUl well-nigh won 680
Into forgetfulness ; when, stupefied,
I read these words, and read again, and tried
My eyes against the heavens, and read again.
O what a load of misery and pain
Each Atlas-line bore off! — a shine of hope
Came gold around me, cheering me to cope
Strenuous with hellish tyranny. Attend !
For thou hast brought their promise to an end,
" In the wide sea there lives a forlorn wretch,
Doom'd with enfeebled carcase to outstretch 6go
His loath'd existence through ten centuries.
And then to die alone. Who can devise
A total opposition ? No one. So
One million times ocean must ebb andJUmi,
And he oppressed. Yet he shall not die.
These thirds accomplish' d : — If he utterly
Scans all the depths of Tnagic, and expounds
The meanings of all motions, shapes, and sounds ;
If he explores all forms and substances
Straight homeward to their symbol-essences ; 700
He shall not die. Moreover, and in chief,
He must pursue this task of joy and grief
Most piously ; — all lovers tempest-tost.
And in the savage overwhehning lost,
He shall deposit side by side, until
Time's creeping shall the dreary space fulfil :
Which done, and all these labours ripened,
A youth, by heavenly power lov'd and led.
Shall stand before Mm ; whom he shall direct
Horn to consummate all. The youth elect 710
Must do the thing, or both will be destr(y'd." —
114 JOHN KEATS [book hi
"Then," cried the young Endymion, overjoy'd,
" We are twin brothers in this destiny !
Say, I intreat thee, what achievement high
Is, in this restless world, tot me reserv'd.
What ! if from thee my wandering feet had swerv'd,
Had we both perish'd ? " — " Look ! " the sage replied,
"Dost thou not mark a gleaming through the tide.
Of divers brilliances ? 'tis the edifice
I told thee of, where lovely Scylla Hes ; 7ao
And where I have enshrined piously
All lovers, whom fell storms have doom'd to die
Throughout my bondage." Thus discoursing, on
They went till unobscur'd the porches shone ;
Which hurryingly they gain'd, and enter'd straight.
Sure never since king Neptune held his state
Was seen such wonder underneath the stars.
Turn to some level plain where haughty Mars
Has legion'd all his battle ; and behold
How every soldier, with firm foot, doth hold 730
His even breast : see, many steeled squares.
And rigid ranks of iron — whence who dares
One step .'' Imagine further, line by line.
These warrior thousands on the field supine : —
So in that crystal place, in silent rows.
Poor lovers lay at rest from joys and woes. —
The stranger from the mountains, breathless, trac'd
Such thousands of shut eyes in order plac'd ;
Such ranges of white feet, and patient lips
All ruddy, — for here death no blossom nips. 740
He mark'd their brows and foreheads ; saw their hair
Put sleekly on one side with nicest care ;
And each one's gentle wrists, with reverence.
Put cross-wise to its heart.
"Let us commence,"
Whisper'd the guide, stuttering with joy, " even now."
He spake, and, trembling like an aspen-boi^h,
Began to tear his scroll in pieces small.
Uttering the while some mumblings funeral.
He tore it into pieces small as snow
That drifts unfeather'd when bleak northerns blow ; 750
And having done it, took his dark blue cloak
And bound it round Endymion : then struck
His wand against the empty air times nine. —
" What more there is to do, young man, is thine :
But first a little patience ; first undo
This tangled thread, and wind it to a clue.
tiOOK III] ENDYMION 115
Ah, gentle ! 'tis as weak as spider's skein ;
And shouldst thou break it — What, is it done so clean ?
A power overshadows thee ! O, brave !
The spite of hell is tumbling to its grave. 760
Here is a shell ; 'tis pearly blank to me.
Nor mark'd with any sign or charaetery —
Canst thou read aught ? O read for pity's sake !
Ol3nmpus ! we are safe ! Now, Carian, break
This wand against yon lyre on the pedestal."
'Twas done : and straight with sudden swell and fall
Sweet music breath'd her soul away, and sigh'd
A lullaby to silence. — " Youth ! now strew
These minced leaves on me, and passing through
Those files of dead, scatter the same around, 770
And thou wilt see the issue." — 'Mid the sound
Of flutes and viols, ravishing his heart,
Endymion from Glaucus stood apart,
And scatter'd in his &ce some fragments light.
How lightning-swift the change ! a youthful wight
Smiling beneath a coral diadem.
Out-sparkling sudden like an upturn'd gem,
Appear'd, and, stepping to a beauteous corse,
Kneel'd down beside it, and with tenderest force
Press'd its cold hand, and wept, — ^and Scylla sigh'd ! 780
Endjfmion, with quick hand, the charm apply'd —
The nymph arose : he left them to their joy,
And onward went upon his high employ,
Showering those powerful fragments on the dead.
And, as he pass'd, each lifted up his head.
As doth a flower at Apollo's touch.
Death felt it to his inwards : 'twas too much :
Death fell a weeping in his charnel-house.
The Latmian persever'd along, and thus
All were re-animated. There arose 790
A noise of harmony, pulses and throes
Of gladness in the air — while many, who
Had died in mutual arms devout and true.
Sprang to each other madly ; and the rest
Felt a high certainty of being blest.
They gaz'd upon Endymion. Enchantment
Grew drunken, and would have its head and bent.
Delicious symphonies, like airy flowers.
Budded, and swell'd, and, fuU-blown, shed full showers
Of light, soft, unseen leaves of sounds divine. 800
The two deliverers tasted a pure wine
Of happiness, from fairy-press ooz'd out.
116 JOHN KEATS [book hi
Speechless they eyed each other, and about
The fair assembly wander'd to and fro,
Distracted with the richest overflow
Of joy that ever pour'd from heaven.
' Away ! "
Shouted the new bom god ; " Follow, and pay
Our piety to Neptunus supreme ! " —
Then Scylla, blushing sweetly from her dream,
They led on first, bent to her meek surprise, 8io
Through portal columns of a giant size,
Into the vaulted, boundless emerald.
Joyous all follow'd, as the leader call'd,
Down marble steps ; pouring as easily
As hour-glass sand, — ^and fast, as you might see
Swallows obeying the south summer's call.
Or swans upon a gentle waterfall.
Thus went that beautiful multitude, nor far.
Ere from among some rocks of glittering spar,
Just within ken, they saw descending thick 820
Another multitude. Whereat more quick
Moved either host. On a wide sand they met,
And of those numbers every eye was wet ;
For each their old love found. A murmuring rose.
Like what was never heard in all the throes
Of wind and waters : 'tis past human wit
To tell ; 'tis dizziness to think of it.
This mighty consummation made, the host
Mov'd on for many a league ; and gain'd, and lost
Huge sea-marks ; vanward swelling in array, 830
And from the rear diminishing away, —
Till a fkint dawn surpris'd them. Olaucus cried,
" Behold ! behold, the palace of his pride I
God Neptune's palaces ! " With noise increas'd,
They shoulder'd on towards that brightening east.
At every onward step proud domes arose
In prospect, — diamond gleams, and golden glows
Of amber 'gainst their faces levelling.
Joyous, and many as the leaves in spring.
Still onward ; still the splendour gradual swell'd. 840
Rich opal domes were seen, on high upheld
By jasper pillars, letting through their shafts
A blush of coral. Copious wonder-draughts
£ach gazer drank ; and deeper drank more near :
For what poor mortals fragment up, as mere
BOOK III] ENDYMION 117
As marble was there lavish, to the vast
Of one fair palace, that far far surpass'd,
Even for common bulk, those olden three,
Memphis, and Babylon, and Nineveh.
As large, as bright, as eolour'd as the bow 850
Of Iris, when unfading it doth shew
Beyond a silvery shower, was the arch
Through which this Paphian army took its march.
Into the outer courts of Neptune's state :
Whence could be seen, direct, a golden gate.
To which the leaders sped ; but not half raught
Ere it burst open swift as feiry thought.
And made those dazzled thousands veil their eyes
Like callow eagles at the first sunrise.
Soon with an eagle nativeness their gaze 860
Ripe from hue-golden swoons took all the blaze.
And then, behold ! large Neptune on his throne
Of emerald deep : yet not exalt alone ;
At his right hand stood winged Love, and on
His left sat smiling Beauty's paragon. Y ■^'^-'^ ''
Far as the mariner on highest mast
Can see all round upon the calmed vast.
So wide was Neptune's hall : and as the blue
Doth vault the waters, so the waters drew
Their doming curtains, high, magnificent, 870
Aw'd from the throne aloof; — and when storm-rent
Disclos'd the thunder-gloomings in Jove's air ;
But sooth'd as now, flash'd sudden everywhere,
Noiseless, sub-marine cloudlets, glittering
Death to a human eye : for there did spring
From natural west, and east, and south, and north,
A light as of four sunsets, blazing forth
A gold-green zenith 'bove the Sea-God's head.
Of lucid depth the floor, and far outspread
As breezeless lake, on which the slim canoe 880
Of feather'd Indian darts about, as through
The delicatest air : air verily.
But for the portraiture of clouds and sky :
This palace floor breath-air, — but for the amaze
Of deep-seen wonders motionless, — and blaze
Of the dome pomp, reflected in extremes.
Globing a golden sphere.
They stood in dreams
Till Triton blew his horn. The palace r^ng ;
118 JOHN KEATS [pooK iii
The Nereids danc'd ; the S3n'eiis faintly sang ;
And the great Sea-King bow'd his dripping head. ggo
Then Love took wing, and from his pinions shed
On all the multitude a neetarous dew.
The ooze-bom Goddess beckoned and drew
Fair ScyUa and her guides to conference ;
And when they reach' d the throned eminence
She kist the sea-nymph's cheek, — who sat her down
A to3dng with the doves. Then, — " Mighty crown
And sceptre of this kingdom ! " Venus said,
" Thy vows were on a time to Nais paid :
Behold ! " — Two copious tear-drops instant fell goo
From the God's large eyes ; he smil'd delectable,
And over Glaucus held his blessing hands. —
" Endymion ! Ah ! stiU wandering in the bands
Of love .'' Now this is cruel. Since the hour
I met thee in earth's bosom, all my power
Have I put forth to serve thee. What, not yet
Escap'd from dull mortality's harsh net .''
A little patience, youth ! 'twill not be long.
Or I am skilless quite : an idle tongue,
A humid eye, and steps luxurious, gio
Where these are new and strange, are ominous.
Aye, I have seen these signs in one of heaven.
When others were all blind : and were I given
To utter secrets, haply I might say
Some pleasant words : — but Love will have his day.
So wait awhile expectant. Pr'ythee soon.
Even in the passing of thine honey-moon.
Visit thou my Cythera : thou wilt find
Cupid well-natured, my Adonis kind ;
And pray persuade with thee — Ah, I have done, 920
All blisses be upon thee, my sweet son ! " —
Thus the fair goddess : While Endymion
Knelt to receive those accents halcyon.
Meantime a glorious revelry began
Before the Water-Monarch. Nectar ran
In courteous fountains to all cups outreach'd ;
And plunder'd vines, teeming exhaustless pleach'd
New growth about each shell and penden't lyre i
The which, in disentangling for their fire,
PuU'd down fresh foliage and coverture 930
For dainty toying. Cupid, empire-sure,
Flutter'd and laugh' d, and oft-times through the throng
Made a delighted way. Then dance, and song.
And garlanding grew wild ; and pleasure reign'd.
BOOK III] ENDYMION 119
In harmless tendril they each other chain' d.
And strove who should be smother'd deepest in
Fresh crush of leaves.
O 'tis a very sin
For one so weak to venture his poor verse
In such a place as this. O do not curse.
High Muses ! let him hurry to the ending. g^o
All suddenly were silent. A soft blending
Of dulcet instruments came charmingly ;
And then a hymn.
" King of the stormy sea !
Brother of Jove, and co-inheritor
Of elements ! Eternally before
Thee the waves awfiil bow. Fast, stubborn rock.
At thy fear'd trident shrinking, doth unlock
Its deep foundations, hissing into foam.
All mountain-rivers, lost in the wide home
Of thy capacious bosom, ever flow. 950
Thou frownest, and old iEolus thy foe
Skulks to his cavern, 'mid the gruff complaint
Of all his rebel tempests. Dark clouds felint
When, from thy diadem, a silver gleam
Slants over blue dominion. Thy bright team
Gulphs in the morning light, and scuds along
To bring thee nearer to that golden song
Apollo singeth, while his chariot
Waits at the doors of heaven. Thou art not
For scenes like this : an empire stern hast thou ; g6o
And it hath forrow'd that large front : yet now.
As newly come of heaven, dost thou sit
To blend and interknit
Subdued majesty with this glad time.
O shell-borne King sublime !
We lay our hearts before thee evermore —
We sing, and we adore !
" Breathe softly, flutes ;
Be tender of your strings, ye soothing lutes ;
Nor be the trumpet heard ! O vain, O vain ; 970
Not flowers budding in an April rain.
Nor breath of sleeping dove, nor river's flow, —
No, nor the ^ohan twang of Love's own bow.
Can mingle music fit for the soft ear
Of goddess Cytherea !
120 JOHN KEATS [book hi
Yet deign, white Queen of Beauty, thy fair eyes
On our souk' sacrifice.
" Bright-winged Child !
Who has another care when thou hast smil'd ?
Unfortunates on earth, we see at last 980
All death-shadows, and glooms that overcast
Our spirits, fann'd away by thy light pinions.
0 sweetest essence ! sweetest of all minions !
God of warm pulses, and dishevell'd hair.
And panting bosoms bare !
Dear unseen light in darkness ! eclipser
Of light in light ! delicious poisoner !
Thy venom'd goblet will we quaff until
We fill— we fiU !
And by thy Mother's lips ■'
Was heard no more ggo
For clamour, when the golden palace door
Opened again, and from without, in shone
A new magnificence. On oozy throne
Smooth-moving came Oceanus the old.
To take a latest glimpse at his sheep-fold.
Before he went into his quiet cave
To muse for ever — Then a lucid wave.
Scoop' d from its trembling sisters of mid-sea.
Afloat, and pillowing up the majesty
Of Doris, and the iEgean seer, her spouse — 1000
Next, on a dolphin, clad in laurel boughs,
Theban Amphion leaning on his lute :
His fingers went across it — All were mute
To gaze on Amphitrite, queen of pearls.
And Thetis pearly too. —
The palace whirls
Around giddy Endymion ; seeing he
Was there far strayed from mortality.
He could not bear it — shut his eyes in vain ;
Imagination gave a dizzier pain.
"01 shall die ! sweet Venus, be my stay ! loio
Where is my lovely mistress ? Well-away !
1 die — I hear her voice — I feel my wing — "
At Neptune's feet he sank. A sudden ring
Of Nereids were about him, in kind strife
To usher back his spirit into life :
But still he slept. At last they interwove
Their cradling arms, and purpos'd to convey
Towards a crystal bower fax away.
BOOK III] ENDYMION 121
Lo ! while slow carried through the pitying crowd,
To his inward senses these words spake aloud ; 1020
Written in star-light on the dark above :
Dearest Endymion ! my entire love !
Horn have I dwelt in fear of fate : 'tis done —
Immortal bliss for me too hast thou won.
Arise then ! for the hen-dove shall not hatch
Her ready eggs, before I'll kissing snatch
Thee into endless heaven. Awake ! awake !
The youth at once arose : a placid lake
Came quiet to his eyes ; and forest green, 1030
Cooler than all the wonders he had seen,
Lull'd with its simple song his fluttering breast.
How happy once again in grassy nest !
122 JOHN KEATS [book iv
ENDYMION
BOOK IV
MUSE of my native land ! loftiest Muse !
O first-born on the mountains ! by the hues
Of heaven on the spiritual air begot :
Long didst thou sit alone in northern grot.
While yet our England was a wolfish den ;
Before our forests heard the talk of men ;
Before the first of Druids was a child ; —
Long didst thou sit amid our regions wild
Rapt in a deep prophetic solitude.
There came an eastern voice of solemn mood : — lo
Yet wast thou patient. Then sang forth the Nine,
Apollo's garland : — ^yet didst thou divine
Such home-bred glory, that they cry'd in vain,
" Come hither. Sister of the Island ! " Plain
Spake fair Ausonia ; and once more she spake
A higher summons : — still didst thou betake
Thee to thy native hopes. O thou hast won
A full accomplishment ! The thing is done.
Which undone, these our latter days had risen
On barren souls. Great Muse, thou know'st what prison, 20
Of flesh and bone, curbs, and confines, and frets
Our spirit's wings : despondency besets
Our pillows ; and the fresh to-morrow mom
Seems to give forth its light in very scorn
Of our dull, uninspired, snail-paced lives.
Long have I said, how happy he who shrives
To thee ! But then I thought on poets gone.
And could not pray : — nor could I now — so on
I move to the end in lowliness of heart.
" Ah, woe is me ! that I should fondly part 3"
From my dear native land ! Ah, foolish maid !
Glad was the hour, when, with thee, myriads bade
Adieu to Ganges and their pleasant fields !
To one so friendless the clear freshet yields
BOOK IV] ENDYMION
A bitter coolness ; the ripe grape is sour :
Yet I would have, great gods ! but one short hour
Of native air — ^let me but die at home."
Endymion to heaven's airy dome
Was offering up a hecatomb of vows.
When these words reach'd him. Whereupon he bows 40
His head through thorny-green entanglement
Of underwood, and to the sound is bent.
Anxious as hind towards her hidden fawn.
" Is no one near to help me .■' No fair dawn
Of hfe from charitable voice ? No sweet sa}ring
To set my dull and sadden'd spirit playing ?
No hand to toy with mine ? No lips so sweet
That I may worship them ? No eyelids meet
To twinkle on my bosom].'' No one dies
Before me, till from these enslaving eyes 50
Redemption sparkles ! — I am sad and lost."
Thou, Carian lord, hadst better have been tost
Into a whirlpool. Vanish into air.
Warm mountaineer ! for canst thou only bear
A woman's sigh alone and in distress ?
See not her charms ! Is Phoebe passionless ?
Phoebe is fairer far — O gaze no more : —
Yet if thou wilt behold all beauty's store.
Behold her panting in the forest grass !
Do not those curls of glossy jet surpass go
For tenderness the arms so idly lain
Amongst them ? Feelest not a kindred pain.
To see such lovely eyes in swimming search
After some warm delight, that seems to perch
Dovelike in the dim cell lying beyond
Their upper lids ? — Hist !
" O for Hermes' wand.
To touch this flower into human shape !
That woodland Hyacinthus could escape
From his green prison, and here kneeling down
Call me his queen, his second life's fair crown ! 70
Ah me, how I could love ! — My soul doth melt
For the unhappy youth — Love ! I have felt
So faint a kindness, such a meek surrender
To what my own full thoughts had made too tender,
That but for tears my life had fled away ! —
Ye deaf and senseless minutes of the day,
124 JOHN KEATS [book iv
And thou, old forest, hold ye this for true.
There is no lightning, no authentic dew-
But in the eye of love : there's not a sound.
Melodious howsoever, can confound 80
The heavens and earth in one to such a death
As doth the voice of love : there's not a breath
Will mingle kindly with the meadow air.
Till it has panted round, and stolen a share
Of passion from the heart ! " —
Upon a bough
He leant, wretched. He surely cannot now
Thirst for another love : O impious.
That he can even dream upon it thus ! —
Thought he, " Why am I not as are the dead.
Since to a woe like this I have been led 90
Through the dark earth, and through the wondrous sea ?
Goddess ! I love thee not the less : from thee
By Juno's smile I turn not — no, no, no —
While the great waters are at ebb and flow. —
I have a triple soul ! O fond pretence —
For both, for both my love is so immense,
I feel my heart is cut for them in twain."
And so he groan'd, as one by beauty slain.
The lady's heart beat quick, and he could see
Her gentle bosom heave tumultuously. 100
He sprang from his green covert : there she lay.
Sweet as a muskrose upon new-made hay ;
With all her limbs on tremble, and her eyes
Shut softly up alive. To speak he tries.
" Fair damsel, pity me ! forgive that I
Thus violate thy bower's sanctity !
0 pardon me, for I am full of grief —
Grief bom of thee, young angel ! fairest thief!
Who stolen hast away the wings wherewith
1 was to top the heavens. Dear maid, sith no
Thou art my executioner, and I feel
Loving and hatred, misery and weal,
Wm in a few short hours be nothing to me.
And all my story that much passion slew me ;
Do smile upon the evening of my days :
And, for my tortur'd brain begins to craze.
Be thou my nurse ; and let me understand
How dying I shall kiss that lily hand. —
Dost weep for me ? Then should I be content.
Scowl on, ye fates ! until the Armament lao
BOOK IV] ENDYMION 125
Outblackens Erebus, and the full-cavern'd earth
Crumbles into itself. By the cloud girth
Of Jove, those tears have given me a thirst
To meet oblivion." — ^As her heart would burst
The maiden sobb'd awhile, and then replied :
" Why must such desolation betide
As that thou speakest of? Are not these green nooks
Empty of all misfortune ? Do the brooks
Utter a gorgon voice .'' Does yonder thrush,
Schooling its half-fledg'd little ones to brush 130
About the dewy forest, whisper tales ? —
Speak not of grief, young stranger, or cold snails
Will slime the rose to-night. Though if thou wilt,
Methinks 'twould be a guilt — a very guilt —
Not to companion thee, and sigh away
The light — ^the dusk — the dark — till break of day ! "
" Dear lady," said Endymion, " 'tis past :
I love thee ! and my days can never last.
That I may pass in patience still speak :
Let me have music dying, and I seek 140
No more delight — I bid adieu to all.
Didst thou not after other climates call.
And murmur about Indian streams ?" — Then she.
Sitting beneath the midmost forest tree.
For pity sang this roundelay
"O Sorrow,
Why dost borrow
The natural hue of health, from vermeil lips ? —
To give maiden blushes
To the white rose bushes ? 150
Or is it thy dewy hand the daisy tips ?
"O Sorrow,
Why dost borrow
The lustrous passion from a falcon-eye ? —
To give the glow-worm light ?
Or, on a moonless night.
To tinge, on syren shores, the salt sea-spry ?
"O Sorrow,
Why dost borrow
The mellow ditties from a mourning tongue .'' — 160
To give at evening pale
Unto the nightingale.
That thou mayst Usten the cold dews among ?
126 JOHN KEATS [book iv
"O Sorrow,
Why dost borrow
Heart's lightness from the merriment of May ?—
A lover would not tread
A cowslip on the head,
Though he should dance from eve till peep of day^
Nor any drooping flower 170
Held sacred for thy bower.
Wherever he may sport himself and play.
" To Sorrow,
I bade good-morrow.
And thought to leave her far away behind ;
But cheerly, cheerly.
She loves me dearly ;
She is so constant to me, and so kind :
I would deceive her
And so leave her, 180
But ah ! she is so constant and so kind.
" Beneath my palm trees, by the river side,
I sat a weeping: in the whole world wide
There was no one to ask me why I wept, — ^
And so I kept
Brimming the water-lily cups with tears
Cold as my fears.
" Beneath my palm trees, by the river side,
I sat a weeping : what enamour'd bride.
Cheated by shadowy wooer from the clouds, 190
But hides and shrouds
Beneath dark palm trees by a river side ?
" And as I sat, over the light blue hills
There came a noise of revellers : the riUs
Into the wide stream came of purple hue —
'Twas Bacchus and his crew !
The earnest trumpet spake, and silver thrills
From kissing cymbals made a merry din —
'Twas Bacchus and his kin !
Like to a moving vintage down they came, 200
Crown'd with green leaves, and faces all on flame ;
All madly dancing through the pleasant valley.
To scare thee. Melancholy !
O then, O then, thou wast a simple name !
And I forgot thee, as the berried holly
By shepherds is forgotten, when, in June,
Tall chesnuts keep away the sun and moon : —
I rush'd into the folly !
BOOK IV] ENDYMION 127
" Within his car, aloft, young Bacchus stood.
Trifling his ivy-dart,, in dancing mood, 210
With sidelong laughing ;
And little rills of crimson wine imbru'd
His plump white arms, and shoulders, enough white
For Venus' pearly bite :
And near him rode Silenus on his ass.
Pelted with flowers as he on did pass
Tipsily quafiing.
" Whence came ye, merry Damsels ! whence came ye !
So many, and so many, and such glee ?
Why have ye left your bowers desolate, 220
Your lutes, and gentler fate ? —
' We follow Bacchus ! Bacchus on the wing,
A conquering !
Bacchus, young Bacchus ! good or Ul betide.
We dance before him thorough kingdoms wide : —
Come hither, lady fair, and joined be
To our wild minstrelsy ! '
" Whence came ye, jolly Satyrs ! whence came ye !
So many, and so many, and such glee ?
Why have ye left your forest haunts, why left 230
Your nuts in oak-tree cleft ? —
' For virine, for wine we left our kernel tree ;
For wine we left our heath, and yellow brooms.
And cold mushrooms ;
For wine we follow Bacchus through the earth ;
Great God of breathless cups and chirping mirth ! —
Come hither, lady fair, and joined be
To our mad minstrelsy ! '
" Over wide streams and mountains great we went,
And, save when Bacchus kept his ivy tent, 240
Onward the tiger and the leopard pants.
With Asian elephants :
Onward these myriads — with song and dance.
With zebras striped, and sleek Arabians' prance.
Web-footed alhgators, crocodiles.
Bearing upon their scaly backs, in files,
Plump infant laughers mimicking the coil
Of seamen, and stout galley-rowers' toil :
With toying oars and silken sails they glide,
Nor care for wind and tide. 230
128 JOHN KEATS [book iv
" Mounted on panthers' furs and lions' manes,
From rear to van they scour about the plains ;
A three days' journey in a moment done :
And always, at the rising of the sun.
About the wilds they hunt with spear and horn,
On spleenful unicorn.
" I saw Osirian Egypt kneel adown
Before the vine-wreath crown !
I saw parch'd Abyssinia rouse and sing
To the silver cymbals' ring ! 260
I saw the whelming vintage hotly pierce
Old Tartary the fierce !
The kings of Inde their jewel-sceptres vail.
And from their treasures scatter pearled hail ;
Great Brahma from his mystic heaven groans.
And all his priesthood moans ;
Before young Bacchus' eye-wink turning pale. —
Into these regions came I following him,
Sick hearted, weary — so I took a whim
To stray away into these forests drear 270
Alone, without a peer :
And I have told thee all thou mayest hear.
" Young stranger !
I've been a ranger
In search of pleasure throughout every clime :
Alas, 'tis not for me !
Bewitch'd I sure must be.
To lose in grieving all my maiden prime.
" Come then. Sorrow !
Sweetest Sorrow ! a8o
Like an own babe I nurse thee on my breast :
I thought to leave thee
And deceive thee.
But now of all the world I love thee best.
" There is not one.
No, no, not one
But thee to comfort a poor lonely maid ;
Thou art her mother.
And her brother.
Her playmate, and her wooer in the shade." 29a
O what a sigh she gave in finishing.
And look, quite dead to every worldly thing !
BOOK IV] ENDYMION 129
, End3n3aion could not speak, but gazed on her ;
And listened to the wind that now did stir
About the crisped oaks full drearily,
Yet with as sweet a softness as might be
Remember'd from its velvet summer song.
At last he said : " Poor lady, how thus long
Have I been able to endure that voice ?
Fair Melody ! kind Sjrren ! I've no choice ; 300
I must be thy sad servant evermore :
I cannot choose but kneel here and adore.
Alas, I must not think — by Phoebe, no !
Let me not think, soft Angel ! shall it be so .''
Say, beautifuUest, shall I never think .'
O thou could' st foster me beyond the brink
Of recollection ! make my watchful care
Close up its bloodshot eyes, nor see despair !
Do gently murder half my soul, and I
Shall feel the other half so utterly ! — 310
I'm giddy at that cheek so fair and smooth ;
O let it blush so ever ! let it soothe
My madness ! let it mantle rosy-warm
With the tinge of love, panting in safe alarm. —
This cannot be thy hand, and yet it is ;
And this is sure thine other softling — this
Thine own fair bosom, and I am so near !
Wilt fall asleep ? O let me sip that tear !
And whisper one sweet word that I may know
This is this world — sweet dewy blossom ! " — Woe ! 320
Woe ! Woe to that Endymion ! Where is he f —
Even these words went echoing dismally
Through the wide forest — a most fearful tone.
Like one repenting in his latest moan ;
And while it died away a shade pass'd by.
As of a thunder cloud. When arrows fly
Through the thick branches, poor ring-doves sleek forth
Their timid necks and tremble ; so these both
Leant to each other trembling, and sat so
Waiting for some destruction — when lo, 330
Foot-feather'd Mercury appear'd sublime
Beyond the tall tree tops ; and in less time
Than shoots the slanted hail-storm, down he dropt
Towards the ground ; but rested not, nor stopt
One moment from his home : only the sward
He with his wand light touch'd, and heavenward
Swifter than sight was gone — even before
The teeming earth a sudden witness bore
Of his swift magic. Diving swans appear
9
130 JOHN KEATS [book iv
Above the crystal circlings white and clear ; 3^0
And catch the cheated eye in wild surprise.
How they can dive in sight and unseen rise —
So from the turf outsprang two steeds jet-black.
Each with large dark blue wings upon his back.
The youth of Caria plac'd the lovely dame
On one, and felt himself in spleen to tame
The other's fierceness. Through the air they flew.
High as the eagles. Like two drops of dew
Exhal'd to Phoebus' lips, away they are gone.
Far from the earth away — unseen, alone, 350
Among cool clouds and winds, but that the free.
The buoyant life of song can floating be
Above their heads, and follow them untir'd. —
Muse of my native land, am I inspir'd ?
This is the giddy air, and I must spread
Wide pinions to keep here ; nor do I dread
Or height, or depth, or width, or any chance
Precipitous : I have beneath my glance
Those towering horses and their moumfril freight.
Could I thus sail, and see, and thus await 360
Fearless for power of thought, without thine aid ? —
There is a sleepy dusk, an odorous shade
From some approaching wonder, and behold
Those winged steeds, with snorting nostrils bold
Snuff at its faint extreme, and seem to tire.
Dying to embers from their native fire !
There curl'd a purple mist around them ; soon.
It seem'd as when aromid the pale new moon
Sad Zeph3nr droops the clouds like weeping willow :
'Twas Sleep slow joumepng with head on pillow. 370
For the first time, since he came nigh dead bom
From the old womb of night, his cave forlorn
Had he left more forlorn ; for the first time.
He felt aloof the day and morning's prime —
Because into his depth Cimmerian
There came a dream, showing how a young man.
Ere a lean bat could plump its wintery skin.
Would at high Jove's empyreal footstool win
An immortality, and how espouse
Jove's daughter, and be reckon'd of his house. 380
Now was he slumbering towards heaven's gate.
That he might at the threshold one hour wait
To hear the marriage melodies, and then
Sink downward to his dusky cave again.
His litter of smooth seiuilijpe^t ipist,
BOOK IV] ENDYMION 131
Diversely ting'd with rose and amethyst.
Puzzled those eyes that for the centre sought ;
And scarcely for one moment could be caught
His sluggish form reposing motionless.
Those two on winged steeds, with all the stress 390
Of vision search'd for him, as one would look
Athwart the sallows of a river nook
To catch a glance at silver throated eels, —
Or from old Skiddaw's top, when fog conceals
His rugged forehead in a mantle pale,
With an eye-guess towards some pleasant vale
Descry a favourite hamlet faint and far.
These raven horses, though they foster' d are
Of earth's splenetic fire, dully drop
Their full-veined ears, nostrils blood wide, and stop ; 400
Upon the spiritless mist have they outspread
Their ample feathers, are in slumber dead, —
And on those pinions, level in mid air,
Endymion sleepeth and the lady fair.
Slowly they sail, slowly as icy isle
Upon a calm sea drifting : and meanwhile
The mournful wanderer dreams. Behold! he walks
On heaven's pavement ; brotherly he talks
To divine powers : from his hand full fain
Juno's proud birds are pecking pearly grain : 410
He tries the nerve of Phoebus' golden bow.
And asketh where the golden apples grow :
Upon his arm he braces Pallas' shield.
And strives in vain to unsettle and wield
A Jovian thunderbolt : arch Hebe brings
A fuU-brimm'd goblet, dances lightly, sings
And tantalizes long ; at last he drinks.
And lost in pleasure at her feet he sinks.
Touching with dazzled lips her starlight hand.
He blows a bugle, — an ethereal band 420
Are visible above : the Seasons four,—
Green-kyrtled Spring, flush Summer, golden store
In Autumn's sickle. Winter frosty hoar.
Join dance with shadowy Hours ; while still the blast.
In swells unmitigated, still doth last
To sway their floating morris. " Whose is this ?
Whose bugle ? " he inquires ; they smile — " O Dis !
Why is this mortal here .-' Dost thou not know
Its mistress' lips ? Not thou .'' — 'Tis Dian's : lo !
She rises crescented ! ", He looks, 'tis she, 430
His very goddess : good-bye earth, and sea.
132 JOHN KEATS [book iv
And air, and pains, and care, and suffering ;
Good-bye to all but love ! Then doth he spring
Towards her, and awakes — and, strange, o'erhead.
Of those same fragrant exhalations bred,
Beheld awake his very dream : the gods
Stood smiling ; merry Hebe laughs and nods ;
And Phoebe bends towards him crescented.
0 state perplexing ! On the pinion bed,
Too well awake, he feels the panting side 440
Of his delicious lady. He who died
For soaring too audacious in the sun,
Where that same treacherous wax began to run,
Felt not more tongue-tied than £nd3ntnion.
His heart leapt Up as to its rightful throne.
To that fair shadow'd passion puls'd its way —
Ah, what perplexity ! Ah, well a day 1
So fond, so beauteous was his bed-fellow.
He could not help but kiss her : then he grew
Awhile forgetful of all beauty save 450
Young Phoebe's, golden hair'd ; and so 'gan crave
Forgiveness : yet he tum'd once more to look
At the sweet sleeper, — all his soul was shook, —
She press'd his hand in slumber ; so once more
He could not help but kiss her and adore.
At this the shadow wept, melting away.
The Latmian started up : " Bright goddess, stay !
Search my most hidden breast 1 By truth's own tongue,
1 have no daedale heart : why is it wrung
To desperation ? Is there nought for me, 460
Upon the bourne of bliss, but misery ? "
These words awoke the stranger of dark tresses :
Her dawning love-look rapt Endymion blesses
With 'haviour soft. Sleep yawned from underneath.
" Thou swan of Ganges, let us no more breathe
This murky phantasm ! thou contented seem'st
Pillow'd in lovely idleness, nor dream'st ^
What horrors may discomfort thee and me.
Ah, shouldst thou die from my heart-treachery ! —
Yet did she merely weep — her gentle soul 470
Hath no revenge in it : as it is whole
In tenderness, would I were whole in love !
Can I prize thee, fair maid, all price above.
Even when I feel as true as innocence ?
I do, I do. — ^What is this soul then ? Whence
Came it .' It does not seem my own, and I
Have no self-passion or identity.
BOOK IV] ENDYMION 133
Some fearful end must be : where, where is it ?
By Nemesis, I see my spirit flit
Alone about the dark — Forgive me, sweet : 480
Shall we away ? " He rous'd the steeds : they beat
Their wings chivalrous into the clear air,
Leaving old Sleep within his vapoury lair.
The good-night blush of eve was waning slow.
And Vesper, risen star, began to throe
In the dusk heavens silverly, when they
Thus sprang direct towards the Galaxy.
Nor did speed hinder converse soft and strange —
Eternal oaths and vows they interchange.
In such wise, in such temper, so aloof ^go
Up in the winds, beneath a starry roof.
So witless to their doom, that verily
'Tis well nigh past man's search their hearts to see ;
Whether they wept, or laugh 'd, or griev'd, or toy'd —
Most Uke with joy gone mad, with sorrow cloy'd.
Full facing their swift flight, from ebon streak,
The moon put forth a little diamond peak.
No bigger than an unobserved star.
Or tiny point of fairy scymetar ;
Bright signal that she only stoop'd to tie 500
Her silver sandals, ere dehciously
She bow'd into the heavens her timid head.
Slowly she rose, as though she would have fled.
While to his lady meek the Carian tum'd,
To mark if her dark eyes had yet discem'd
This beauty in its births-Despair ! despair !
He saw her body fading gaunt and spare
In the cold moonshine. Straight he seiz'd her wrist ;
It melted from his grasp : her hand he kiss'd,
And, horror ! kiss'd his own — he was alone. 510
Her steed a little higher soar'd, and then
• Dropt hawkwise to the earth.
There lies a den.
Beyond the seeming confines of the space
Made for the soul to wander in and toace
Its own existence, of remotest glooms.
Dark regions are around it, where the tombs
Of buried grie& the spirit sees, but scarce
One hour doth linger weeping, for the pierce
Of new-bom woe it feels more inly smart :
And in these regions many a venom'd dart 320
134 JOHN KEATS [book iv
At random flies ; they are the proper home
Of every ill : the man is yet to come
Who hath not journeyed in this native hell.
But few have ever felt how calm and well
Sleep may be had in that deep den of all.
There anguish does not sting ; nor pleasure pall :
Woe-hurricanes beat ever at the gate,
Yet all is still within and desolate.
Beset with plainful gusts, within ye hear
No sound so loud as when on curtain'd bier 530
The death-watch tick is stifled. Enter none
Who strive therefore : on the sudden it is won.
Just when the sufferer begins to burn,
Then it is free to him ; and from an urn,
Still fed by melting ice, he takes a draught —
Young Semele such richness never quaft
In her maternal longing ! Happy gloom !
Dark Paradise ! where pale becomes the bloom
Of health by due ; where silence dreariest
Is most articulate ; where hopes infest ; 540
Where those eyes are the brightest far that keep
Their lids shut longest in a dreamless sleep.
O happy spirit-home ! O wondrous soul !
Pregnant with such a den to save the whole
In thine own depth. Hail, gentle Carian !
For, never since thy griefs and woes began.
Hast thou felt so content : a grievous feud
Hath led thee to this Cave of Quietude.
Aye, his lull'd soul was there, although upborne
With dangerous speed : and so he did not mourn 550
Because he knew not whither he was going.
So happy was he, not the aerial blowing
Of trumpets at clear parley from the east
Could rouse from that fine relish, that high feast.
They stung the feather'd horse : with fierce alarm
He flapp'd towards the sound. Alas, no charm
Could lift Endymion's head, or he had view'd
A skyey mask, a pinion'd multitude, —
And silvery was its passing : voices sweet
Warbling the while as if to lull and greet 560
The wanderer in his path. Thus warbled they.
While past the vision went in bright array.
" Who, who from Dian's feast would be away ?
For all the golden bowers of the day
Are empty left ? Who, who away would be
From Cynthia's wedding and festivity ?
BOOK IV] ENDYMION 135
Not Hesperus : lo ! upon his silver wings
He leans away for highest heaven and sings,
Snapping his lucid fingers merrily ! —
Ah, Zephyrus ! art here, and Flora too ! 570
Ye tender bibbers of the rain and dew.
Young playmates of the rose and daffodil.
Be careful, ere ye enter in, to fill
Your baskets high
With fennel green, and balm, and golden pines.
Savory, latter-mint, and columbines,
Cool parsley, basil sweet, and sunny thyme ;
Yea, every flower and leaf of every clime,
All gather' d in the dewy morning : hie
Away ! fly, fly ! — 580
Crystalline brother of the belt of heaven,
Aquarius ! to whom king Jove has given
Two liquid pulse streams 'stead of feather'd wings,
Two fan-like fountains, — thine illuminings
For Dian play :
Dissolve the frozen purity of air ;
Let thy white shoulders silvery and bare
Show cold through watery pinions ; make more bright
The Star-Queen's crescent on her marriage night :
Haste, haste away ! — 590
Castor has tam'd the planet Lion, see !
And of the Bear has Pollux mastery :
A third is in the race ! who is the third
Speeding away swift as the eagle bird ?
The ramping Centaur !
The Lion's mane's on end : the Bear how fierce !
The Centaur's arrow ready seems to pierce
Some enemy : far forth his bow is bent
Into the blue of heaven. He'U be shent
Pale unrelentor, 600
When he shall hear the wedding lutes a playing. —
Andromeda ! sweet woman ! why delaying
So timidly among the stars : come hither !
Join this bright throng, and nimbly follow whither
They all are going.
Danae's Son, before Jove newly bow'd,'
Has wept for thee, calling to Jove aloud.
Thee, gentle lady, did he disenthral :
Ye shall for ever live and love, for allj
Thy tears are flowing. — 610
By Daphne's fright, behold Apollo ! — "
136 JOHN KEATS [book iv
More
Endymion heard not : down his steed him bore.
Prone to the green head of a misty hill.
His first touch of the earth went nigh to kill.
" Alas ! " said he, " were I but always borne
Through dangerous winds, had but my footsteps worn
A path in hell, for ever would I bless
Horrors which nourish an uneasiness
For my own sullen conquering : to him
Who lives beyond earth's boundary, grief is dim, 620
Sorrow is but a shadow : now I see
The grass ; I feel the solid ground— Ah, me !
It is thy voice — divinest ! Where ?-^who ? who
Left thee so quiet on this bed of dew ?
Behold upon this happy earth we are ;
Let us ay love each other ; let us fare
On forest-fruits, and never, never go
Among the abodes of mortals here below.
Or be by phantoms duped. O destiny !
Into a labyrinth now my soul would fly, 630
But with thy beauty will I deaden it.
Where didst thou melt to ? By thee will I sit
For ever : let our fate stop here — a kid
I on this spot wiU offer : Pan will bid
Us live in peace, in love and peace among
His forest wildernesses. I have clung
To nothing, lov'd a nothing, nothing seen
Or felt but a great dream ! O I have been
Presumptuous against love, against the sky,
Against all elements, against the tie 640
Of mortals each to each, against the blooms
Of flowers, rush of rivers, and the tombs
Of heroes gone ! Against his proper glory
Has my own soul conspired : so my story
Will I to children utter, and repent.
There never liv'd a mortal man, who bent
His appetite beyond his natural sphere,
But starv'd and died. My sweetest Indian, here,
Here will I kneel, for thou redeemed hast
My life from too thin breathing : gone and past 650
Are cloudy phantasms. Caverns lone, farewel !
And air of visions, and the monstrous swell
Of visionary seas ! No, never more
Shall airy voices cheat me to the shore
Of tangled wonder, breathless and aghast.
Adieu, my daintiest Dream ! although so vast
BOOK IV] ENDYMION 187
My love is still for thee. The hour'may come
When we shall meet in pure elysium.
On earth I may not love thee ; and therefore
Doves will I offer upj and sweetest store 660
All through the teeming year : so thou wilt shine
On me, and on this damsel fair of mine.
And bless our simple lives. My Indian bliss !
My river-lily bud ! one human kiss !
One sigh of real breath — one gentle squeeze.
Warm as a dove's nest among summer trees.
And warm with dew at ooze from living blood !
Whither didst melt .-' Ah, what of that ! — all good
We'll talk about — no more of dreaming.— Now,
Where shall our dwelling be .'' Under the brow 670
Of some steep mossy hill, where ivy dun
Would hide us up, although spring leaves were none ;
And where dark yew trees, as we rustle through.
Will drop their scarlet berry cups of dew ?
0 thou wouldst joy to live in such a place ;
Dusk for our loves, yet light enough to grace
Those gentle limbs on mossy bed reclin'd :
For by one step the blue sky shouldst thou find,
And by another, in deep dell below.
See, through the trees, a little river go 680
AU in its mid-day gold and glimmering.
Honey from out the gnarled hive I'll bring.
And apples, wan with sweetness, gather thee, —
Cresses that grow where no man may them see.
And sorrel untorn by the dew-claw' d stag :
Pipes will I fashion of the S3>Tinx flag.
That thou mayst always know whither I roam.
When it shall please thee in our quiet home
To listen and think of love. Still let me speak ;
StiU let me dive into the joy I seek, — 690
For yet the past doth prison me. The rill.
Thou haply mayst delight in, will I fill
With fairy fishes from the mountain tarn.
And thou shalt feed them from the squirrel's barn.
Its bottom will I strew with amber shells.
And pebbles blue from deep enchanted wells.
Its sides I'll plant with dew-sweet eglantine.
And honeysuckles full of clear bee-wine.
1 will entice this crystal rill to trace
Love's silver name upon the meadow's face. 700
I'll kneel to Vesta, for a flame of fire ;
And to God Phoebus, for a golden l3Te ;
To Empress Dian, for a hunting spear ;
188 JOHN KEATS [book iv
To Vesper, for a taper silver-clear.
That I may see thy beauty through the night ;
To Flora, and a nightingale shall light
Tame on thy finger ; to the River-gods,
And they shall bring thee taper fishing-rods
Of gold, and lines of Naiads' long bright tress.
Heaven shield thee for thine utter loveliness ! 710
Thy mossy footstool shall the altar be
'Fore which I'll bend, bending, dear love, to thee :
Those lips shall be my Delphos, and shall speak
Laws to my footsteps, colour to my cheek.
Trembling or stedfastness to this same voice.
And of three sweetest pleasurings the choice :
And that affectionate light, those diamond things.
Those eyes, those passions, those supreme pearl springs.
Shall be my grief, or twinkle me to pleasure.
Say, is not bliss within our perfect seisure ? 720
0 that I could not doubt ! "
The mountaineer
Thus strove by fancies vain and crude to clear
His briar'd path to some tranquillity.
It gave bright gladness to his lady's eye.
And yet the tears she wept were tears of sorrow ;
Answering thus, just as the golden morrow
Beam'd upward from the vallies of the east :
"O that the flutter of this heart had ceas'd.
Or the sweet name of love had pass'd away.
Young feather'd tyrant ! by a swift decay 730
Wilt thou devote this body to the earth :
And I do think that at my very birth
1 lisp'd thy blooming titles inwardly ;
For at the first, first dawn and thought of thee.
With uplift hands I blest the stars of heaven.
Art thou not cruel .'' Ever have I striven
To think thee kind, but ah, it will not do !
When yet a child, I heard that kisses drew
Favour from thee, and so I kisses gave
To the void air, bidding them find out love : 740
But when I came to feel how far above
All fancy, pride, and fickle maidenhood.
All earthly pleasure, all imagin'd good.
Was the warm tremble of a devout kiss, —
Even then, that moment, at the thought of this.
Fainting I fell into a bed of flowers.
And languish'd there three days. Ye milder bowers,
Am I not cruelly wrong'd ." Believe, believe
BOOK IV] ENDYMION 139
Me, dear Endymion, were I to weave
With my own fancies garlands of sweet life, 750
Thou shouldst be one of all. Ah, bitter strife !
I may not be thy love : I am forbidden —
Indeed I am — thwarted, afirighted, chidden.
By things I trembled at, and gorgon wrath.
Twice hast thou ask'd whither I went : henceforth
Ask me no more ! I may not utter it.
Nor may I be thy love. We might commit
Ourselves at once to vengeance ; we might die ;
We might embrace and die : voluptuous thought !
Enlarge not to my hunger, or I'm caught 760
In trammels of perverse deliciousness.
No, no, that shall not be : thee will I bless,
And bid a long adieu."
The Carian
No word return' d : both lovelorn, silent, wan.
Into the vallies green together went.
Far wandering, they were perforce content
To sit beneath a fair lone beechen tree ;
Nor at each other gaz'd, but heavily
Por'd on its hazle cirque of shedded leaves.
Endymion ! unhappy ! it nigh grieves 770
Me to behold thee thus in last extreme :
Ensky'd ere this, but truly that I deem
Truth the best music in a first-born song.
Thy lute-voic'd brother will I sing ere long,
And thou shalt aid — hast thou not aided me ?
Yes, moonhght Emperor ! felicity
Has been thy meed for many thousand years ;
Yet often have I, on the brink of tears,
Moum'd as if yet thou wert a forester ; —
Forgetting the old tale.
He did not stir 780
His eyes from the dead leaves, or one small pulse
Of joy he might have felt. TTie spirit culls
Uniaded amaranth, when wild it strays
Through the old garden-ground of boyish days.
A little onward ran the very stream
By which he took his first soft poppy dream ;
And on the very bark 'gainst which he leant
A crescent he had carv'd, and round it spent
His skill in httle stars. The teeming tree
Had swollen and green'd the pious charactery, 790
140 JOHN KEATS [book iv
But not ta'en out. Why, there was not a slope
Up which he had not fear'd the antelope ;
And not a tree, beneath whose rooty shade
He had not with his tamed leopards play'd :
Nor could an arrow light, or javelin.
Fly in the air where his had never been —
And yet he knew it not.
O treachery !
Why does his lady smile, pleasing her eye
With all his sorrowing ? He sees her not.
But who so stares on him ? His sister sure ! Scm
Peona of the woods ! — Can she endure —
Impossible — how dearly they embrace !
His lady smiles ; delight is in her face ;
It is no treachery.
" Dear brother mine !
Endymion, weep not so ! Why shouldst thou pine
When all great Latmos so exalt will be .''
Thank the great gods, and look not bitterly ;
And speak not one pale word, and sigh no more.
Sure I will not believe thou hast such store
Of grief, to last thee to my kiss again. 8io
Thou surely canst not bear a mind in pain.
Come hand in hand with one so beautiful.
Be happy both of you ! for I will pull
The flowers of autumn for your coronals.
Pan's holy priest for young Endymion calls ;
And when he is restor'4, thou, fairest dame,
Shalt be our queen. Now, is it not a shame
To see ye thus, — ^not very, very sad ?
Perhaps ye are too happy to be glad :
O feel as if it were a common day ; 820
Free-voic'd as one who never was away.
No tongue shall ask, whence come ye ? but ye shall
Be gods of your own rest imperial.
Not even I, for one whole month, will pry
Into the hours that have pass'd us by.
Since in my arbour I did sing to thee.
O Hermes ! on this very night will be
A hymning up to Cynthia, queen of light ;
For the soothsayers old saw yesternight
Good visions in the air, — ^whence will befal, 830
As say these sages, health perpetual
To shepherds and their flocks ; and furthermore,
In Dian's face they read the gentle lore :
BOOK IV] ENDYMION 141
Therefore for her these vesper-carols are.
Our friends will all be there from nigh and far.
Many upon thy death have ditties made ;
And many, even now, their foreheads shade
With cypress, on a day of sacrifice.
New singing for our maids shalt thou devise.
And pluck the sorrow from our huntsmen's brows. 840
Tell me, my lady-queen, how to espouse
This wayward brother to his rightful joys !
His eyes are on thee bent, as thou didst poise
His fate most goddess-like. Help me, I pray.
To lure — End3rmion, dear brother, say
What ails thee ? " He could bear no more, and so
Bent his soul fiercely like a spiritual bow,
And twang'd it inwardly, and calmly said :
" I would have thee my only friend, sweet maid !
My only visitor ! not ignorant though, 850
That those deceptions which for pleasure go
'Mong men, are pleasures real as real may be :
But there are higher ones I may not see.
If impiously an earthly realm I take.
Since I saw thee, I have been wide awake
Night after night, and day by day, until
Of the empyrean I have drunk my fill.
Let it content thee. Sister, seeing me
More happy than betides mortality.
A hermit young, I'U live in mossy cave, 860
Where thou alone shalt come to me, and lave
Thy spirit in the wonders I shall tell.
Through me the shepherd realm shall prosper well ;
For to thy tongue will I all health confide.
And, for my sake, let this young maid abide
With thee as a dear sister. Thou alone,
Peona, mayst return to me. I own
This may sound strangely : but when, dearest girl.
Thou seest it for my happiness, no pearl
Will trespass down those cheeks. Companion feir ! 870
Wilt be content to dwell with her, to share
This sister's love with me .'' " Like one resign'd
And bent by circumstance, and thereby blind
In self-commitment, thus that meek unknown :
" Aye, but a buzzing by my ears has flown.
Of jubilee to Dian : — ^truth I heard !
Well then, I see there is no little bird.
Tender soever, but is Jove's own care.
Long have I sought for rest, and, unaware,
Behold I find it I so exalted too ! 880
JOHN KEATS [book iv
So after my own heart ! I knew, I knew
There was a place untenanted in It :
In that same void white Chastity shall sit.
And monitor me nightly to lone slumber.
With sanest lips I vow me to the number
Of Dian's sisterhood ; and, kind lady.
With thy good help, this very night shall see
My future days to her fane consecrate."
As feels a dreamer what doth most create
His own particular fright, so these three felt : ggo
Or like one who, in after ages, knelt
To Lucifer or Baal, when he'd pine
After a little sleep : or when in mine
Far under-ground, a sleeper meets his friends
Who know him not. Each diligently bends
Towards common thoughts and things for very fear ;
Striving their ghastly malady to cheer.
By thinking it a thing of yes and no.
That housewives talk of. But the spirit-blow
Was struck, and all were dreamers. At the last goo
Endymion said : " Are not our fates all cast ?
Why stand we here .'' Adieu, ye tender pair !
Adieu ! " Whereat those maidens, with wild stare,
Walk'd dizzily away. Pained and hot
His eyes went after them, untU they got
Near to a cypress grove, whose deadly maW,
In one swift moment, would what then he saw
Engulph for ever. " Stay ! " he cried, " ah, stay !
Turn, damsels ! hist ! one word I have to say.
Sweet Indian, I would see thee once again. gio
It is a thing I dote on : so I'd fain,
Peona, ye should hand in hand repair
Into those holy groves, that silent are
Behind great Dian's temple. I'll be yon,
At vesper's earliest twinkle — ^they are gone —
But once, once, once again — " At this he press'd
His hands against his face, and then did rest
His head upon a mossy hillock green.
And so remain'd as he a corpse had been
AU the long day ; save when he scantly lifted 920
His eyes abroad, to see how shadows shifted
With the slow move of time, — sluggish and weary
Until the poplar tops, in journey dreary.
Had reach'd the river's brim. Then up he rose,
And, slowly as that very river flows,
Walk'd towards the temple grove with this lament ;
BOOK IV] ENDYMION 148
" Why such a golden eve ? The breeze is sent
Carefol and soft, that not a leaf may &I1
Before the serene father of them all
Bows down his summer head below the west. 930
Now am I of breath, speech, and speed possest.
But at the setting I must bid adieu
To her for the last time. Night wiU strew
On the damp grass myriads of lingering leaves.
And with them shall I die ; nor much it grieves
To die, when summer dies on the cold sward.
Why, I have been a butterfly, a lord
Of flowers, garlands, love-knots, sUly posies.
Groves, meadows, melodies, and arbour roses ;
My kingdom's at its death, and just it is 940
That I should die with it : so in all this
We miscal grief, bale, sorrow, heartbreak, woe.
What is there to plain of? By Titan's foe
I am but rightly serv'd." So sajring, he
Tripp'd lightly on, in sort of deathfol glee ;
Laughing at the clear stream and setting sun.
As though they jests had been : nor had he done
His laugh at nature's holy countenance.
Until that grove appear'd, as if perchance.
And then his tongue with sober seemlihed 950
Gave utterance as he enter'd : " Ha ! I said.
King, of the butterflies ; but by this gloom.
And by old Rhadamanthus' tongue of doom.
This dusk religion, pomp of solitude.
And the Promethean clay by thief endued.
By old Satumus' forelock, by his head
Shook with eternal palsy, I did wed
Myself to things of Ught from infancy ;
And thus to be cast out, thus lorn to die.
Is sure enough to make a mortal man g6o
Grrow impious." So he inwardly began
On things for which no wording can be found ;
Deeper and deeper sinking, until drown'd
Beyond the reach of music : for the choir
Of Cynthia he heard not, though rough briar
Nor muffling thicket interpos'd to dull
The vesper hymn, far swollen, sofl and full,
Through the dark pUlais of those sylvan aisles.
He saw not the two maidens, nor their smiles,
Wan as primroses gather 'd at midnight gyo
By chilly finger'd spring. " Unhappy wight !
Endymion ! " said Peona, " we are here !
What wouldst thou ere we aU are laid on bier .' "
144 JOHN KEATS [book iv
Then he embrac'd her, and his lady's hand
Press'd, saying : " Sister, I would have command,
If it were heaven's will, on our sad fate."
At which that dark-eyed stranger stood elate
And said, in a new voice, but sweet as love,
To Endymion's amaze : " By Cupid's dove,
And so thou shalt ! and by the lily truth ggo
Of my own breast thou shalt, beloved youth ! "
And as she spake, into her face there came
Light, as reflected from a silver flame :
Her long black hair swell'd ampler, in display
Full golden ; in her eyes a brighter day
Dawn'd blue and full of love. Aye, he beheld
Phoebe, his passion ! joyous she upheld
Her lucid bow, continuing thus : " Drear, drear
Has our delaying been ; but foolish fear
Withheld me first ; and then decrees of fate ; ggo
And then 'twas fit that from this mortal state
Thou shouldst, my love, by some unlook'd for change
Be spiritualiz'd. Peona, we shall range
These forests, and to thee they safe shall be
As was thy cradle ; hither shalt thou flee
To meet us many a time." Next Cynthia bright
Peona kiss'd, and bless'd with fair good night :
Her brother kiss'd her too, and knelt adown
Before his goddess, in a blissful swoon.
She gave her fair hands to him, and behold, looo
Before three swiftest kisses he had told.
They vanish' d far away ! — Peona went
Home through the gloomy wood in wonderment.
THE END
LAMIA
ISABELLA
THE EVE OF ST. AGNES
AND
OTHER POEMS
1820
10
ADVERTISEMENT
If any apology be thought necessary for the appearance of the unfinished poem of
Hyperion, the publishers beg to state that they alone are responsible, as it was printed
at their particular request, and contrary to the wish of the author. The poem was in-
tended to have been of equal length with' Endvmion, but the reception given to that
work discouraged the author from proceeding.
Fleet-Street, June 26, 1820.
LAMIA
PART I
UPON a time, before the faery broods
Drove Njnaiph and Sat)rr from the prosperous woods.
Before king Oberon's bright diadem.
Sceptre, and mantle, clasp'd with dewy gem,
Frighted away the Dryads and the Fauns
From rushes green, and brakes, and cowslip'd lawns.
The ever-smitten Hermes empty left
His golden throne, bent warm on amorous theft :
From high Olympus had he stolen hght,
On this side of Jove's clouds, to escape the sight lo
Of his great summoner, and made retreat
Into a forest on the shores of Crete.
For somewhere in that sacred island dwelt
A nymph, to whom all hoofed Satyrs knelt ;
At whose white feet the languid Tritons poured
Pearls, while on land they wither d and adored.
Fast by the springs where she to bathe was wont.
And in those meads where sometime she might haunt.
Were strewn rich gifts, unknown to any Muse,
Thoiigh Fancy's casket were unlock'd to choose. 20
Ah, what a world of love was at her feet !
So Hermes thought, and a celestial heat
Burnt from his winged heels to either ear.
That from a whiteness, as the lily clear,
Blush'd into roses 'mid his golden hair.
Fallen in jealous curls about his shoulders bare.
From vale to vale, from wood to wood, he flew.
Breathing upon the flowers his passion new.
And wound with many a river to its head.
To find where this sweet nymph prepar'd her secret bed : 30
In vain ; the sweet nymph might nowhere be found.
And so he rested, on the lonely ground,
Pensive, and full of painful jealousies
Of the Wood-Gods, and even the very trees.
148 JOHN KEATS
There as he stood, he heard a mournful voice.
Such as once heard, in gentle heart, destroys
All pain but pity : thus the lone voice spake :
" When from this wreathed tomb shall I awake !
When move in a sweet body fit for life.
And love, and pleasure, and the ruddy strife 40
Of hearts and lips ! AJi, miserable me ! "
The Godj(dove-footed,^hded silently
Round bush and tree, soft-brushing, in his speed,
The taller grasses and full-flowering weed,
Until he found a palpitating snake,
Bright, and cirque-couchant in- a dusky brake.
She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue.
Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue ;
Striped like a zebra, freckled like a pard.
Eyed like a peacock, and all crimson barr'd ; 50
And full of silver moons, that, as she breathed,
Dissolv'd, or brighter shone, or interwreathed
Their lustres wfth the gloomier tapestries —
So rainbow-sided, touch'd with miseries.
She seem'd, at once, some penanced lady elf.
Some demon's mistress, or the demon's self.
Upon her crest she wore a wannish fire
Sprinkled with stars, like Ariadne's tiar :
Her head was serpent, but ah, bitter-sweet !
She had a woman's mouth with all its pearls complete : 60
And for her eyes : what could such eyes do there
But weep, and weep, that they were born so fair ?
As Proserpine still weeps for her Sicilian air.
Her throat was serpent, but the words she spake
Came, as through bubbling honey, for Love's sake,
And thus ; while Hermes on his pinions lay,
Like a stoop'd falcon ere he takes his, prey.
" Fair Hermes, crown'd with feathers, fluttering light,
I had a splendid dream of thee last night :
I saw thee sitting, on a throne of gold, yo
Among the Gods, upon Ol3aupus old.
The only sad one ; for thou didst not hear
The soft, lute-finger'd Muses chaunting clear,
Nor even Apollo when he sang alone.
Deaf to his throbbing throat's long, long melodious moan.
I dreamt I saw thee, robed in purple flakes.
Break amorous through the clouds, as morning breaks.
And, swiftly as a bright Phoebean dart.
Strike for the Cretan isle ; and here thou art !
LAMIA 149
Too gentle Hermes, hast thou found the maid ? " 80
Whereat the star of Lethe not delay'd
His rosy eloquence, and thus inquired :
" Thou smooth-Mpp'd serpent, surely high inspired !
Thou beauteous wreath, with melancholy eyes,
Possess whatever bliss thou canst devise.
Telling me only where my nymph is fled, —
Where she doth breathe ! " " Bright planet, thou hast said,"
Retum'd the snake, " but seal with oaths, fair God ! "
" I swear," said Hermes, " by my serpent rod,
And by thine eyes, and by thy starry crown ! " go
Light flew his earnest words, among the blossoms blown.
Then thus again the brilliance feminine :
" Too frail of heart ! for this lost nymph of thine.
Free as the air, invisibly, she strays
About these thomless wilds ; her pleasant days
She tastes unseen ; unseen her nimble feet
Leave traces in the grass and flowers sweet ;
From weary tendrils, and bow'd branches green.
She plucks the fruit unseen, she bathes unseen :
And by my power is her beauty veil'd 100
To keep it unaffronted, unassail'd
By the love-glances of unlovely eyes.
Of Satjnrs, Fauns, and blear'd Silenus' sighs.
Pale grew her immortality, for woe
Of all these lovers, and she grieved so
I took compassion on her, bade her steep
Her hair in weird S3frops, that would keep
Her loveliness invisible, yet free
To wander as she loves, in liberty.
Thou shalt behold her, Hermes, thou aloiie, no
If thou wilt, as thou swearest, grant my boon ! "
Then, once again, the charmed God began
An oath, and through the serpent's ears it ran
Warm, tremulous, devout, psalterian.
Ravish'd, she lifted her Circean head,
Blush'd a live damask, and swift-lisping said, '/ ' ' ,
" I was a woman, let me have once more ,1
A woman's shape, and charming as before.
I love a youth of Corinth — O the bliss !
Give me my woman's form, and place me where he is. 120
Stoop, Hermes, let me breathe upon thy brow.
And thou shalt see thy sweet nymph even now."
The God on half-shut feathers sank serene.
She breath'd upon his eyes, and swift was seen
Of both the guarded nymph near-smiling on the green,
It was no dream ; or say a dream it was.
150 JOHN KEATS
Real are the dreams of Gods, and smoothly pass
Their pleasures in a long immortal dream.
One warm, flush'd moment, hovering, it might seem
Dash'd by the ■wood-n)naiph's beauty, so he bum'd ; 130
Then, lighting on the printless verdure, turn'd
To the swoon'd serpent, and with languid arm.
Delicate, put to proof the lythe Caducean charm.
So done, upon the nymph his eyes he bent
Full of adoring tears and blandishment,
And towards her stept : she, like a moon in wane.
Faded before him, cower' d, nor could restrain
Her fearful sobs, self-folding like a flower
That faints into itself at evening hour :
But the God fostering her chilled hand, 140
She felt the warmth, her eyelids open'd bland,
And, like new flowers at morning song of bees.
Bloom' d, and gave up her honey to the lees.
Into the green-recessed woods they flew ;
Nor grew they pale, as mortal lovers do.
"^ Left to herself, the serpent now began
To change ; her elfin blood in madness ran.
Her mouth foam'd, and the grass, therewith besprent, . , ^
Wither'd at dew so sweet and virulent ; ^ 1^^ "
Her eyes in torture fix'd, and anguish drear, 1 ^^ ^ ■. ' 150
Hot, glaz'd, and wide, with lid-lashes all sear, '"^ " j ■./ n f*
Flash'd phosphor and sharp sparks, without one cooling tear. \\
The colours all inflam'd throughout her train.
She writh'd about, convuls'd with scarlet pain : ' _;
A deep volcanian yellow took the place ; ' '' "
Of all her milder-mooned body's grace ;
And, as the lava ravishes the mead.
Spoilt' all her silver mail, and golden brede ;
Made gloom of all her frecklings, streaks and bars,
Eclips'd her crescents, and lick'd up her stars : 160
So that, in moments few, she was undrest
Of all her sapphires, greens, and amethyst.
And rubious-argent : of all these bereft;.
Nothing but pain and ugliness were left. r
Still shone her crown ; that vanish' d, also she J ■
Melted and disappear'd as suddenly ; ' - ' ^ '
And in the air, her new voice luting soft, '
Cried, " Lycius ! gentle Lycius ! " — Borne aloft
With the bright mists about the mountains hoar
These words dissolv'd : Crete's forests heard no more. 170
Whither fled Lamia, now a lady bright,
A full-born beauty new and exquisite ?
LAMIA 161
She fled into that valley they pass o'er
Who go to Corinth from Cenchreas' shore ;
And rested at the foot of those wild hills.
The rugged founts of the Peraean rills.
And of that other ridge whose barren back
Stretches, with all its mist and cloudy rack,
South-westward to Cleone. There she stood
About a young .bird's flutter fixim a wood, iSo
Fair, on a sloping green of mossy tread.
By a clear pool, wherein she passioned
To see herself escap'd from so sore ills, /
While her robes flaunted with the daffodils. ' '^ '
Ah, happy Lyeius !— for she was a maid
More beautiful than ever twisted braid.
Or sigh'd, or blush' d, or on spring-flowered lea
Spread a green kirtle to the minstrelsy :
A virgin purest lipp'd, yet in the lore
Of love deep learned to the red heart's core : igo
Not one hour old, yet of sciential brain
To unperplex bliss from its neighbour pain ;
Define their pettish limits, and estrange
Their points of contact, and swift counterchange ;
Intrigue with the specious chaos, and dispart
Its most ambiguous atoms with sure art ;
As though in Cupid's college she had spent
Sweet days a lovely graduate, still unshent.
And kept his rosy terms in idle languishment.
Why this &ir creature chose so fairily , ' zoo
By the wayside to linger, we shall see ; '
But first 'tis fit to tell how she could muse
And dream, when in the serpent prison-house, /' '
Of all she list, strange or magnificent :
How, ever, where she will'd, her spirit went ;
Whether to faint Elysium, or where
Down through tress-lifting waves the Nereids &ir
Wind into Thetis' bower by many a pearly stair ;
Or where God Bacchus drains his cups divine,
Stretch'd out, at ease, beneath a glutinous pine ; 210
Or where in Pluto's gardens palatine
Mulciber's columns gleam in far piazzian line.
And sometimes into cities she would send
Her dream, with feast and rioting to blend ;
And once, while among mortals dreaming thus.
She saw the young Corinthian Lyeius
Charioting foremost in the envious race,
152 JOHN KEATS
Like a young Jove with calm uneager fiice, %<^''~'^ ' A,
And fell into a swooning love of him. i <-'-- "
Now on the moth-time of that evening dim ' - 220
He would return that way, as well she knew.
To Corinth from the shore ; for freshly blew
The eastern soft wind, and his galley now
Grated the quaystones with her brazen prow
In port Cenchreas, from Egina isle
Fresh anehor'd ; whither he had been awhile
To sacrifice to Jove, whose temple there
Waits with high marble doors for blood and incense rare.
Jove heard his vows, and better'd his desire ;
For by some freakfiil chance he made retire 230
From his companions, and set forth to walk.
Perhaps grown wearied of their Corinth talk :
Over the solitary hills he fared.
Thoughtless at first, but ere eve's star appeared
His phantasy was lost, where reason &des.
In the calm'd twilight of Platonic shades.
Lamia beheld him coming, near, more near — '
Close to her passing, in indiflerence drear.
His silent sandals swept the mossy green ; .
So neighbour' d to him, and yet so unseen 240
She stood : he pass'd, shut up in mysteries.
His mind wrapp'd like his mantle, while her eyes
Follow'd his steps, and her neck regal white
Tum'd — syllabling thus, "Ah, Lycius bright,
And will you leave me on the hills alone ?
Lycius, look back ! and be some pity shown.''
He did ; not with cold wonder fearingly.
But Orpheus-like at an Eurydice ;
For so delicious were the words she sung.
It seem'd he had lov'd them a whole summer long : 250
And soon his eyes had drunk her beauty up.
Leaving no drop in the bewildering cup.
And still the cup was full, — while he, afraid
Lest she should vanish ere his lip had paid
Due adoration, thus began to adore ;
Her soft look growing coy, she saw his chain so sure :
" Leave thee alone ! Look back ! Ah, Goddess, see
Whether my eyes can ever turn from thee !
For pity do not this sad heart belie —
Even as thou vanishest so I shall die. 260
Stay ! though a Naiad of the rivers, stay !
To thy far wishes will thy streams obey :
Stay ! though the greenest woods be thy domain.
Alone they can drink up the qioming rain ;
LAMIA 168
Though a descended Pleiad, will not one
Of thine harmonious sisters keep in tune
Thy spheres, and as thy silver proxy shine ?
So sweetly to these ravish'd ears of mine
Came thy sweet greeting, that if thou shouldst fade
Thy memory will waste me to a shade : — 270
For pity do not melt ! " — " If I should stay,"
Said Lamia, " here, upon this floor of clay.
And pain my steps upon these flowers too rough.
What canst thou say or do of charm enough
To dull the nice remembrance of my home ?
Thou canst not ask me with thee here to roam
Over these hiUs and vales, where no joy is, —
Empty of immortality and bliss !
Thou art a scholar, Lycius, and must know
That finer spirits cannot breathe below 280
In human climes, and live : Alas ! poor youth.
What taste of purer air hast thou to soothe
My essence ? What serener palaces.
Where I may all my many senses please.
And by mysterious sleights a hundred thirsts appease ?
It cannot be — Adieu ! " So said, she rose
Tiptoe with white arms spread. He, sick to lose
The amorous promise of her lone complain.
Swoon' d, murmuring of love, and pale with pain.
The cruel lady, without any show ago
Of sorrow for her tender favourite's woe.
But rather, if her eyes could brighter be.
With brighter eyes and slow amenity.
Put her new lips to his, and gave afresh
The life she had so tangled in her mesh :
And as he from one trance was wakening
Into another, she began to sing,
Happy in beauty, life, and love, and every thing,
A song of love, too sweet for earthly lyres,
While, like held breath, the stars drew in their panting fires.
And then she whisper' d in such trembling tone, 301
As those who, safe together met alone
For the first time through many anguish'd days,
.Use other speech than looks ; bidding him raise
His drooping head, and clear his soul of doubt.
For that she was a woman, and without
Any more subtle fluid in her veins
Than throbbing blood, and that the self-same pains
Inhabited her frail-strung heart as his.
And next she wonder'd how his eyes could miss 310
Her face so long in Corinth, where, she said,
154 JOHN KEATS
She dwelt but half retir'd, and there had led
Days happy as the gold coin could invent
Without the aid of love ; yet in content
Till she saw him, as once she pass'd him by.
Where 'gainst a column he leant thoughtfully
At Venus' temple porch, 'mid baskets heap'd
Of amorous herbs and flowers, newly reap'd
Late on that eve, as 'twas the night before
The Adonian feast ; whereof she saw no more, 320
But wept alone those days, for why should she adore ?
Lycius- from death awoke into amaze.
To see her still, and singing so sweet lays ;
Then from amaze into delight he fell
To hear her whisper woman's lore so well ;
And every word she spake entic'd him on
To unperplex'd delight and pleasure known.
Let the mad poets say whate'er they please
Of the sweets of Fairies, Peris, Goddesses,
There is not such a treat among them all, 330
Haunters of cavern, lake, and waterfall.
As a real woman, lineal indeed
From Pijrrrha's pebbles or old Adam's seed.
Thus gentle Lamia judg'd, and judg'd aright.
That Lycius could not love in half a fright.
So threw the goddess oflF, and won his heart
More pleasantly by playing woman's part.
With no more awe than what her beauty gave.
That, while it smote, still guaranteed to save.
Lycius to all made eloquent reply, 340
Marrying to every word a twinbom sigh ;
And last, pointing to Corinth, ask'd her sweet.
If 'twas too far that night for her soft feet.
The way was short, for Lamia's eagerness
Made, by a spell, the triple league decrease
To a few paces ; not at all surmised
By blinded Lycius, so in her comprized.
They pass'd the city gates, he knew not how.
So noiseless, and he never thought to know.
As men talk in a dream, so Corinth all, 350
Throughout her palaces imperial.
And all her populous streets and temples lewd,
Mutter' d, like tempest in the distance brew'd.
To the wide-spreaded night above her towers.
Men, women, rich and poor, in the cool hours.
Shuffled their sandals o'er the pavement white,
Companion'd or alone ; while many a light
LAMIA 155
Flared, here and there, from wealthy festivals.
And threw their moving shadows on the walls.
Or found them cluster'd in the corniced shade 360
Of some arch'd temple door, or dusky colonnade.
Muffling his fiice, of greeting friends in fear.
Her fingers he press'd hard, as one came near
With curl'd gray beard, sharp eyes, and smooth bald crown,
Slow-stepp'd, and robed in philosophic gown :
Lycius shrank closer, as they met and past,
Into his mantle, adding wings to haste.
While hurried Lamia trembled : "Ah," said he,
" Why do you shudder, love, so ruefully ?
Why does your tender palm dissolve in dew ? " — 370
" I'm wearied," said fair Lamia : " tell me who
Is that old man ? I cannot bring to mind ^ ^ . /
His features : — Lycius ! wherefore did you blind 1 / ^, r <
Yourself from his quick eyes ? " Lycius replied, "^ i ,
" 'Tis ApoUonius sage, my trusty guide i
And good instructor ; but to-night he seems ,
The ghost of folly haunting my sweet dreams." ( ,
While yet he spake they had arriv'd before
A pillar'd porch, with lofty portal door.
Where hung a silver lamp, whose phosphor glow 380
Reflected in the slabbed steps below,
Mild as a star in water ; for so new.
And so unsullied was the marble hue.
So through the crystal polish, liquid fine.
Ran the dark veins, that none but feet divine
Could e'er have touch'd there. Sounds iEolian
Breath'd from the hinges, as the ample span
Of the wide doors disclos'd a place unknown
Some time to any, but those two alone.
And a few Persian mutes, who that same year 3go
Were seen about the markets : none knew where
They could inhabit ; the most curious
Were foil'd, who watch'd to trace them to their house :
And but the flitter-winged verse must tell.
For truth's sake, what woe afterwards befel,
'Twould humour many a heart to leave them thus.
Shut from the busy world of more incredulous.
166 JOHN KEATS
LAMIA
PART II
LOVE in a hut, with water and a crust,
Is — Love, forgive us ! — cinders, ashes, dust ;
Love in a palace is perhaps at last
More grievous torment than a hermit's fast : —
That is a doubtful tale from faery land,
Hard for the non-elect to understand.
Had Lycius liv'd to hand his story down.
He might have given the moral a fresh frown.
Or clench' d it quite : but too short was their bliss
To breed distrust and hate, that make the soft voice hiss. lo
Besides, there, nightly, with terrific glare.
Love, jealous grown of so complete a pair,
Hover'd and buzz'd his wings, with fearful roar,
Above the lintel of their chamber door.
And down the passage cast a glow upon the floor.
For all this came a ruin : side by side
They were enthroned, in the even tide.
Upon a couch, near to a curtaining
Whose airy texture, from a golden string.
Floated into the room, and let appear 20
Unveil'd the sununer heaven, blue and clear.
Betwixt two marble shafts : — ^there they reposed.
Where use had made it sweet, with eyelids closed.
Saving a tythe which love still open kept.
That they might see each other while they almost slept ;
When from the slope side of a suburb hiU,
Deafening the swallow's twitter, came a thrill
Of trumpets — Lycius started — the sounds fled.
But left a thought, a buzzing in his head.
For the first time, since first he harbour'd in 30
That purple-lined palace of sweet sin.
His spirit pass'd beyond its golden bourn
Into the noisy world almost forsworn,
LAMIA 157
The lady, ever watchfiil, penetrant^
Saw this with pain, so arguing a want
Of something more, more than her empery
Of joys ; and she began to moan and sigh
Because he mused beyond her, knowing well
C That but a moment's thought is passion's passing bell.
" Why do you sigh, fair creature ? " whisper'd he : 40
" Why do you think ? " return'd she tenderly :
" You have deserted me ; — ^where am I now ?
Not in your heart while care weighs on your brow :
No, no, you have dismiss'd me ; and I go
From your breast houseless : ay, it must be so."
He answer' d, bending to her open eyes,
Where he was mirror'd small in paradise,
" My silver planet, both of eve and mom !
Why wiU you plead yourself so sad forlorn,
While I am striving how to fill my heart 30
With deeper crimson, and a double smart ?
How to entangle, trammel up and snare
Your soul in mine, and labyrinth you there
Like the hid scent in an unbudded rose ?
Ay, a sweet kiss — you see your mighty woes.
My thoughts ! shall I unveil them ? Listen then !
What mortal hath a prize, that other men
May be confounded and abash'd withal.
But lets it sometimes pace abroad majestical.
And triumph, as in thee I should rejoice 60
Amid the hoarse alarm of Corinth's voice.
Let my foes choke, and my friends shout afar,
While through the thronged streets your bridal car
Wheels round its dazzhng spokes." — The lady's cheek
Trembled ; she nothing said, but, pale and meek,
Arose and knelt before him, wept a rain
Of sorrows at his words ; at last with pain
Beseeching him, the while his hand she wrung.
To change his purpose. He thereat was stung.
Perverse, with stronger fancy to reclaim 70
Her wild and timid nature to his aim :
Besides, for all his love, in self despite.
Against his better self, he took delight
Luxurious in her sorrows, soft and new.
His passion, cruel grown, took on a hue
Fierce and sanguineous as 'twas possible
In one whose brow had no dark veins to swell.
Fine was the mitigated fiiry, like
Apollo's presence when in act to strike
The serpent — Ha, the serpent ! certes, she 80
158 JOHN KEATS
Was none. She burnt, she lov'd the tyranny,
And, all subdued, consented to the hour
When to the bridal he should lead his paramour.
Whispering in midnight silence, said the youth,
" Sure some sweet name thou hast, though, by my truth,
I have not ask'd it, ever thinking thee
Not mortal, but of heavenly progeny,
As stiU I do. Hast any mortal name.
Fit appellation for this dazzhng frame .''
Or friends or kinsfolk on the citied earth, go
To share our marriage feast and nuptial mirth ? "
"I have no friends," said Lamia, "no, not one ;
My presence in wide Corinth hardly known :
My parents' bones are in their dusty urns
Sepulchred, where no kindled incense burns.
Seeing all their luckless race are dead, save me.
And I neglect the holy rite for thee.
Even as you list invite your many guests ;
But if, as now it seems, your vision rests
With any pleasure on me, do not bid loo
Old Apollonius — from him keep me hid."
Lycius, perplex'd at words so blind and blank.
Made close inquiry ; from whose touch she shrank.
Feigning a sleep ; and he to the dull shade
Of deep sleep in a moment was betray' d.
It was the custom then to bring away
The bride from home at blushing shut of day,
Veil'd, in a chariot, heralded along
By strewn flowers, torches, and a marriage song,
With other pageants : but this fair unknown no
Had not a friend. So being left alone,
(Lycius was gone to summon all his kin)
And knowing surely she could never win
His foolish heart from its mad pompousuess.
She set herself, high-thoughted, how to dress
The misery in fit magnificence.
She did so, but 'tis doubtful how and whence
Came, and who were her subtle servitors.
About the halls, and to and from the doors,
There was a noise of wings, till in short space iz"
The glowing banquet-room shone with wide-arched grace.
A haunting music, sole perhaps and lone
Supportress of the faery-roof, made moan
Throughout, as fearful the whole charm might fade.
Fresh carved cedar, mimicking a glade
Of palm and plantain, met from either side.
LAMIA 169
High in the midst, in honour of the bride :
Two palms and then two plantains, and so on.
From either side their stems branch'd one to one
All down the aisled place ; and beneath all 130
There ran a stream of lamps straight on from wall to wall.
So canopied, lay an tmtasted feast
Teeming with odours. Lamia, regal drest.
Silently paced about, and as she went,
In pale contented sort of discontent,
Mission'd her viewless servants to enrich
The fretted splendour of each nook and niche.
Between the tree-stems, marbled plain at first.
Came jasper pannels ; then, anon, there burst
Forth creeping imagery of slighter trees, 140
And with the larger wove in small intricacies.
Approving all, she faded at self-will.
And shut the chamber up, close, hush'd and still.
Complete and ready for the revels rude.
When dreadful guests would come to spoil her solitude.
The day appear' d, and all the gossip rout.
O senseless Lycius ! Madman ! wherefore flout
The silent-blessing fate, warm cloister'd hours.
And show to common eyes these secret bowers .■'
The herd approach'd ; each guest, with busy brain, 150
Arriving at the portal, gaz'd amain.
And enter'd marveling : for they knew the street,
Remember'd it from childhood all complete
Without a gap, yet ne'er before had seen
That royal porch, that high-built fair demesne ;
So in they hurried all, maz'd, curious and keen :
Save one, who look'd thereon with eye severe,
And with calm-planted steps walk'd in austere ;
'Twas ApoUonius : something too he laugh'd.
As though some knotty problem, that had daft 160
His patient thought, had now begun to thaw.
And solve and melt : — 'twas just as he foresaw.
He met within the murmurous vestibule
His young disciple. " 'Tis no common rule,
Lycius," said he, " for uninvited guest
To force himself upon you, and infest
With an unbidden presence the bright throng
Of younger friends ; yet must I do this wrong.
And you forgive me." Lycius blush'd, and led
The old man through the inner doors broad-spread ; 170
With reconciling words and courteous mien
Turning into sweet milk the sophist's spleen.
160 JOHN KEATS
Of wealthy lustre was the banquet-room,
Fill'd with pervading brilliance and perfume :
Before each lucid pannel fuming stood
A censer fed with m5rrrh and spiced wood,
Each by a sacred tripod held aloft,
Whose slender feet wide-swerv'd upon the soft
Wool-woofed carpets : fifty wreaths of smoke
From fifty censers their light voyage took iSo
To the high roof, still mimick'd as they rose
Along the mirror'd walls by twin-clouds odorous.
Twelve sphered tables, by silk seats insphered,
High as the level of a man's breast rear'd
On libbard's paws, upheld the heavy gold
Of cups and goblets, and the store thrice told
Of Ceres' horn, and, in huge vessels, wine
Come from the gloomy tun with merry shine.
Thus loaded with a feast the tables stood.
Each shrining in the midst the image of a God. 190
When in an antichamber every guest
Had felt the cold full sponge to pleasure press' d.
By minist'ring slaves, upon his bands and feet,
Aiid fragrant oils with ceremony meet
Pour'd on his hair, they all mov'd to the feast
In white robes, and themselves in order placed
Around the silken couches, wondering
Whence all this mighty cost and blaze of wealth could spring.
Soft went the music the soft air along.
While fluent Greek a vowel'd undersong 200
Kept up among the guests, discoursing low
At first, for scarcely was the wine at flow ;
But when the happy vintage touch'd their brains.
Louder they talk, and louder come the strains
Of powerful instruments : — ^the gorgeous dyes.
The space, the splendour of the draperies.
The roof of awfiil richness, nectarous cheer.
Beautiful slaves, and Lamia's self, appear.
Now, when the wine has done its rosy deed,
And every soul from human trammels freed, 210
No more so strange ; for merry wine, sweet wine.
Will make Elysian shades not too &ir, too divine.
Soon was God Bacchus at meridian height ;
Flush 'd were their cheeks, and bright eyes double bright :
Garlands of every green, and every scent
From vales deflower' d, or forest-trees branch-rent.
In baskets of bright osier'd gold were brought
LAMIA 161
High as the handles heap'd, to suit the thought
Of every guest ; that each^ as he did please.
Might fancy-fit his brows, silk-pillow'd at his ease. 220
What wreath for Lamia ? What for Lyeius ?
What for the sage, old ApoUonius ?
Upon her aching forehead be there hUng
The leaves of willow and of adder's tongue ;
And for the youth, quick, let us strip for him
The thyrsus, that his watching eyes may swim
Into forgetfulness ; and, for the sage.
Let spear-grass and the spiteful thistle wage
War on his temples. '' Do not all charms fly ^ /'
At the mere touch of cold philosophy ? 230
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven :
We know her woof, her texture ; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things. ' '
Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings, '
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line, "^
Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine —
Unweave a rainbow, as it erewhile made
The tender-person'd Lamia melt into a shade.
By her glad Lyeius sitting, in chief place.
Scarce saw in all the room another face, 240
Till, checking his love trance, a cup he took
Full brimm'd, and opposite sent forth a look
'Cross the broad table, to beseech a glance
From his old teacher's wrinkled countenance.
And pledge him. The bald-head philosopher
Had fix'd his eye, without a twinkle or stir
Full on the alarmed beauty of the bride.
Brow-beating her fair form, and troubling her sweet pride.
Lyeius then press'd her hand, with devout touch.
As pale it lay upon the rosy couch : 250
'Twas icy, and the cold ran through his veins ;
rhen sudden it grew hot, and all the pains
Of an unnatural heat shot to his heart.
" Lamia, what means this ? Wherefore dost thou start .''
Know'st thou that man > " Poor Lamia answer'd not.
He gaz'd into her eyes, and not a jot
Own'd they the lovelorn piteous appeal :
More, more he gaz'd : his human senses reel :
Some hungry spell that loveliness absorbs ;
There was no recognition in those orbs. 5!6o
" Lamia ! " he cried — and no soft-toned reply,
The many heard, and the 1qu4 revelry
162 JOHN KEATS
Grew hush ; the stately music no more breathes ;
The myrtle sicken'd in a thousand wreaths.
By faint degrees, voice, lute, and pleasure ceased ;
A deadly silence step by step increased,
Until it seem'd a horrid presence there,
And not a man but felt the terror in his hair,
" Lamia ! " he shriek'd ; and nothing but the shriek
With its sad echo did the silence break. 270
" Begone, foul dream ! " he cried, gazing again
In the bride's face, where now no azure vein
Wander'd on &ir-spaced temples ; no soft bloom
Misted the cheek ; no passion to illume
The deep-recessed vision : — all Was blight ;
Lamia, no longer fair, there sat a deadly white.
" Shut, shut those juggling eyes, thou ruthless man !
Turn them aside, wretch ! or the righteous ban
Of aU the Gods, whose dreadful images
Here represent their shadowy presences, 280
May pierce them on the sudden with the thorn
Of pairiful blindness ; leaving thee forlorn.
In trembling dotage to the feeblest fright
Of conscience, for their long offended might.
For all thine impious proud-heart sophistries,
I Unlawful magic, and enticing lies.
/ jCorinthians ! look upon that gray-beard wretch !
I Mark how, possess' d, his lashless eyelids stretch
I ,' Around his demon eyes ! Corinthians, see !
: My sweet bride withers, at their potency." 290
J ' " Fool ! " said the sophist, in an under-tone
>Gruff with contempt ; which a death-nighing moan
From Lycius answer'd, as heart-struck and lost,
He sank supine beside the aching ghost.
" Fool ! Fool 1 " repeated he, while his eyes still
Relented not, nor mov'd ; " from every ill
Of life have I preserv'd thee to this day.
And shall I see thee made a serpent's prey ? ''
Then Lamia breath'd death breath ; the sophist's eye.
Like a sharp spear, went through her utterly, 300
Keen, cruel, perceant, stinging : she, as wfeU
As her weak hand could any meaning tell.
Motion' d him to be silent ; vainly so.
He look'd and look'd again a level — No !
" A serpent t " echoed he ; no sooner said.
Than with a frightful scream she vanished :
And Lycius' arms were empty of delight.
As were his limbs of life, from that same night.
LAMIA 168
On the high couch he lay I — his friends came round —
Supported him — no pulse, or breath they found, 310
And, in its marriage robe, the heavy body wound. ^
1 " PhUostratus, in his fourth book de Vita Apollonii, hath a memorable instance in
this kind, which I may not omit, of one Menippus Lycius, a yoimg man twenty-five
years of age, that going betwixt Cencbreas and Corinth, met such a phantasm in the
habit of a fair gentlewoman, which taking him by the hand, carried him home to her
house, in the suburbs of Corinth, and told him she was a Phoenician by birth, and if
he would tarry with her, he should hear her sing and play, and drink such wine as
never any drank, and no man should molest him ; but she, being fair and lovely, would
live and die with him, that was fair and lovely to behold. The young man, a philo-
sopher, otherwise staid and discreet, able to moderate his passions, though not this of
love, tarried with her a while to his great content, and at last married her, to whose
wedding, amongst other guests, came ApoUonius ; who, by some probable conjectures,
found her out to be a serpent, a lamia : and that all her furniture was, like Tantalus'
gold, described by nomer, no suDstance but mere illusions. When she saw herself
descried, she wept, and desired ApoUonius to be silent, but he would not be moved,
and thereupon she, plate, house, and all that was in it, vanished in an instant : many
thousands took notice of this fact, for it was done in the midst of Greece." — Burtoi^'s
Anatomy of Melancholy, part 3, sect. 2, memb. i, subs. i.
ISABELLA
OR
THE POT OF BASIL
A STORY FROM BOCCACCIO
I
FAIR Isabel, poor simple Isabel !
Lorenzo, a young palmer in Love's eye !
They could not in the self-same mansion dwell
Without some stir of heart, some malady ;
They could not sit at meals but feel how well
It soothed each to be the other by ;
They could not, sure, beneath the same roof sleep
But to each other dream, and nightly weep.
II
With every mom their love grew tenderer.
With every eve deeper and tenderer still ;
He might not in house, field, or garden stir.
But her full shape would all his seeing fill ;
And his continual voice was pleasanter
To her, than noise of trees or hidden rill ;
Her lute-string gave an echo of his name.
She spoilt her half-done broidery with the same.
Ill
He knew whose gentle hand was at the latch
Before the door had given her to his eyes ;
And from her Chamber-window he would catch
Her beauty farther than the falcon spies ;
And constant as her vespers would he watch, ■
Because her face was tum'd to the same skies ;
And with siok-lcn^ngall the night outwear.
To bear ber momhig st^ upon the stair.
ISABELLA 166
IV
A whole long month of May in this sad plight
Made their cheeks paler by the break of June :
" To-morrow wiU I bow to my delight,
To-morrow will I ask my lady's boon." —
" O may I never see another night,
Lorenzo, if thy lips breathe not love's tune." —
So spake they to their pillows ; but, alas,
Honeyless days and days did he let pass ;
Until sweet Isabella's untouch'd cheek
Fell sick within the rose's just domainJv— ""
Fell thin as a young mother's, who doth seek
By every lull to cool her in&nt's pain :
" How ill she is/' said he, " I may not speak.
And yet I will, and tell my love aU plain :
If looks speak love-laws, I will drink her tears.
And at the least 'twill startle off her cares."
VI
So said he one fair morning, and all day
His heart beat awfully against hisr side ;
And to his heart he inwardly did pray
For power to speak ; but still the ruddy tide
Stifled his voice, and puls'd resolve away —
Fever'd his high conceit of such a bride.
Yet brought him to the meekness of a child :
Alas ! when passion is both meek and wild !
VII
So once more he had wak'd and anguished
A dreary night of love and misery.
If Isabel's quick eye had not been wed
To every sjrmbol on his foi^ehead high ;
She saw it waxing very pale and dead,
And straight all flush'd ; so, lisped tenderly,
" Lorenzo ! " — here she ceas'd her timid quest,
But in her tone and look he read the rest.
166 JOHN KEATS
VIII
" O Isabella, I can half perceive
That I may speak my grief into thine ear ;
If thou didst ever anything believe.
Believe how I love thee, believe how near
My soul is to its doom : I would not grieve
Thy hand by unwelcome pressing, would not fear
Thine eyes by gazing ; but I cannot live
Another night, and not my passion shrive.
IX
" Love ! thou art leading me from wintry cold.
Lady ! thou leadest me to summer clime.
And I must taste the blossoms that unfold
In its ripe warmth this gracious morning time.'
So said, his erewhUe timid lips grew bold.
And poesied with hers in dewy rh)rme :
Great bliss was with them, and great happiness
Grew, like a lusty flower in June's caress.
Parting they seem'd to tread upon the air.
Twin roses by the zephyr blown apart
Only to meet again more close, and share
The inward fragrance of each other's heart.
She, to her chamber gone, a ditty fair
Sang, of delicious love and honey'd dart ;
He with light steps went up a western hill.
And bade the sun &rewell, and joy'd his fill.
XI
All close they met again, before the dusk
Had taken from the stars its pleasant veil.
All close they met, all eves, before the dusk
Had taken from the stars its pleMant veil.
Close in a bower of hyacinth and musk.
Unknown of any, free from whispering tale.
Ah ! better had it been for ever so.
Than idle ears should pleasure in their woe.
ISABELLA 167
XII
Were they unhappy then ? — It cannot be —
Too many tears for lovers have been shed,
Too many sighs give we to them in fee,
Too much of pity after they are dead,
Too many doleful stories do we see.
Whose matter in bright gold were best be read ;
Except in suclTa page where Theseus' spouse
Over the pathless waves towards him bows.
XIII
But, for the general award of love.
The little sweet doth kill much bitterness ;
Though Dido silent is in under-grove.
And Isabella's was a great distress.
Though young Lorenzo in warm Indian clove
Was not embalm'd, this truth is not the less —
Even bees, the little almsmen of spring-bowers.
Know there is richest juice in poison-flowers.
With her two brothers this fair lady dwelt.
Enriched from ancestral merchandize.
And for them many a weary hand did swelt
In torched mines and noisy factories.
And many once proud-quiver'd loins did melt
In blood from stinging whip ; — with hollow eyes
Many all day in dazzling river stood,
.To take the rich-ored drif tings of the flood.
XV
For them the Ceylon diver held his breath.
And went aU naked to the hungry shark ;
For them his ears gush'd blood ; for them in death
The seal on the cold ice with piteous bark
Lay fuU of darts ; for them alone did seethe
A thousand men in troubles wide and dark :
Half-ignorant, they tum'd an easy wheel.
That set sharp racks at work, to pinch and peel.
168 JOHN KEATS
XVI
Why were they proud ? Because their marble founts
Gush'd with more pride than do a wretch's tears ? —
Why were they proud ? Because &ir orange-mounts
Were of more soft ascent than lazar stairs ? —
Why were they proud ? Because red-lin'd accounts
Were richer than the songs of Grecian years ? —
Why were they proud ? again we ask aloud,
Why in the name of Glory were they proud ?
XVII
Yet were these Florentines as self-retired
In hungry pride and gainful cowardice,
As two close Hebrews in that land inspired,
Paled in and vineyarded from beggar-spies ;
The hawks of ship-mast forests — the untired
And pannier'd mules for ducats and old lies —
Quick cat's-paws on the generous stray-away, —
Great wits in Spanish, Tuscan, and Malay.
XVIII
How was it these same ledger-men could spy
Fair Isabella in her downy nest ?
How could they find out in Lorenzo's eye
A straying from his toil ? Hot Egypt's pest
Into their vision covetous and sly !
How could these money-bags see east and west ?-
Yet so they did — and every dealer fair
Must see behind, as doth the hunted hare.
XIX
O eloquent and famed Boccaccio !
Of thee we now should ask forgiving boon,
And of thy spicy myrtles as they blow,
And of thy roses amorous of the moon,
And of thy lilies, that do paler grow
Now they can no more hear thy ghittern's tune.
For venturing syllables that ill beseem
The quiet glooms of such a piteous theme.
ISABELLA 169
XX
Grant thou a pardon here, and then the tale
Shall move on soberly, as it is meet ;
There is no other crime, no mad assail
To make old prose in modem rhyme more sweet :
But it is done — succeed the verse or fail —
To honour thee, and thy gone spirit greet ;
To stead thee as a verse in English tongue,
An echo of thee in the north-wind sung.
XXI
These brethren having found by many signs
What love Lorenzo for their sister had,
And how she lov'd him too, each unconfines
His bitter thoughts to other, well nigh mad
That he, the servant of their trade designs.
Should in their sister's love be blithe and glad.
When 'twas their plan to coax her by degrees v
To some high noble and his olive-trees. — ,:
XXII
And many a jealous conference had they.
And many times they bit their lips alone,
Before they flx'd upon a surest way
To make the youngster for his crime atone ;
And at the last, these men of cruel clay
Cut Mercy with a sharp knife to the bone ;
For they resolved in some forest dim
To kiU Lorenzo, and there bury him. '
XXIII
So on a pleasant morning, as he leant
Into the sun-rise, o'er the balustrade
Of the garden-terrace, towards him they bent
Their footing through the dews ; and to him said,
" You seem there in the quiet of content,
Lorenzo, and we are most loth to invade
Calm speculation ; but if you are wise.
Bestride your steed while cold is in the skies,
170 JOHN KEATS
XXIV
" To-day we purpose, ay, this hour we mount
To spur three leagues towards the Apennine ;
Come down, we pray thee, ere the hot sun count
His dewy rosary on the eglantine."
Lorenzo, courteously as he was wont,
Bow'd a feir greeting to these serpents' whine ;
And went in haste, to get in readiness.
With belt, and spur, and bracipg huntsman's dress.
XXV
And as he to the court-yard pass'd along.
Each third step did he pause, and listeii'd oft
If he could hear his lady's matin-song,
Or the light whisper of her footstep soft ;
And as he thus over his passion hung.
He heard a laugh full musical aloft ;
When, looking up, he saw her features bright
Smile through an in-door lattice, all delight.
JXXVI
" Love, Isabel ! " said he, " I was in pain
Lest I should miss to bid thee a good morrow :
Ah ! what if I should lose thee, when so fain
I am to stifle all the heavy sorrow
Of a poor three hours' absence .'' but we'll gain
Out of the amorous dark what day doth borrow.
Good bye ! I'll soon be back." — " Good bye ! " said she :
And as he went she chanted merrily.
XXVII
So the two brothers and their murdgrjl man
Rode past fair Florence, to where Amo's stream
Gurgles through straiten'd banks, and still doth fan
Itself with dancing bulrush, and the bream
Keeps head against the freshets. Sick and wan
The brothers' faces in the ford did seem,
Lorenzo's flush with love. — They pass'd the water
Into a forest quiet for the slaughter.
ISABELLA 171
XXVIII
There was Lorenzo slain and buried in.
There in that forest did his great love cease ;
Ah ! when a soul doth thus its freedom win,
It aches in loneliness — is iU at peace
As the break-covert blood-hounds of such sin :
They dipp'd their swords in the water, and did tease
Their horses homeward, ivith convulsed spur.
Each richer by his being a murderer.
XXIX
They told their sister how, with sudden speed,
Lorenzo had ta'en ship for foreign lands.
Because of some great urgency and need
In their affairs, requiring trusty hahds.
Poor Girl ! put on thy stifling widow's weed.
And 'scape at once from Hope's accursed bands ;
To-day thou wilt not see him, nor to-morrow,
And the next day will be a day of sorrow.
XXX
She weeps alone for pleasures not to be ;
Sorely she wept until the night came on,
And then, instead of love, O misery !
She brooded o'er the luxury alone :
His image in the dusk she seem'd to see.
And to the silence made a gentle moan.
Spreading her perfect arms upon the air.
And on her couch low murmuring " Where ? O where ? '
XXXI
But Selfishness, Love's cousin, held not long
Its fiery vigil in her single breast ;
She fretted for the golden hour, and hung
Upon the time with feverish unrest —
Not long — for soon into her heart a throng
Of higher occupants, a richer zest.
Came tragic ; passion not to be subdued.
And sorrow for her love in travels rude.
172 JOHN KEATS
XXXII
In the mid days of autumn, on their eves
The breath of Winter comes from far away.
And the sick west continually bereaves
Of some gold tinge, and plays a roundelay
Of death among the bushes and the leaves.
To make all bare before he dares to stray
From his north cavern. So sweet Isabel
By gradual decay from beauty fell.
XXXIII
Because Lorenzo came not. Oftentimes
She ask'd her brothers, with an eye all pale,
Striving to be itself, what dungeon climes
Could keep him oflF so long .'' They spake a tale
Time after time, to quiet her. Their crimes
Came on them, like a smoke from Hinnom's vale ;
And every night in dreams they groan'd aloud.
To see their sister in her snowy shroud.
XXXIV
And she had died in drowsy ignorance.
But for a thing more deadly dark than all ;
It came like a fierce potion, drunk by chance.
Which saves a sick man from the feather'd pall
For some few gasping moments ; like a lance.
Waking an Indian from his cloudy hall
With cruel pierce, and bringing him again
Sense of the gnawing fire at heart and brain.
XXXV
It was a vision. — In the drowsy gloom.
The dull of midnight, at her couqh's foot
Lorenzo stood, and wept : the forest tomb
Had marr'd his glossy hair which once could shoot
Lustre into the sun, and put cold doom
Upon his lips, and taken the soft lute
From his lorn voice, and past his loamed ears
Had made a miry channel for his tears.
ISABELLA 173
XXXVI
Strange sound it was, when the pale shadow spake ;
For there was striving, in its piteous tongue.
To speak as when on earth it was awake.
And Isabella on its music hung :
Languor there was in it, and tremulous shake.
As in a palsied Druid's harp unstrung ;
And through it moan'd a ghostly under-song.
Like hoarse night-gusts sepulclual briars among.
XXXVII
Its eyes, though wild, were still all dewy bright
With love, and kept all phantom fear aloof
From the poor girl by magic of their light,
The while it did unthread the horrid woof
Of the late darken'd time, — the murderous spite
Of pride and avarice, — the dark pine roof
In the forest, — and the sodden turfed dell.
Where, without any word, from stabs he fell.
XXXVIII
Saying moreover, " Isabel, my sweet !
Red whortle-berries droop above my head.
And a large flint-stone weighs upon my feet ;
Around me beeches and high chestnuts shed
Their leaves and prickly nuts ; a sheep-fold bleat
Comes from beyond the river to my bed :
Go, shed one tear upon my heather-bloom.
And it shall comfort me within the tomb.
XXXIX
" I am a shadow now, alas ! alas !
Upon the skirts of human-nature dwelling
Alone : I chant alone the holy mass.
While little sounds of life are round me knelling.
And glossy bees at noon do fieldward pass.
And many a chapel bell the hour is telhng.
Paining me through : those sounds grow strange to me,
And thou art distant in Humanity,
174 JOHN KEATS
XL
" I know what was, I feel full well what is.
And I should rage, if spirits could go mad ;
Though I forget the taste of earthly bliss,
That paleness warms my grave, as though I had
A Seraph chosen from the bright abyss
To be my spouse : thy paleness makes me glad ;
Thy beauty grows upon me, and I feel
A greater love through all my essence steal."
XLI
The Spirit moum'd " Adieu ! " — dissolv'd, and left
The atom darkness in a slow turmoil ;
As when of healthful midnight sleep bereft.
Thinking on rugged hours and fruitless toil.
We put our eyes into a pillowy cleft.
And see the spangly gloom froth up and boil :
It made sad Isabella's eyelids ache.
And in the dawn she started up awake ;
XLII
" Ha ! ha ! " said she, " I knew not this hard life,
I thought the worst was simple misery ;
I thought some Fate with pleasure or with strife
Portion'd us — happy days, or else to die ;
But there is crime — a brother's bloody knife !
Sweet Spirit, thou hast school'd my infancy :
I'll visit thee for this, and kiss thine eyes.
And greet thee mom and even in the skies."
XLIII
When the full morning came, she had devised
How she might secret to the forest hie ;
How she might find the clay, so dearly prized.
And sing to it one latest lullaby ;
How her short absence might be unsurmised.
While she the inmost of the dream would try.
Resolv'd, she took with her an aged nurse.
And went into that dismal fbrest-hearse.
ISABELLA 176
XLIV
See, as they creep along the river side,
How she doth whisper to that aged Dame,
And, after looking round the champaign wide.
Shows her a knife. — " What feverous hectic flame
Bums in thee, child ? — What good can thee betide.
That thou should'st smile again ? " — The evening came.
And they had found Lorenzo's earthy bed ;
The flint was there, the berries at his head.
XLV
Who hath not loiter'd in a green church-yard.
And let his spirit, like a demon-mole.
Work through the clayey soil and gravel hard.
To see scull, coifin'd bones, and funeral stole ;
Pitying each form that hungry Death hath marr'd.
And filling it once more with human soul ?
Ah !■ this is holiday to what was felt
When Isabella by Lorenzo knelt.
XLVI
She gaz'd into the fresh-thrown mould, as though
One glance did fiilly all its secrets tell ;
Clearly she saw, as other eyes would know
Pale limbs at bottom of a crystal well ;
Upon the murderous spot she seem'd to grow.
Like to a native lily of the dell :
Then with her knife, all sudden, she began
To dig more fervently than misers can.
XLVII
Soon she turn'd up a soiled glove, whereon
Her silk had play'd in purple phantasies,
She kiss'd it with a lip more chill than stone,
And put it in her bosom, where it dries
And freezes utterly imto the bone
Those dainties made to still an infant's cries :
Then 'gan she work again ; nor stay'd her care,
But to throw back at times her veiling hair.
176 JOHN KEATS
XLVIII
That old nurse stood beside her wondering,
Until her heart felt pity to the core
At sight of such a dismal labouring.
And so she kneeled, with her locks all hoar,
And put her lean hands to the horrid thing :
Three hours they labour'd at this travail sore ;
At last they felt the kernel of the grave.
And Isabella did not stamp and rave.
XLIX
Ah ! wherefore all this wormy circumstance ?
Why linger at the yawning tomb so long ?
O for the gentleness of old Romance,
The simple plaining of a minstrel's song !
Fair reader, at the old tale take a glance.
For here, in truth, it doth not well belong
To speak : — O turn thee to the very tale,
And taste the music of that vision pale.
With duller steel than the Persean sword
They cut away no formless monster's head.
But one, whose gentleness did well accord
With death, as life. The ancient harps have said,
Love never dies, but lives, immortal Lord :
If Love impersonate was ever dead.
Pale Isabella kiss'd it, and low moan'd.
'Twas love ; cold, — dead indeed, but not dethroned.
LI
In anxious secrecy they took it home.
And then the prize was all for Isabel :
She calm'd its wild hair with a golden comb.
And all around each eye's sepulchral cell
Pointed each fringed lash ; the smeared loam
With tears, as chilly as a dripping well.
She drench'd away : — and still she comb'd, and kept
Sighing all day — and still she kiss'd, and wept.
ISABELLA 177
LII
Then in a silken scarf, — sweet with the dews
Of precious flowers pluck'd in Araby,
And divine liquids come with odorous ooze
Through the cold serpent-pipe refreshfully,: —
She wrapp'd it up ; and for its tomb did choose
A garden-pot, wherein she laid it by.
And cover'd it with mould, and o'er it set
Sweet Basil, which her tears kept ever wet.
LIII
And she forgot the stars, the moon, and sun.
And she forgot the blue above the trees.
And she forgot the dells where waters run.
And she forgot the chilly autumn breeze ;
She had no knowledge when the day was done,
And the new mom she saw not : but in peace
Hung over her sweet Basil evermore.
And moisten'd it with tears unto the core.
LIV
And so she ever fed it with thin tears.
Whence thick, and green, and beautiful it grew.
So that it smelt more balmy than its peers
Of Basil-tufts in Florence ; for it drew
Nurture besides, and life, from human fears,
From the fast mouldering head there shut from view :
So that the jewel, safely casketed.
Came forth, and in perfumed leafits spread.
LV
O Melancholy, linger here awhile !
O Music, Music, breathe despondingly !
O Echo, Echo, from some sombre isle,
Unknown, Lethean, sigh to us — O sigh !
Spirits in grief, lift up your heads, and smile ;
Lift up your heads, sweet Spirits, heavily.
And make a pale light in your cjrpress glooms.
Tinting with silver wan your marble tombs.
178 JOHN KEATS
LVI
Moan hither, all ye syllables of woe,
From the deep throat of sad Melpomene !j
Through bronzed lyre in tragic order go.
And touch the strings into a mystery ;
Sound mournfully upon the winds and low ;
For simple Isabel is soon to be
Among the dead : She withers, like a palm
Cut by an Indian for its juicy b»lm.
LVII
O leave the palm to wither by itself;
Let not quick Winter chill its dying hour ! —
It may not be — those Baalites of pelf,
Her brethren, noted the continual shower
From her dead eyes ; and many a curious elf,
Among her kindred, wonder' d that such dower
Of youth and beauty should be thrown aside
By one mark'd out to be a Noble's bride.
LVIII
And, furthermore, her brethren wonder'd much
Why she sat drooping by the Basil green.
And why it flourish'd, as by magic touch ;
Greatly they wonder'd what the thing might mean :
They could not surely give belief, that such
A very nothing would have power to wean
Her from her own fair youth, and pleasures gay.
And even remembrance of her love's delay.
LIX
Therefore they watch'd a time when they might sift
This hidden whim ; and long they watch'd in vain ;
For seldom did she go to chapel-shrift.
And seldom felt she any hunger-pain ;
And when she left, she hurried back, as swift
As bird on wing to breast its eggs again ;
And, patient as a hen-bird, sat her there
Beside her Basil, weeping through her hair.
ISABELLA 179
LX
Yet they contriv'd to steal the Basil-pot,
And to examine it in secret place :
The thing was vile with green and livid spot,
And yet they knew it was Lorenzo's face :
The guerdon of their murder they had got,
And so left Florence in a moment's space.
Never to turn again. — Away they went.
With blood upon their heads, to banishment.
LXI
O Melancholy, turn thine eyes away !
O Music, Music, breathe despondingly !
O Echo, Echo, on some other day.
From isles Lethean, sigh to us— O sigh !
Spirits of griev^ing not your " Well-a-way ! "
For Isabel, sweet Isabel, will die ;
Will die a death too lone and incomplete.
Now they have ta'en away her Basil sweet.
LXII
Piteous she look'd on dead and senseless things.
Asking for her lost Basil amorously ;
And with melodious chuckle in the strings
Of her lorn voice, she oftentimes would cry
After the Pilgrim in his wanderings.
To ask him where her Basil was ; and why
'Twas hid from her : " For cruel 'tis," said she,
"To steal my Basil-pot away from me."
LXIII
And so she pined, and so she died forlorn.
Imploring for her Basil to the last.
No heart was therein Florence but did mourn
In pity of her love, so overcast.
And a sad ditty of this story bom
Prom mouth to mouth through all the country pass'd :
Still is the burthen sung — " O cruelty.
To steal my Basil-pot away from me ! "
' THE
EVE OF ST. AGNES
ST. AGNES' Eve— Ah, bitter chill it was !
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-c61d ;
The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass.
And silent was the flock in woolly fold-:
Numb were the Beadsman's fingers, while he told > ti
His rosary, and while his frosted breath, '" •
Like pious incense from a censer old^, * sr
Seem'd taking flight for heaven, without a death.
Past the sweet Virgin's picture, while his prayer he saith.
II
His prayer he saith, this patient, holy man ;
Then takes his lamp, anariseth from his knees.
And back retumeth, mea^ej_^arefootj_waB,
Along the chapel aisle^ by slow degrees :.
The sculptur'd dead, on each side, seem to freeze,
Emprison'd in black, purgatorial rails :
Knights, ladies, praying in dumb orat'ries.
He passeth by ; and iiajKegJl^j^rit fails
To think how they may ache in icy hoods and mails.
Ill
Northward he tumeth through a httle door.
And scarce three steps, ere Music's golden tongue
Flatter'd to tears this aged man andpocyr ;
But no — already had his deathbeU xung :
The joys of all his life were said and sung :
His was harsh penance on St. Agnes' Eve :
Another way he went, and soon among
Rough ashes sat he for his soul's reprieve.
And all night kept awake, for sinners' sake to grieve.
THE EVE OF ST. AGNES 181
IV
That ancient Beadsman heard the prelude soft ;
I' And so it chanc'd, for many a door was wide.
From hurry to and fro. Soon, up aloft,
Tbg^silver, snarling trumpets 'gan to chide :
"Thelevel chambers, ready with their pride,
Were glowing to receive a thousand guests :
The carved angels, ever eager-eyed,
Star'd, where upon their heads the cornice rests.
With hair blown back, and wings put cross-wise on their breasts.
At length biurst in the argent revelry,
With plume, tiara, and all rich array,
Numerous as shadows haunting £>iirily
The brain, new stuff'd, in youth, with triumphs gay
Of old romance. These let us wish away,
And turn, sole-thoughted, to one Lady there,
Whose heart had brooded, all that wintry day,
On love, and wing'd St. Agnes' saintly care.
As she had heard old dames full many times declare.
VI
They told her how, upon St. Agnes' Eve,
Young virgins might have visions of delight,
And soft adorings from their loves receive
Upon the honey'd middle of the night,
If ceremonies due they did aright ;
As, supperless to bed they must j-etire,
And couch supine their beauties, lily white ;
Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require
Of Heaven with upward eyes for all that they desire.
VII
Full of this whim was thoughtAiI Madeline :
The music, yearning like a God in pain,
She scarcely heard : her maiden eyes divine,
Fix'd on the floor, saw many a sweeping train
Pass by — she heeded not at all : in vain
Came many a tiptoe, amorous cavalier.
And back retir'd ; not cool'd by high disdain,
But she saw not : her heart was otherwhere :
She sigh'd for Agnes' dreams, the sweetest of the year.
182 JOHN KEATS
VIII
She danc'd jalong with vague, regardless eyes,
Anxious her lips, her breathing quick and short :
The hallow'd hour was neat at hand : she sighs
Amid the timbrels, and the throng'd resort
Of whisperers in anger, or in sport ;
'Mid looks of love, defiance, hate, and scorn,
Hoodwink'd with faery fancy ; all amort.
Save to St. Agnes and her lambs unshorn.
And all the bliss to be before to-morrow mom.
So, purposing each moment to retire.
She linger'd still. Meantime, across the moors.
Had come young Porphyro, with heart on fire
For Madeline. Beside the portal doors,
Buttress'd from moonlight, stands he, and implores
All saints to give him sight of Madeline,
But for one moment in the tedious hours.
That he might gaze and worship all unseen ;
Perchance speak, kneel, touch, kiss — in sooth such things have
been.
He ventures in : let no buzz'd whisper tell :
All eyes be muffled, or a hundred swords
Will storm his heart. Love's fev'rous citadel :
For him, those chambers held barbarian hordes.
Hyena foemen, and hot-blooded lords.
Whose very dogs would execrations howl
Against his lineage : not one breast affords
Him any mercy, in that mansion foul.
Save one old beldame, weak in body and in soul.
■"^''' XI
Ah, happy chance ! the aged creature came.
Shuffling along with ivory-headed wand.
To where he stood, hid from the torch's flame.
Behind a broad hall-pillar, far beyond
The sound of merriment and chorus bland :
He startled her ; but soon she knew his face.
And grasp'd his fingers in her palsied hand.
Saying, " Mercy, Porphyro ! hie thee from this place ;
They are all her^ to-night, the whol? blood-thirsty race !
THE EVE OF ST. AGNES 183
XII
" Get hence ! get hence ! there's dwarfish Hildehrand ;
He had a fever late, and in the fit
He cursed thee and thine, both house and land :
Then there's that old Lord Maurice, not a whit
More tame for his gray hairs — Alas me ! flit !
Flit like a ghost away." — " Ah, Gossip dear.
We're safe enough ; here in this arm-chair sit.
And tell me how " — " Good Saints ! not here, not here ;
FoUow me, child, or else these stones will be thy bier."
XIII
He follow'd through a lowly arched way, ' j j^
Brushing the cobwebs with his lofty plume, ' /
And as she mutter' d "Well-a — ^well-a-day ! " ' - ■
He found him in a little moonlight room.
Pale, lattic'd, chill, and silent as a tomb.
" Now tell me where is Madeline," said he,
" O tell me, Angela, by the holy loom
Which none but secret sisterhood may see.
When they St. Agnes' wool are weaving piously."
XIV
"St. Agnes ! Ah ! it is St. Agnes' Eve-
Yet men will murder upon holy days :
Thou must hold water in a witch's sieve.
And be liege-lord of all the Elves and Fays,
To venture so : it fills me with amaze
To see thee, Porph3n:o ! — St. Agnes' Eve !
God's help ! my lady fair the conjuror plays
This very night : good angels her deceive !
But let me laugh awhile, I've mickle time to grieve."
XV
Feebly she laugheth in the languid moon.
While Porphyro upon her face doth look.
Like puzzled urchin on an aged crone
Who keepeth clos'd a wond'rous riddle-hook.
As spectacled she sits in chimney nook.
But soon his eyes grew briUiant, when she told
His lady's purpose ; and he scarce could brook
Tears, at the thought of those enchantments cold,
And Madeline asleep in lap of legepds old.
184 JOHN KEATS
XVI
Sudden a thought came like a full-blown rose,
Flushing his brow, and in his pained heart
Made purple riot : then doth he propose
A stratagem, that makes the beldame start :
" A cruel man and impious thou art :
Sweet lady, let her pray, and sleep, and dream
Alone with her good angels, &r apart
From wicked men like thee. Go, go l-^l deem
Thou canst not surely be the^ame that thou didst seem/'
XVII
" I will not harm her, by all saints I swear,"
Quoth Porphyro : " O may I ne'er find grace
When my weak voice shall whisper its last prayer.
If one of her soft ringlets I displace.
Or look with ruffian passion in her face :
Good Angela, believe me by these tears ;
Or I will, even in a moment's space,
Awake, with horrid shout, my niemen's ears.
And beard them, though they be more fang'd than wolves and bears.'
XVIII
" Ah ! why wilt thou ai&ight a feeble soul ?
A poor, weak, palsy-stricken, churchyard thing.
Whose passing-bell may ere the midnight toll ;
Whose prayers for thee, each morn and evening.
Were never miss'd." — Thus plaining, doth she bring
A gentler speech from burning Porphyro ;
So woful, and of such d«ep sorrowing,
That Angela gives promise she will do
Whatever he shall wish, betide her weal or woe.
XIX
Which was, to lead him, in close secrecy.
Even to Madeline's chamber, and there hide
Him in a closet, of such privacy
That he might see her beauty unespied.
And win perhaps that night a peerless bride.
While legion'd fairies pac'd the coverlet.
And pale enchantment held her sleepy-eyed.
Never on such a night have lovers met.
Since Merlin paid his Demon all the monstrous debt.
THE EVE OF ST. AGNES 185
XX
" It shall be as thou wishest," said the Dame :
" All cates and dainties shall be stored there
Quickly on this feast-night : by the tambour frame
Her own lute thou wilt see : no time to spare,
For I am slow and feeble, and scarce dare
On such a catering trust my dizzy head.
Wait here, my child, with patience ; kneel in prayer
The while : Ah ! thou must needs the lady wed.
Or may I never leave my grave among the dead."
XXI
So saying, she hobbled off with busy fear.
The lover's endless minutes slowly pass'd ;
The dame return' d, and whisper'd in his ear
To follow her ; with aged eyes aghast
From fright of dim espial. Safe at last.
Through many a dusky gallery, they gain
The maiden's chamber, silken, hush'd, and chaste ;
Where Porphyro took covert, pleas'd amain.
His poor guide hurried back with agues in her brain.
XXII
Her falt'ring hand upon the balustrade.
Old Angela was feeling for the stair.
When Madeline, St. Agnes' charmed maid.
Rose, like a mission'd spirit, unaware :
With silver taper's light, and pious care.
She tum'd, and down the aged gossip led
To a safe level matting. Now prepare.
Young Porphyro, for gazing on that bed ;
She comes, she comes again, like ring-dove fray'd and fled.
XXIII
Out went the taper as she hurried in ;
Its little smoke, in pallid moonshine, died :
She clos'd the door, she panted, all akin
To spirits of the air, and visions wide :
No uttered syllable, or, woe betide !
But to her heart, her heart was voluble.
Paining with eloquence her balmy side ;
As though a tongueless nightingale should swell
Her throat in vain, and die, heart-stifled, in her dell,
186 JOHN KEATS
XXIV
A casement high and triple-arch'd there was,
All garlanded with carven imag'ries
Of fruits, and flowers, and bunches of knot-grass.
And diamonded with panes of quaint device.
Innumerable of stains and splendid dyes,-
As are the tiger-moth's deep-damask'd wings ;
And in the midst, 'mong thousand heraldries.
And twilight saint^, and dim emblazonings,
A shielded scutcheon blush'd with blood of queens and kings.
XXV
Full on this casement shone the wintry moon.
And threw warm gules on Madeline's fair breast,
As down she knelt for heaven's grace and boon ;
Rose-bloom fell on her hands, together prest.
And on her silver cross soft amethyst.
And on her hair a glory, like a saint :
She seem'd a splendid angel, newly drest,
Save wings, for heaven : — Porph)rro grew faint :
She knelt, so pure a thing, so free from mortal taint.
XXVI
Anon his heart revives : her vespers done.
Of all its wreathed pearls her hair she frees ;
Unclasps her warmed jewels one by one ;
Loosens her fragrant boddice ; by degrees
Her rich attire creeps rustling to her knees :
Half-hidden, like a mermaid in sea-weed.
Pensive awhile she dreams awake, and sees.
In fancy, fair St. Agnes in her bed.
But dares not look behind, or all the charm is fled.
XXVII
Soon, trembling in her soft and chilly nest.
In sort of wakeful swoon, perplex'd she lay.
Until the poppied warmth of sleep oppress'd
Her soothed limbs, and soul fatigued away ;
Flown, like a thought, until the morrow-day ;
Blissfully haven'd both from joy and pain ;
Clasp'd like a missal where swart Paynims pray ;
Blinded alike from sunshine and from rain,
As though a rose should shut, and be a bud again,
THE EVE OF ST. AGNES 187
XXVIII
Stol'n to this paradise^ and so entranced,
Porph}rro gazed upon her empty dress.
And listen'd to her breathing, if it chanced
To wake into a slumberous tenderness ;
Which when he heard, that minute did he bless.
And breath'd himself : then from the closet crept.
Noiseless as fear in a wide wilderness,
And over the hush'd carpet, silent, stept.
And 'tween the curtains peep'd, where, lo ! — how fast she slept.
XXIX
Then by the bed-side, where the fiided moon
Made a dim, silver twilight, soft he set
A table, and, half anguish' d, threw thereon
A cloth of woven crimson, gold, and jet : —
O for some drowsy Morphean amulet !
The boisterous, midnight, festive clarion.
The kettle-drum, and fer-heard clarinet.
Affray his ears, though but in dying tone : —
The hall door shuts again, and all the noise is gone.
XXX
And still she slept an azure-lidded sleep.
In blanched linen, smooth, and lavender' d,
While he from forth the closet brought a heap
Of candied apple, quince, and plum, and gourd ;
With jellies soother than the creamy curd.
And lucent S3rrops, tinct with cinnamon ;
Manna and dates, in argosy transferr'd
From Fez ; and spiced dainties, every one.
From silken Samarcand to cedar'd Lebanon.
XXXI
These delicates he heap'd with glowing hand
On golden dishes and in baskets bright
Of wreathed silver : sumptuous they stand
In the retired quiet of the night.
Filling the chilly room with perfume Ught. —
" And now, my love, my seraph fair, awake !
Thou art my heaven, and I thine eremite :
Open thine eyes, for meek St. Agnes' sake.
Or I shall drowse beside thee, so my soul doth ache,"
188 JOHN KEATS
XXXII
Thus whispering, his warm, unnerved arm
Sank in her pillow. Shaded was her dream
By the dusk curtains : — 'twas a midnight charm
Impossible to melt as iced stream :
The lustrous salvers in the moonlight gleam ;
Broad golden fringe upon the carpet lies : ^
It seem'd he never, never could redeem
From such a stedfast spell his lady's eyes ;
So mus'd awhile, entoil'd in woofed phantasies.
XXXIII
Awakening up, he took her hollow lute, —
Tumultuous, — and, in chords that tenderrat be.
He play'd an ancient ditty, long since mute.
In Provence call'd, " La belle dame sans mercy :■"
Close to her ear touching the melody ; —
Wherewith disturb'd, she utter'd a. soft moan :
He ceased — she panted quick — and suddenly
Her blue affrayed eyes wide open shone :
Upon his knees he sank, pale as smooth-sculptured stone.
XXXIV
Her eyes were open, but she still beheld.
Now wide awake, the vision of her sleep :
There was a pain&l change, that nigh expell'd
The blisses of her dream so pure and deep
At which fair Madeline began to weep.
And moan forth witless words with many a sigh ;
While still her gaze on Porphyro would keep ;
Who knelt, with joined hands and piteous eye.
Fearing to move or speak, she look'd so dreamingly.
XXXV
" Ah, Porph)rro ! " said she, " but even now
Thy voice was at sweet tremble in mine ear.
Made tuneable with every sweetest vow ;
And those sad eyes were spiritual and clear :
How chang'd thou art ! how pallid, chill, and drear !
Give me that voice again, my Porphyro,
Those looks immortal, those complainings dear !
O leave me not in this eternal woe,
For if thou diest, my Love, I know not where to go."
THE EVE OF ST. AGNES 189
XXXVI
Beyond a mortal man impassion'd &r
At these voluptuous accents, he arose.
Ethereal, flush' d, and like a throbbing star
Seen mid the sapphire heaven's deep repose ;
Into her dream he melted, as the rose
Blendeth its odour with the violet, —
Solution sweet : meantime the frost- wind blows
Like Love's alarum pattering the sharp sleet
Against the window-panes ; St. Agnes' moon hath set.
XXXVII
'Tis dark : quick pattereth the flaw-blown sleet :
"This is no dream, my bride, my Madeline ! "
'Tis dark : the iced gusts still rave and beat :
" No dream, alas ! alas ! and woe is mine !
Porph3rro will leave me here to fiide and pine. —
Cruel ! what traitor could thee hither bring ?
I curse not, for my heart is lost in thine.
Though thou forsakest a deceived thing ; —
A dove forlorn and lost with sick unpruned wing."
XXXVIII
" My Madeline ! sweet dreamer ! lovely bride I
Say, may I be for aye thy vassal blest .''
Thy beauty's shield, heart-shap'd and vermeil dyed .''
Ah, silver shrine, here will I take my rest
After so many hours of toil and quest,
A famish' d pilgrim, — saved by miracle.
Though I have found, I will not rob thy nest
Saving of thy sweet self ; if thou think'st well
To trust, &ir Madeline, to no rude infidel.
XXXIX
" Hark ! 'tis an elfin-storm from faery land,
Of haggard seeming, but a boon indeed :
Arise — arise 1 the morning is at hand ; —
The bloated wassaillers will never heed : —
Let us away, my love, with happy speed ;
There are no ears to hear, or eyes to see, —
Drown'd all in Rhenish and the sleepy mead :
Awake ! arise ! my love, and fearless be.
For o'er the southern moors I have a home for thee."
190 JOHN KEATS
XL
'^ 'Sjie hurried at his words, beset with feans,
For there were sleeping dragons all around,
At glaring watch, perhaps, with ready spears —
Down the wide stairs a darkling way they found. —
In all the house was heard no human sound.
A chain-droop' d lamp was flickering by each door ;
The arras, rich with horseman, hawk, and hound,
Flutter'd in the besieging wind's uproar ;
And the long carpets rose along the gusty floor.
XLI
They glide, like phantoms, into the wide hall ;
Like phantoms, to the iron porch, they glide ;
Where lay the Porter, in uneasy sprawl.
With a huge empty flaggon by his side :
The wakeful bloodhound rose, and shook his hide,
But his sagacious eye an inmate owns :
By one, and one, the bolts AiU easy slide : —
The chains lie silent on the footworn stones ; —
The key turns, and the door upon its hinges groans.
XLII
And they are gone : ay, ages long ago
These lovers fled away into the storm.
That night the Baron dreamt of many a woe,
\AaA all his warrior-guests, with shade and form
Of witch, and demon, and large coffin- worm.
Were long be-nightmar'd. Angela the old
Died palsy-twitch'd, with meagre face deform ;
The Beadsman, after thousand aves told.
For aye unsought for slept among his ashes cold.
POEMS
ODE TO A nightingal:
^ ^^i/t-f/ <Uc> ^^^ <^,^^c^-€>^^
MY heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
iptied some dull opiate to the drains ^'
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk :
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, (.
But being too happy in thine happiness, — ^.
That thou, light- winged Dryad of the trees, >'
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.
2
Q, for a draught of vintage ! that hath been
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth.
Tasting of Flora and the country green.
Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth !
O for a beaker fiill of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth ;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen.
And with thee fade away into the forest dim :
Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou. among the leaves hast never known.
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hesir e^h other groan ;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs.
Where youth grows pale, and ^pectre-thin, and dies ;
Where but to think is to bef full of sorrow
And leaden-pyed despairs.
Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes.
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.
192 JOHN KEATS
Away ! away ! for I will fly to thee.
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards.
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
Though the dull brain perplexes and retards :
Already with thee ! tender is the night.
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays ;
^ But here there is no light.
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous glooms aild winding mossy ways.
5
I cannot see what flowers are at my feet.
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs.
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild ;
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine ;
Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves ;
And mid-May's eldest child.
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine.
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.
6
Darkling I hsten ; and, for many a time ' -
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme.
To take into the air my quiet breath ;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die.
To cease upon the midnight with no pain.
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy !
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain —
To thy high requiem become a sod.
7
Thou wast not bom for death, immortal Bird !
No hungry generations tread thee down ;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown :
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien com ;
The same that oft-times hath
Charm' d magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.
ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE 193
8
Forlorn ! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu ! the fency cannot cheat so well ^ <3
As she is &m'd to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu ! adieu ! thy plaintive anthem fides
Past the near meadows, over the still stream.
Up the hill-side ; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades :
Was it a vision, or a waking dream ?
Fled is that music : — Do I wake or sleep ?
194 JOHN KEATS
ODE ON A GRECIAN URN
1
THOU still unravish'd bride of quietness.
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
'^''Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
■ A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme :l
What leaf-fiing'd legend haunts about thy shape"'
Of deities or mortals, or of both, ^k
K__In_Tgmpe or the dales of Arcady 'i'^^ K ^
. .'^^WEatmen or gods are these ? What majdei^lot
y What mad pursuit ? What struggle to escape ?
' What pipes and timbrels ? Wha^wild ecstasy i
2
Heard melodies are sweet, but thosa unheard
Are sweeter ; therefore, ye so^,/pipes, play on ;
Not to the>ensual ear, but, more endear'd, &"
tothe spirit ditties of no toner ~
F^ir youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare ;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal — yet, do not grieve ;
She cannot &dejtJy]]jgy^hou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair !
Ah, happy, happy boughs ! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu ;
And, happy melodist, unwearied.
For ever piping songs for ever new ;
More happy love f more happy, happy love !
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd.
For ever panting, and for ever young ;
All breathing human passion fax above, f^
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd^
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
ODE ON A GRECIAN URN 195
Who are these coming to the sacrifice ?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that he|fer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest ?
What little town by river or sea shore.
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel.
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn ?
And, little town, thy streets for. evermore
Will silent be ; and not a soul to tell
thou art desolate, can e'er return.
Wh^l
O Atlic shape ! Fair attitude ! with brede "^
Of marble men and maidens overwrought.
With forest branches and the trodden weed ;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity : Cold Pastoral !
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
" Be^ty is teuth, truthb£auty,lL-:rthat is all
Ve know oh earth, and all ye need toTtnow.
196 JOHN KEATS
ODE TO PSYCHE
O GODDESS ! hear these tuneless numbers^ wrung
By sweet enforcement and remembrance dear,
And pardon that thy secrets should be sung
Even into thine own soft-conched ear :
Surely I dreamt to-day, or did I see
The winged Psyche with awaken'd eyes ?
I wander'd in a forest thoughtlessly,
And, on the sudden, fainting with surprise.
Saw two fair creatures, couched side by side
In deepest grass, beneath the whisp'ring roof lo
Of leaves and trembled blossoms, where there ran
A brooklet, scarce espied :
'Mid hush'd, cool-rooted flowers, fragrant-eyed.
Blue, silver-white, and budded Tyrian,
They lay calm-breathing, on the bedded grass ;
Their arms embraced, and their pinions too ;
Their lips touch'd not, but had not bade adieu.
As if disjoined by soft-handed slumber.
And ready still past kisses to outnumber
At tender eye-dawn of aurorean love : 20
The winged boy I knew ;
But who wast thou, O happy, happy dove ?
His Psyche true !
O latest bom and loveliest vision far
Of all Olympus' faded hierarchy !
Fairer than Phoebe's sapphire-region' d star.
Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky ;
Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none.
Nor altar heap'd with flowers ;
Nor virgin-choir to make delicious moan ^ 30
Upon the midnight hours ;
No voice, no lute, no pipe, no incense sweet
From chain-swung censer teeming ;
No shrine, no grove, no oracle, no heat
Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.
ODE TO PSYCHE 197
0 brightest ! though too late for antique vows.
Too, too late for the fond believing lyre,
When holy were the haunted forest boughs.
Holy the air, the water, and the fire ;
Yet even in these days so fiir retir'd 40
From happy pieties, thy lucent fans.
Fluttering among the &int Olympians,
1 see, and sing, by my own eyes inspired.
So let me be thy choir, and make a moan
Upon the midnight hours ;
Thy voice, thy lute, thy pipe, thy incense sweet I,
From swinged censer teeming ;
Thy shrine, thy grove, thy oracle, thy heat\
Of pale-mouth^'d prophet dreaming.;^
Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane 50
In some untrodden region of my mind.
Where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain.
Instead of pines shall murmur in the wind :
Far, far around shall those dark-cluster' d trees
Fledge the wild-ridged mountains steep by steep ;
And there by zephyrs, streams, and birds, and bees.
The moss-lain Dryads shall be luU'd to sleep ;
And in the midst of this wide quietness
A rosy sanctuary will I dress
With the wreath'd trellis of a working brain, 60
With biids, and bells, and stars without a name.
With all the gardener Fancy e'er could feign,
Who breeding flowers, will never breed the same :
And there shall be for thee all soft delight
That shadowy thought can win,
A bright torch, and a casement ope at night,
To let the warm Love in .'
198 JOHN KEATS
FANCY J^/r-A.^'-
EVER let the Fancy roam.
Pleasure never is at home :
At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth.
Like to bubbles when rain pelteth ;
Then let winged Fancy wander
Through the thought stiU spread beyond her :
Open wide the mind's cage-door.
She'll dart forth, and cloudward soar.
O sweet Fancy ! let her loose ;
Summer's joys are spoilt by use,
And the enjoying of the Spring
Fades as does its blossoming ;
Autumn's red-lipp'd finiitage too.
Blushing through the mist and dew.
Cloys with tasting : What do then ?
Sit thee by the ingle, when
The sear faggot blazes bright.
Spirit of a winter's night ;
When the soundless earth is mufl9ed.
And the caked snow is shuffled 20
From the ploughboy's heavy shoon ;
When the Night doth meet the Noon
In a dark conspiracy
To banish Even from her sky.
Sit thee there, and send abroad.
With a mind self-overaw'd.
Fancy, high-commission'd : — send her !
She has vassals to attend her :
She will bring, in spite of frost,
Beauties that the earth hath lost ; 30
She -will bring thee, all together.
All delights of summer weather ;
AU the buds and bells of May,
From dewy sward or thorny spray ;
All the heaped Autumn's wealth.
With a still, mysterious stealth :
She will mix these pleasures up
Like three fit wines in a cup.
And thou shalt quaff it : — thou shalt hear
Distant harvest-carols clear ; 40
Rustle of the reaped corn ;
FANCY 199
Sweet birds aatheming the morn :
And, in the same moment — hark !
'Tis the early April lark.
Or the rooks, with busy caw.
Foraging for sticks and straw.
Thou shalt, at one glance, behold
The daisy and the marigold ;
White-plum' d lilies, and the first
Hedge-grown primrose that hath burst ; 50
Shaded hyacinth, alway
Sapphire queen of the mid- May ;
And every leaf, and every flower
Pearled with the self-same shower.
Thou shalt see the field-mouse peep
Meagre from its celled sleep ;
And the snake all winter-thin
Cast on sunny bank its skin ;
Freckled nest-eggs thou shalt see
Hatching in the hawthorn-tree, 60
When the hen-bird's wing doth rest
Quiet on her mossy nest ;
Then the hurry and alarm
When the bee-hive casts its swarm ;
Acorns ripe down-pattering.
While the autumn breezes sing.
Oh, sweet Fancy ! let her loose ;
' Every thingjs spoilt by use :
Where's the cheek that doth not fade.
Too much gaz'd at ? Where's the maid 70
Whose lip mature is ever new ?
Where's the eye, however blue.
Doth not weary .'' Where's the fece
One would meet in every place ?
Where's the voice, however soft.
One would hear so very oft ?
At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth
Like to bubbles when rain pelteth.
Let, then, winged Fancy find
Thee a mistress to thy mind : go
Dulcet-eyed as Ceres' daughter.
Ere the God of Torment taught her
How to frown and how to chide ;
With a waist and with a side
White as Hebe's, when her zone
Slipt its golden clasp, and down
Fell her kirtle to her feet.
200 JOHN KEATS
While she held the goblet sweet,
And Jove grew languid. — Break the mesh
Of the Fancy's silken leash ; go
Quickly break her prison-string
And such joys as these she'll bring. —
Let the winged Fancy roam,
Pleasure never is at home.
ODE
BARDS of Passion and of Mirth,
Ye have left your souls on earth !
Have ye souls in heaven too,
Double-lived in regions new ?
Yes, and those of heaven commune
With the spheres of sun and moon ;
With the noise of fountains wond'rous.
And the parle of voices thund'rous ;
With the whisper of heaven's trees
And one another, in soft ease lo
Seated on Elysian lawns
Brows'd by none but Dian's fawns ;
Underneath large blue-bells tented.
Where the daisies are rose-scented.
And the rose herself has got
Perfume which on earth is not ;
Where the nightingale doth sing
Not a senseless, tranced thing,
But divine melodious truth ;
Philosophic numbers smooth ; 20
Tales and golden histories
Of heaven and its mysteries.
Thus ye live on high, and then
On the earth ye live again ;
And the souls ye left behind you
Teach us, here, the way to find you,
Where your other souls are joying,
Never slumber'd, never cloying.
Here, your earth-bom souls still speak
To mortals, of their little week ; 30
Of their sorrows and delights ;
Of their passions and their spites ;
Of their glory and their shame ;
What doth strengthen and what maim.
Thus ye teach us, every day.
Wisdom, though fled flu* away.
Bards of Passion and of Mirth, '
Ye have left your souls on earth !
Ye have souls in heaven too.
Double-lived in regions new ! ^o
202 JOHN KEATS
LINES
ON
THE MERMAID TAVERN
SOULS of Poets dead and gone,
What Elysium have ye known,
Happy field or mossy cavern,
Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern ?
Have ye tippled drink more fine
Than mine host's Canary wine ?
Or are fruits of Paradise
Sweeter than those dainty pies
Of venison ? O generous food !
Drest as though bold Robin Hood
Wouldj with his maid Marian,
Sup and bowse from horn and can.
I have heard that on a day
Mine host's sign-board Hew away.
Nobody knew whither, tiU
An astrologer's old quill
To a sheepskin gave the story.
Said he saw you in your glory.
Underneath a new old-sign
Sipping beverage divinie.
And pledging with contented smack
The Mermiaid in the Zodiac.
Souls of Poets dead and gone,
What Elysium have ye known,
Happy field or mossy cavern.
Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern ?
ROBIN HOOD
To A Friend
NO ! those days are gone away.
And their hours are old and gray.
And their minutes buried all
Under the down-trodden pall
Of the leaves of many years :
Many times have winter's shears.
Frozen North, and chilling East,
Sounded tempests to the feast
Of the forest's whispering fleeces.
Since men knew nor rent nor leases. lo
No, the bugle sounds no more,
And the twanging bow no more ;
Silent is the ivory shrill
Past the heath and up the hill ;
There is no mid-forest laugh.
Where lone Echo gives the half
To some wight, amaz'd to hear
Jesting, deep in forest drear.
On the fairest time of June
You may go, with sun or moon, 20
Or the seven stars to light you,
Or the polar ray to right you ;
But you never may behold
Little John, or Robin bold ;
Never one, of all the clan.
Thrumming on an empty can
Some old hunting ditty, while
He doth his green way beguile
To fair hostess Merriment,
Down beside the pasture Trent ; 30
For he left the merry tale
Messenger for spicy ale.
Gone, the merry morris din ;
Gone, the song of Gamel)m ;
Gone, the tough-belted outlaw
204 JOHN KEATS
Idling in the " grene shawe ; "
All are gone away and past !
And if Robin should be cast
Sudden from his turfed grave.
And if Marian should have ^o
Once again her forest days.
She would weep, and he would craze :
He would swear, for all his oaks,
Fall'n beneath the dockyard strokes.
Have rotted on the briny seas ;
She would weep that her wild bees
Sang not to her — strange ! that honey
Can't be got without hard money !
So it is : yet let us sing,
Honour to the old bow-string ! jo
Honour to the bugle-hom !
Honour to the woods unshorn !
Honour to the Lincoln green !
Honour to the archer keen !
Honour to tight little John,
And the horse he rode upon !
Honour to bold Robin Hood,
Sleeping in the underwood !
Honour to maid Marian,
And to all the Sherwood-clan ! 60
Though their days have hurried by
Let us two a burden try.
f
TO AUTUMN
SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun ;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run ;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees.
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core ;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel ; to set budding more.
And still more, later flowers for the bees.
Until they think warm days will never cease.
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
2
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store ?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor.
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind ; •
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers :
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook ;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look.
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
3
Where are the songs of Spring ? Ay, where are they ?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, —
While barred clouds bloom the sofl-dying day.
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue ; \
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies ;
And iiill-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn ;
Hedge-crickets sing ; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft ;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
206 JOHN KEATS
ODE ON MELANCHOLY
NO, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist
Wolf's-bane, tightHrooted, for its poisonous wine ;
Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd
By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine ;
Make not your rosary of yew-berries.
Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be
Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl
A partner in your sorrow's mysteries ;
For shade to shade will come too drowsily.
And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.
But when the melancholy fit shall fall
Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,
That fosters the droop-headed flowers all.
And hides the green hill in an April shroud ;
Then gluj thy sorrow on a morning rose.
Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave.
Or on the wealth of globed peonies ;
Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,
Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave.
And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.
She dwells with Beauty — Beauty that must die ;
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding adieu ; and aching Pleasure nigh.
Turning to poison while the ^jse-mouth sips :
Ay, in the very temple of Delight
Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine.
Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue
Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine ;
His soul shall taste the sadness of her might.
And be among her cloudy trophies hung.
HYPERION
A Fragment
BOOK I
/"P^EEP in the shady sadness of a vaie '
\_J Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn.
Far from the fiery noon, and eve's one star.
Sat gray-hair'd Saturn, quiet as a stone.
Still as the silence round about his lair ;
Forest on forest hung about his head
Like cloud on cloud. No stir of air was there.
Not so much life as on a summer's day
Robs not one light seed from the featlxer'd grass.
But where the dead leaf fell, there did it rest. lo
A stream went voiceless by, still deadened more
By reason of his fallen divinity
Spreading a shade : the Naiad 'mid her reeds
R-ess'd her cold finger closer to her Ups.
Along the margin-sand large foot-marks went.
No further than to where his feet had stray' d,
And slept there since. Upon the sodden ground
His old right hand lay nerveless, listless, dead,
Unsceptred ; and his realmless eyes were closed ;
While his bow'd head seem'd list'ning to the Earth, 20
His ancient mother, for some comfort yet.
It seem'd no force could wake him from his place ;
But there came one, who with a kindred hand
Touch'd his wide shoulders, after bending low
With reverence, though to one who knew it not.
She was a Goddess of the infant world ;
By her in stature the tall Amazon
Had stood a pigmy's Iieight : she would have ta'en
Achilles by the hair and bent his neck ;
Or with a finger stay'd Ixion's wheel, 30
208 JOHN KEATS [book i
Her face was large as that of Memphian sphinx,
Pedestal'd haply in a palace court.
When sages look'd to Egypt for their lore.
But oh ! how unlike marble was that face :
How beautiful, if sorrow had not made
Sorrow more beautiful than Beauty's self.
There was a listening fear in her regard.
As if calamity had but begun ;
As if the vanward clouds of evil days
Had spent their malice, and the sullen rear 40
Was with its stored thunder labouring up.
One hand she press' d upon that aching spot
Where beats the human heart, as if just there.
Though an immortal, she felt cruel pain :
The other upon Saturn's bended neck
She laid, and to the level of his ear
Leaning with parted lips, some words she spake
In solemn tenour and deep organ tone :
Some mourning words, which in our feeble tongue
Would come in these like accents ; O how frail 50
To that large utterance of the early Gods !
" Saturn, look up ! — though wherefore, poor old King ?
I have no comfort for thee, no not one :
I cannot say, ' O wherefore sleepest thou ? '
For heaven is parted from thee, and the earth
Knows thee not, thus afflicted, for a God ;
And ocean too, with all its Solemn noise,
Has from thy sceptre pass'd ; and all the air
Is emptied of thine hoary majesty.
Thy thunder, conscious of the new command, 60
Rumbles reluctant o'er our fallen house ;
And thy sharp lightning in unpractised hands
Scorches and burns our once serene domain.
O aching time ! O moments big as years !
All as ye pass swell out the monstrous truth.
And press it so upon our weary griefs
That unbelief has not a space to breathe.
Saturn, sleep on : — O thoughtless, why did I
Thus violate thy slumbrous solitude .''
Why should I ope thy melancholy eyes } 70
Saturn, sleep on ! while at thy feet I weep."
As when, upon a tranced summer-night.
Those green-rob'd senators of mighty woods.
Tall oaks, branch-charmed by the earnest stars,
Dream, and so dream all night without a stir.
Save from one gradual solitary gust
BOOK I] HYPERION 209
Which comes upon the silence, and dies off.
As if the ebbing air had but one wave ;
So came these words and went ; the while in tears
She touch'd her fair large forehead to the ground, go
Just where her falling hair might be outspread
A soft and silken mat for Saturn's feet.
One moon, with alteration slow, had shed
Her silver seasons four upon the night,
And still these two were postured motionless,
Like natural sculpture in cathedral cavern ;
The frozen God still couchant on the earth.
And the sad Goddess weeping at his feet :
Until at length old Saturn lifted up
His faded eyes, and saw his kingdom gone, 90
And all the gloom and sorrow of the place.
And that fair kneeling Goddess ; and then spake.
As with a palsied tongue, and while his beard
Shook horrid with such aspen-malady :
" O tender spouse of gold Hyperion,
Thea, I feel thee ere I see thy face ;
Look up, and let me see our doom in it ;
Look up, and tell me if this feeble shape
Is Saturn's ; tell me, if thou hear'st the voice
Of Saturn ; tell me, if this wrinkling brow, 100
Naked and bare of its great diadem.
Peers like the front of Saturn. Who had power
To make me desolate ? whence came the strength ?
How was it nurtur'd to such bursting forth.
While Fate seem'd strangled in my nervous grasp ?
But it is so ; and I am smother'd up.
And buried from all godlike exercise
Of influence benign on planets pale.
Of admonitions to the winds and seas.
Of peaceful sway above man's harvesting, no
And all those acts which Deity supreme
Doth ease its heart of love in. — I am gone
Away from my own bosom : I have left
My strong identity, my real self.
Somewhere between the throne, and where 1 sit
Here on this spot of earth. Search^ Thea, search 1
Open thine eyes eteme, and sphere them round
Upon all space : space starr'd, and lorn of light ;
Space region'd with life-air ; and barren void ;
Spaces of fire, and all the yawn of heU. — 120
Search, Thea, search I and tell me, if thou seest
A certain shape or shadow, making way
With wings or chariot fierce to repossess
14
310 JOHN KEATS [book i
A heaven he lost erewhile : it must — it must '
Be of ripe progress — S^t^um must be King.
Yes, there must be a golden victory ;
There must be Gods thrown down, and truntpets blown
Of triumph calm, and hymns of festival
Upon the gold clouds metropolitan.
Voices of soft proclaim, and silv^ stir 130
Of strings in hollow shells : and there shall be
Beautiful things made new, for the surprise
Of the sky-children ; I will give command :
Thea ! Thea ! Thea I whpre is Saturn ?"
This passion lifted him upon his feet.
And made his hands to struggle in the air.
His Druid locks to shake and ooze with sweat,
His eyes to fever out, his voice to cease.
He stood, and heard not Thea's sobbing deep ;
A little time, and then again he snatch'd 140
Utterance thus. — " But cannot I create ?
Cannot I form ? Cannot I fashion forth
Another world, another universe.
To overbear and crumble this to nought ?
Where is another chaos ? Where ? " — That word
Found way unto Olympus, and made quake
The rebel three. — ^Thea was startled up,
And in her bearing was a sort of hope.
As thus she quick-voic'd spake, yet full of awe.
" This cheers our fallen house : come to our friends, 150
0 Saturn ! come away, and give them heart ;
1 know the covert, for thence came I hither."
Thus brief; then with beseeching eyes she went
With backward footing through the shade a space :
He follow' d, and she turn'd to lead the way
Through aged boughs, that jrielded like the mist
Which eagles cleave upmounting from their nest.
Meanwhile in other Realms big tears were shed.
More sorrow like to this, and such like woe.
Too huge for mortal tongue or pen of scribe : 160
The Titans fierce, splf-hid, or prison-bound,
Groan'd fpr the old allegiance once more.
And listen'd in E^harp pain for Saturn's voice.
But one of the whole mammoth-brood still kept
His sov'reignty, and rule, and majesty ; —
Blazing Hyperion on his orbed fire
Still sat, still snuff'd the incense, teeming up
From man to the sun's God ; yet unsecure :
BOOK I] HYPERION 211
For as among us mortals omens drear
Fright and perplex, so also shuddered he — i^o
Not at dog's howl, or gloom-bird's hated screech.
Or the &miliar visiting of one
Upon the first toll of his passing-bell,
Or prophesyings of the midnight lamp ;
But horrors, portion'd to a giant nerve.
Oft made Hyperion ache. His palace bright
Bastion'd with pyramids of glowing gold.
And touch' d with shade of bronzed obelisks,
Glar'd a blood-red through all its thousand courts,
Arches, and domes, and fiery galleries ; i8o
And all its curtains of Aurorian clouds
Flush'd angerly : while sometimes eagle's wings.
Unseen before by Gods or wondering men,
Darken'd the place ; and neighing steeds were heard,
Not heard before by Gods or wondering men.
Also, when he would taste the spicy wreaths
Of incense, breath'd aloft from sacred hills.
Instead of sweets, his ample palate took
Savour of poisonous brass and metal sick : '
And so, when harbour'd in the sleepy west, igo
After the full completion of fair day, —
For rest divine upon exalted couch
And slumber in the arms of melody.
He pac'd away the pleasant hours of ease
With stride colossal, on from hall to hall ;
While far within each aisle and deep recess.
His winged minions in close clusters stood,
Amaz'd and full of fear ; like anxious men
Who on wide plains gather in panting troops.
When earthquakes jar their battlements and towers. zoo
Even now, while Saturn, rous'd from icy trance.
Went step for step with Thea through the woods,
Hyperion, leaving twilight in the rear,
Came slope upon the threshold of the west ;
Then, as was wont, his palace-door flew ope
In smoothest silence, save what solemn tubes.
Blown by the serious Zephyrs, gave of sweet
And wandering sounds, slow-breathed melodies ;
And like a rose in vermeil tint and shape.
In fragrance soft, and coolness to the eye, 210
That inlet to severe magnificence
Stood fuU blown, for the God to enter in.
He enter'd, but he enter'd full of wrath ;
His flaming robes stream'd out beyond his heels,
212 JOHN KEATS [book i
And gave a roar, as if of earthly fire,
That scar'd away the meek ethereal Hours
And made their dove-wings tremble. On he flared,
From stately nave to nave, from vault to vault.
Through bowers of fragrant and enwreathed light.
And diamond-paved lustrous long arcades, sao
Until he reach'd the great main cupola ;
There standing fierce beneath, he stampt his foot.
And from the basements deep to the high towers
Jarr'd his own golden region ; and before
The quavering thunder thereupon had ceas'd.
His voice leapt out, despite of godlike curb.
To this result : " O dreams of day and night !
O monstrous forms ! O effigies of pain !
O spectres busy in a cold, cold gloom !
0 lank-eared Phantoms of black-weeded pools ! 230
Why do I know ye ? why have I seen ye ? why
Is my eternal essence thus distraugl^t
To see and to behold these horrors new ?
Saturn is fallen, am I too to fall ?
Am I to leave this haven of my rest.
This cradle of my glory, this soft clime.
This calm luxuriance of blissful light.
These crystalline pavilions, and pure fanes.
Of all my lucent empire ? It is left
Deserted, void, nor any haunt of mine. 240
The blaze, the splendor, and the symmetry,
1 cannot see — but darkness, death and darkness.
Even here, into my centre of repose.
The shady visions come to domineer.
Insult, and blind, and stifle up my pomp. —
Fall ! — No, by TeUus and her briny robes !
Over the fiery frontier of my realms
I will advance a terrible right arm
Shall scare that infant thunderer, rebel Jove,
And bid old Saturn take his throne again." — 250
He spake, and ceas'd, the while a heavier threat
Held struggle with his throat but came not forth ;
For as in theatres of crowded men
Hubbub increases more they call out " Hush ! "
So at Hyperion's words the Phantoms pale
Bestirr'd themselves, thrice horrible and cold ;
And from the mirror'd level where he stood
A mist arose, as from a scummy marsh.
At this, through all his bulk an agony
Crept gradual, from the feet unto the crown, 260
Like a lithe serpent vast and muscular
Making slow way, with head and neck convuls'd
BOOK I] HYPERION 213
From over-strained might. Releas'd, he fled
To the eastern gates, and fiill six dewy hours
Before the dawn in season due should blush.
He breath'd fierce breath against the sleepy portals,
Clear'd them of heavy vapours, burst them wide
Suddenly on the ocean's chilly streams.
The planet orb of fire, whereon he rode
Each day from east to west the heavens through, z^o
Spun round in sable curtaining of clouds ;
Nor therefore veiled quite, blindfold, and hid,
But ever and anon the glancing spheres.
Circles, and arcs, and broad-belting colure,
Glow'd through, and wrought upon the muffling dark
Sweet-shaped lightnings from the nadir deep
Up to the zenith, — hierogl3rphics old
Which sages and keen-ey'd astrologers
Then living on the earth, with labouring thought
Won from the gaze of many centuries : 280
Now lost, save what we find on remnants huge
Of stone, or marble swart ; their import gone.
Their wisdom long since fled. — Two wings this orb
Possess'd for glory, two fair argent wings.
Ever exalted at the God's approach :
And now, from forth the gloom their plumes immense
Rose, one by one, till all outspreaded were ;
While still the dazzling globe maintain'd eclipse,
Awaiting for H3rperion's command.
Fain would he have commanded, fain took throne 290
And bid the day begin, if but for change.
He might not : — No, though a primeval God :
The sacred seasons might not be disturb'd.
Therefore the operations of the dawn
Stay'd in their birth, even as here 'tis told.
Those silver wings expanded sisterly,
Eager to sail their orb ; the porches wide
Open'd upon the dusk demesnes of night ;
And the bright Titan, phrenzied with new woes,
Unus'd to bend, by hard compulsion bent 300
His spirit to the sorrow of the time ;
And all along a dismal rack of clouds.
Upon the boundaries of day and night.
He stretch'd himself in grief and radiance faint.
There as he lay, the Heaven with its stars
Look'd down on him with pity, and the voice
Of Coelus, from the universal space.
Thus whisper'd low and solemn in his ear.
" O brightest of my children dear, earth-bom
And sky-engendered. Son of Mysteries 310
214 JOHN KEATS [book i
All unrevealed even to the powers
Which met at thjr creating ; at whose joys
And palpitations sweet, and pleasures soft,
I, Coelus, wonder, how they came and whence ;
And at the fruits thereof what shapes they be,
Distinct, and visible ; symbols divine.
Manifestations of that beauteous life
DifFus'd unseen throughout eternal space :
Of these new-form'd art thou, oh brightest child !
Of these, thy brethren and the Goddesses ! 320
There is sad feud among ye, and rebellion
Of son against his sire. I saw him fall,
I saw my first-born tumbled from his throne !
To me his arms were spread, to me his voice
Found way from forth the thunders round his head !
Pale wox I, and in vapours hid my face.
Art thou, top, near such doom ? vague fear there is :
For I have seen my sons most unlike Gods.
Divine ye were created, and divine
In sad demeanour, solemn, undisturb'd, 330
Unruffled, like high Gods, ye liv'd and ruled :
Now I behold in you fear, hope, and wrath ;
Actions of rage and passion ; even as
I see them, on the mortal world beneath.
In men who die. — This is the grief, O Son !
Sad sign of ruin, sudden dismay, and fall !
Yet do thou strive ; as thou art capable.
As thou canst move about, an evident God ;
And canst oppose to each malignant hour
Ethereal presence : — I am but a voice ; 340
My life is but the life of winds and tides.
No more than winds and tides can I avail : —
But thou canst. — Be thou therefore in the van
Of circumstance ; yea, seize the arrow's barb
Before the tense string murmur. — To the earth !
For there thou wilt find Saturn, and his woes.
Meantime I will keep watch on thy bright sun.
And of thy seasons be a careful nurse." —
Ere half this region-whisper had come down,
Hyperion arose, and on the stars 330
Lifted his curved lids, and kept them wide
Until it ceas'd ; and still he kept them wide :
And still they were the same bright, patient stars.
Then with a slow incline of his broad breast.
Like to a diver in the pearly seas,
Forward he stoop'd over the airy shore.
And plung'd all noiseless into the deep night.
BOOK n] HYPERION 215
HYPERION
BOOK II
JUST at the self-same beat of Time's wide wings
Hyperion slid into the rustled air.
And Saturn gain'd with Thea that sad place
Where Cybele and the bruised Titans moum'd.
It was a den where no insulting light
Could glimmer on their tears ; where their own groans
They felt, but heard not, for the solid roar
Of thunderous waterfalls and torrents hoarse,
Pouring a constant bulk, uncertain where.
Crag jutting forth to crag, and rocks that seem'd lo
Ever as if just rising from a sleep.
Forehead to forehead held their monstrous horns ;
And thus in thousand hugest phantasies
Made a fit roofing to this nest of woe.
Instead of thrones, hard flint they sat upon.
Couches of rugged stone, and slaty ridge
Stubbom'd with iron. All were not assembled :
Some chain' d in torture, and some wandering.
Coeus, and Gyges, and Briareiis,
Typhon, and Dolor, and Porphyrion, 20
With many more, the brawniest in assault.
Were pent in regions of laborious breath ;
Dungeon'd in opaque element, to keep
Their clenched teeth still clench'd, and all their limbs
Lock'd up like veins of metal, crampt and screw'd ;
Without a motion, save of their big hearts
Heaving in pain, and horribly convuls'd
With sanguine feverous boiling gurge of pulse.
Mnemos3Tie was straying in the world ;
Far from her moon had Phoebe wanderejd ; 30
And many else were free to roam abroad.
But for the main, here found they covert drear.
Scarce images of life, one here, one there.
Lay vast and edgeways ; like a dismal cirque
216 JOHN KEATS [book ii
Of Druid stones, upon a forlorn moor.
When the chill rain begins at shut of eve.
In dull November, and their chancel vault.
The Heaven itself, is blinded throughout night.
Each one kept shroud, nor to his neighbour gave
Or word, or look, or action of despair. 40
Creus was one ; his ponderous iron mace
Lay by him, and a shatter'd rib of rock
Told of his rage, ere he thus sank and pined.
lapetus another ; in his grasp,
A serpent's plashy neck ; its barbed tongue
Squeez'd from the gorge, and all its uncurl'd length
Dead ; and because the creature could not spit
Its poison in the eyes of conquering Jove.
Next Cottus : prone he lay, chin uppermost.
As though in pain ; for still upon the flint 150
He ground severe his skull, with open mouth
And eyes in horrid working. Nearest him
Asia, bom of most enormous Caf,
Who cost her mother Tellus keener pangs.
Though feminine, than any of her sons :
More thought than woe was in her dusky face.
For she was prophesying of her glory ;
And in her wide imagination stood
Palm-shaded temples, and high rival fanes.
By Oxus or in Ganges' sacred isles. 60
Even as Hope upon her anchor leans.
So leant she, not so fair, upon a tusk
Shed from the broadest of her elephants.
Above her,' on a crag's uneasy shelve,
Upon his elbow rais'd, all prostrate else,
Shadow'd Enceladus ; once tame and mild
As grazing ox unworried in the meads ;
Now tiger-passion' d, lion-thoughted, wroth.
He meditated, plotted, and even now
Was hurling mountains in that second war, 70
Not long delay'd, that scar'd the younger Gods
To hide themselves in forms of beast and bird.
Not far hence Atlas ; and beside him prone
Phorcus, the sire of Gorgons. Neighbour'd close
Oceanus, and Tethys, in whose lap
Sobb'd Clymene among her tangled hair.
In midst of all lay Themis, at the feet
Of Ops the queen all clouded round from sight ;
No shape distinguishable, more than when
Thick night confounds the pine-tops with the clouds : 80
And many else whose names may not be told.
BOOK II] HYPERION 217
For when the Muse's wings are air-ward spread,
Who shall delay her flight ? And she must chaunt
Of Saturn, and his guide, who now had climb'd
With damp and slippery footing from a depth
More horrid still. Above a sombre cliff
Their heads appear'd, and up their stature grew
Till on the level height their steps found ease :
Then Thea spread abroad her trembling arms
Upon the precincts of this nest of pain, go
And sidelong fix'd her eye on Saturn's &ce :
There saw she direst strife ; the supreme God
At war with all the frailty of grief.
Of rage, of fear, anxiety, revenge.
Remorse, spleen, hope, but most of all despair.
Against these plagues he strove in vain ; for Fate
Had pour'd a mortal oil upon his head,
A disanointing poison : so that Thea,
Affiighted, kept her still, and let him pass
First onwards in, among the fallen tribe. loo
As with us mortal men, the laden heart
Is persecuted more, and fever'd more.
When it is nighing to the mournful house
Where other hearts are sick of the same bruise ;
So Saturn, as he walk'd into the midst.
Felt faint, and would have sunk among the rest.
But that he met Enceladus's eye.
Whose mightiness, and awe of him, at once
Came like an inspiration ; and he shouted,
"Titans, behold your God ! " at which some groan'd ; no
Some started on their feet ; some also shouted ;
Some wept, some wail'd, all bow'd with reverence ;
And Ops, uplifting her black folded veil,
Show'd her pale cheeks, and all her forehead wan,
Her eye-brows thin and jet, and hollow eyes.
There is a roaring in the bleak-grown pines
When Winter lifts his voice ; there is a noise
Among immortals when a God gives sign.
With hushing finger, how he means to load
His tongue with the full weight of utterless thought, 120
With thunder, and with music, and with pomp :
Such noise is like the roar of bleak -grown pines :
Which, when it ceases in this mountain'd world.
No other sound succeeds ; bnt ceasing here.
Among these fallen, Saturn's voice therefrom
Grew up like organ, that begins anew
Its strain, when other harmonies, stopt short.
218 JOHN KEATS [book ii
Leave the dinn'd air vibrating silverly.
Thus grew it up — " Not in my own sad breast,
Which is its own great judge and searcher out, 130
Can I find reason why ye should be thus :
Not in the legends of the first of days,
Studied from that old spirit-leaved book
Which starry Uranus with finger bright
Sav'd from the shores of darkness, when the waves
Low-ebb'd still hid it up in shallow gloom ; —
And the which book ye know I ever kept
For my firm-based footstool : — Ah, infirm !
Not there, nor in sign, symbol, or portent
Of element, earth, water^ air, and fire, — 140
At war, at peace, or inter-quarreling
One against one, or two, or three, or all
Each several one against the other three.
As fire with air loud warring when rain-fioods
Drown both, and press them both against earth's face.
Where, finding sulphur, a quadruple wrath
Unhinges the poor world ; — not in that strife,
Wherefrom I take strange lore, and read it deep.
Can I find reason why ye should be thus :
No, no-where can untiddle, though I search, 150
And pore on Nature's universal scroll
Even to swooning, why ye. Divinities,
The first-born of all shap'd and palpable Gods,
Should cower beneath what, in comparison.
Is untremendous might. Yet ye are here,
O'erwhelm'd, and spurn' d, and batter'd, ye are here !
O Titans, shall I say, ' Arise ! ' — Ye groan :
Shall I say ' Crouch ! ' — Ye groan. What can I then }
O Heaven wide ! O unseen parent dear !
What can I .'' Tell me, all ye brethren Gods, 160
How we can war, how engine our great wrath !
0 speak your counsel now, for Saturn's ear
Is all a-hunger'd. Thou, Oceanus,
Ponderest high and deep ; and in thy face
1 see, astonied, that severe content
Which comes of thought and musing : give us help ! "
So ended Saturn ; and the God of the Sea,
Sophist and sage, from no Athenian grove.
But cogitation in his watery shades.
Arose, with locks not oozy, and began, 170
In murmurs, which his first-endeavouring tongue
Caught infant-like from the ftir-foamed sands.
" O ye, whom wrath consumes 1 who, passion-stung.
BOOK II] HYPERION 219
Writhe at defeat, and nurse your agonies ! •
Shut up your senses, stifle up your ears,
My voice is not a bellows unto ire.
Yet listen, ye who will, whilst I bring proof
How ye, perforce, must be content to stoop :
And in the proof much comfort will I give.
If ye will take that comfort in its truth. i8o
We fall by course of Nature's law, not force
Of thunder, or of Jove. Great Saturn , thou
Hast sifted well the atom-universe ;
But for this reason, that thou art the King,
And only blind from sheer supremacy.
One avenue was shaded from thine eyes,
Through which I wandered to eternal truth.
And first, as thou wast not the first of powers.
So art thou not the last ; it cannot be :
Thou art not the beginning nor the end. igo
From chaos and parental darkness came
Light, the first fruits of that intestine broil.
That sullen ferment, which for wondrous ends
Was ripening in itself. The ripe hour came.
And with it light, and light, engendering
Upon its own producer, forthwith touch'd
The whole enormous matter into life.
Upon that very hour, our parentage,
The Heavens and the Earth, were manifest :
Then thou first-bom, and we the giant-race, 200
Found ourselves ruling new and beauteous realms.
Now comes the pain of truth, to whom 'tis pain ;
O folly ! for to bear all naked truths,
And to envisage circumstance, all calm.
That is the top of sovereignty. Mark well !
As Heaven and Earth are fairer, fairer far
Than Chaos and blank Darkness, though once chiefs ;
And as we show beyond that Heaven and Earth
In form and shape compact and beautiful.
In will, in action free, companionship, 210
And thousand other signs of purer life ;
So on our heels a fresh perfection treads,
A power more strong in beauty, bom of us
And fated to excel us, as we pass
In glory that old Darkness : nor are we
Thereby more conquer' d, than by us the rule
Of shapeless Chaos. Say, doth the dull soil
Quarrel with the proud forests it hath fed.
And feedeth still, more comely than itself.''
Can it deny the chiefdom of green groves ? 220
320 JOHN KEATS [book ii
Or shall the tree be envious of the dove
Because it cooeth, and hath snowy wings
To wander wherewithal and find its joys ?
We are such forest-trees, and our feir boughs
Have bred forth, not pale solitary doves.
But eagles golden-feather' d, who do tower
Above us in their beauty, and must reign
In right thereof; for 'tis the eternal law
That first in beauty should be first in might :
Yea, by that law, another race may drive 230
Our conqueroi's to mourn as we do now.
Have ye beheld the young God of the Seas,
My dispossessor ? Have ye seen his face ?
Have ye beheld his chariot, foam'd along
By noble winged creatures he hath made ?
I saw him on the calmed waters scud,
With such a glow of beauty in his eyes.
That it enforc'd me to bid sad farewell
To all my empire : farewell sad I took.
And hither came, to see how dolorous fate 240
Had wrought upon ye ; and how I might best
Give consolation in this woe extreme.
Receive the truth, and let it be your balm."
Whether through poz'd conviction, or disdain.
They guarded silence, when Oceanus
Left murmuring, what deepest thought can tell ?
But so it was, none answer' d for a space,
Save one whom none regarded, Clymene ;
And yet she answer'd not, only complain' d.
With hectic lips, and eyes up-looking mild, 250
Thus wording timidly among the fierce :
" O Father, I am here the simplest voice.
And all my knowledge is that joy is gone.
And this thing woe crept in among our hearts.
There to remain for ever, as I fear :
I would not bode of evil, if I thought
So weak a creature could turn off the help
Which by just right should come of mighty Gods ;
Yet let me tell my sorrow, let me tell
Of what I heard, and how it made me weep, z6o
And know that we had parted from all hope.
I stood upon a shore, a pleasant shore.
Where a sweet clime was breathed from a land
Of fragrance, quietness, and trees, and flowers.
Full of calm joy it was, as I of grief ;
Too full of joy and soft delicious warmth ;
BOOK ii] HYPERION 221
So that I felt a movement in my heart
To chide, and to reproach that solitude
With songs of misery, music of our woes ;
And sat me down, and took a mouthed shell 270
And murmur'd into it, and made melody —
0 melody no more ! for while I sang,
And with poor skill let pass into the breeze
The dull shell's echo, from a bowery strand
Just opposite, an island of the sea.
There came enchantment with the shifting wind.
That did both drown and keep alive my ears.
1 threw my shell away upon the sand.
And a wave fiU'd it, as my sense was fill'd
With that new blissful golden melody. 280
A living death was in each gush of sounds.
Each &mily of rapturous hurried notes.
That fell, one after one, yet all at once,
Like pearl beads dropping sudden from their string :
And then another, then another strain.
Each like a dove leaving its olive perch.
With music wing'd instead of silent plumes,
To hover round my head, and make me sick
Of joy and grief at once. Grief overcame.
And I was stopping up my frantic ears, zgo
When, past all hindrance of my trembling hands,
A voice came sweeter, sweeter than all tune.
And still it cried, ' Apollo ! young Apollo !
The morning-bright Apollo ! young Apollo ! '
I fled, it follow'd me, and cried ' Apollo ! '
O Father, and O Brethren, had ye felt
Those pains of mine ; O Saturn, hadst thou felt.
Ye would not call this too indulged tongue
Presumptuous, in thus venturing to be heard."
So far her voice flow'd on, like timorous brook 300
That, lingering along a pebbled coast.
Doth fear to meet the sea : but sea it met.
And shudder'd ; for the overwhelming voice
Of huge Enceladus swallow' d it in wrath :
The ponderous syllables, like sullen waves
In the half-glutted hollows of reef-rocks,
Came booming thus, while still upon his arm
He lean'di; not rising, from supreme contempt.
" Or shall we listen to the over-wise,
Or to the over-foolish giant, Gods } 310
Not thunderbolt on thunderbolt, till all
That rebel Jove's whole armoury were spent.
JOHN KEATS [book ii
Not world on world upon these shoulders piled.
Could agonise me more than baby-words
In midst oT this dethronement horrible.
Speak ! roar ! shout ! yell 1 ye sleepy Titans all.
Do ye forget the blows, the buffets vile ?
Are ye not smitten by a youngling arm ?
Dost thou forget, sham Monarch of the Waves,
Thy scalding in the seas ? What, have I rous'd 320
Your spleens with so few simple words as these ?
O joy ! for BOW I see ye are not lost :
O joy 1 for now I see a thousand eyes
Wide glaring for revenge ! " — As this he said.
He lifted up his stajfure vast, and stood.
Still without intermission speaking thus :
" Now ye are flaqies, I'll tell you how to burn,
And purge the ether of our enemies ;
How to feed fierce the crooked stings of fire.
And singe away the swollen clouds of Jove, 330
Stifling that puny essence in its tent.
O let him feel the evil he hath done ;
For though I scorn Oceanus's lore,
Much pain have I for more than loss of realms :
The days of peacg and slumberous calm are fled ; }
Those days, all innocent of scathing war.
When all the fair Existences of heaven
Came open-eyed to guess what we would speak : —
That was before our brows were taught to frown.
Before our lips knew else but solemn sounds ; . 340
That was before we kngw the winged thing.
Victory, might be lost, or might be won.
And be ye mindful that Hyperion,
Our brightest brother, still is undisgraced —
Hyperion, lo ! his radiance is here ! "
All eyes were on Enceladus's face.
And they beheld, while still Hyperion's name
Flew from his lips up to the vaulted rocks,
A pallid gleam across his features stem :
Not savage, for he saw full many a God 350
Wroth as himself. He look'd upon them all,
And in each face he saw a gleam of light.
But splendider in Saturn's, whose hoar locks
Shone like the bubbling foam about a keel
When the prow sweeps into a midnight cove.
In pale and silver silence they remain' d.
Till suddenly a splendour, like the mom,
Pervaded all the beetling gloomy steeps,
BOOK u] HYPERION
All the sad spaces of oblivion.
And every golf, and every chasm old, 360
And every height, and every sullen depth.
Voiceless, or hoarse with loud tormented streams :
And all the everlasting cataracts.
And all the headlong torrents &r and near.
Mantled before in darkness and huge shade.
Now saw the light and made it terrible.
It was Hyperion : — a granite peak
His bright feet touch'd, and there he stay'd to view
The misery his brilliance had betray'd
To the most hateful seeing of itself 370
Golden his hair of short Numidian curl.
Regal his shape majestic, a vast shade
In midst of his own brightness, like the bulk
Of Memnon's image at the set of sun
To one who travels from the dusking East :
Sighs, too, as mournful as that Memnon's harp
He utter' d, while his hands contemplative
He press'd together, and in silence stood.
Despondence seiz'd again the fallen Gods
At sight of the dejected King of Day, 380
And many hid their faces from the Ught :
But fierce Enceladus sent forth his eyes
Among the brotherhood ; and, at their glare.
Uprose lapetus, and Creiis too.
And Phorcus, sea-born, and together strode
To where he towered on his eminence.
There those four shouted forth old Saturn's name ;
Hyperion from the peak loud answered, " Saturn ! "
Saturn sat near the Mother of the Gods,
In whose &ce was no joy, though all the Gods 390
Gave from their hollow throats the name of " Saturn ! "
««4 JOHN KEATS [book hi
HYPERION
BOOK III
THUS in alternate uproar and sad peace.
Amazed were those Titans utterly.
O leave them, Muse ! O leave them to their woes ;
For thou art weak to sing such tumults dire :
A solitary sorrow best befits
Thy lips, and antheming a lonely grief.
Leave them, O Muse ! for thou anon wilt find
Many a faUen old Divinity
Wandering in vain about bewildered shores.
Meantime touch piously the Delphic harp, lo
And not a wind of heaven but will breathe
In aid soft warble from the Dorian flute ;
For lo ! 'tis for the Father of all verse.
Flush every thing that hath a vermeil hue, ,
Let the rose glow intense and warm the air.
And let the clouds of even and of mom
Float in voluptuous fleeces o'er the hills ;
Let the red wine within the goblet boil.
Cold as a bubbling well ; let &int-lipp'd shells.
On sands, or in great deeps, vermilion turn 20
Through all their labyrinths ; and let the maid
Blush keenly, as with some warm kiss surpris'd.
Chief isle of the embowered Cyclades,
Rejoice, O Delos, with thine olives green,
And poplars, and lawn-shading palms, and beech,
In which the Zephyr breathes the loudest song,
And hazels thick, dark-stemm'd beneath the shade :
Apollo 'is once more the golden theme !
Where was he, when the Giant of the Sun
Stood bright, amid the sorrow of his peers ? 30
Together had he left his mother fair
And his twin-sister sleeping in their bower,
And in the morning twilight wandered forth
Beside the osiers of a rivulet,
BOOK III] HYPERION
Full ankle-deep in lilies of the vale.
The nightingale had ceas'd, and a few stars
Were lingering in the heavens, while the thrush
Began calm-throated. Throughout all the isle
There was no covert, no retired cave
Unhaunted by the murmurous noise of waves, 40
Though scarcely heard in many a green recess.
He listen'd, and he wept, and his bright tears
Went trickling down the golden bow he held.
Thus with half-shut suffused eyes he stood,
While from beneath some cumbrous boughs hard by
With solemn step an awful Goddess came.
And there was purport in her looks for him.
Which he with eager guess began to read
Perplex'd, the while melodiously he said :
" How cam'st thou over the unfooted sea ? 50
Or hath that antique mien and robed form
Mov'd in these vales invisible till now }
Sure I have heard those vestments sweeping o'er
The fallen leaves, when I have sat alone
In cool mid-forest. Surely I have traced
The rustle of those ample skirts about
These grassy solitudes, and seen the flowers
Lift up their heads, as still the whisper pass'd.
Goddess ! I have beheld those eyes before,
And their eternal calm^ and all that face, 60
Or I have dreamed." — " Yes," said the supreme shape,
" Thou hast dream'd of me ; and awaking up
Didst find a lyre all golden by thy side.
Whose strings touch' d by thy fingers, all the vast
Unwearied ear of the whole universe
Listen'd in pain and pleasure at the birth
Of such new tuneful wonder. Is't not strange
That thou shouldst weep, so gifted ? Tell me, youth,
What sorrow thou canst feel ; for I am sad
When thou dost shed a tear : explain thy griefs 70
To one who in this lonely isle hath been
The watcher of thy sleep and hours of life.
From the young day when first thy infant hand
Pluck'd witless the weak flowers, till thine arm
Could bend that bow heroic to all times.
Show thy heart's secret to an ancient Power
Who hath forsaken old and sacred thrones
For prophecies of thee, and for the sake
Of loveliness new born." — Apollo then.
With sudden scrutiny and gloomless eyes, 80
Thus answer' d, while his white melodious throat
15
JOHN KEATS [book m
Throbb'd with the syllables. — " Mnemosyne !
Thy name is on my tongue, I know not how ;
Why should I tell thee what thou so well seest ?
Why should I strive to show what from thy lips
Would come no mystery ? For me, dark, dark.
And painful vile oblivion seals my eyes :
I strive to search wherefore I am so sad.
Until a melancholy numbs my limbs ;
And then upon the grass I sit, and moan, go
Like one who once had wings. — O why should I
Feel curs'd and thwarted, when the liegeless air
Yields to my step aspirant ? why should I
Spurn the green turf as hateful to my feet ?
Goddess benign, point forth some unknown thing :
Are there not other regions than this isle ?
What are the stars .'' There is the sun, the sun !
And the most patient brilliance of the moon !
And stars by thousands ! Point me out the way
To any one particular beauteous star, loo
And I will flit into it with my lyre,
And make its silvery splendour pant with bliss.
I have heard the cloudy thunder : Where is power ?
Whose hand, whose essence, what divinity
Makes this alarum in the elements.
While I here idle listen on the shores
In fearless yet in aching ignorance ?
O tell me, lonely Goddess, by thy harp.
That waileth every mom and eventide.
Tell me why thus I rave, about these groves ! no
Mute thou remainest — Mute ! yet I can read
A wondrous lesson in thy silent face :
Knowledge enormous makes a God of me.
Names, deeds, gray legends, dire events, rebellions.
Majesties, sovran voices, agonies,
Creations and destroyings, all at once
Four into the wide hollows of my brain.
And deify me, as if some blithe wine
Or bright elixir peerless I had drunk.
And so become immortal." — Thus the God, lao
While his enkindled eyes, with level glance
Beneath his white soft temples, stedfast kept
Trembling with light upon Mnemosjfne.
Soon wild commotions shook him, and made flush
All the immortal fairness of his limbs ;
Most like the struggle at the gate of death ;
Or liker still to one who should take leave
Of pale immortal death, and with a pang
BOOK III] HYPERION
227
As hot as death's is chill, with fierce convulse
Die into life : so young Apollo anguish'd : ,,„
His very hair, his golden tresses famed
Kept undulation round his eager neck.
During the pain Mnemosyne upheld
Her arms as one who prophesied. — At length
Apollo shriek'd ;— and lo ! from all his limbs
Celestial ******
POSTHUMOUS
AND
FUGITIVE POEMS
THE FALL OF HYPERION
^A Vision
[CANTO I]
FANATICS have their dreams, wherewith they weave
A paradise for a sect ; the savage^ too.
From forth the loftiest fashion of his sleep
Guesses at heaven ; pity these have not
Traced upon vellum or wild Indian leaf
The shadows of melodious utterance.
But bare of laurel they live, dream, and die ;
For Poesy alone can tell her dreams, —
With the fine spell of words alone can save
Imagination from the sable chain lo
And dumb enchantment. Who alive can say,
" Thou art no Poet — mayst not tell thy dreams ? "
Since every man whose soul is not a clod
Hath visions and would speak, if he had loved.
And been well nurtured in his mother tongue.
Whether the dream now purposed to rehearse
Be poet's or fanatic's will be known
When this warm scribe, my hand, is in the grave.
Methonght I stood where trees of every clime,
Palm, myrtle, oak, and sycamore, and beech, 20
With plantane and spice-blossoms, made a screen.
In neighbourhood of fountains (by the noise
Soft-showering in mine ears), and (by the touch
Of scent) not far from roses. Twining round
I saw an arbour with a drooping roof
Of trellis vines, and bells, and larger blooms,
Like floral censers, swinging light in air ;
Before its wreathed doorway, on a mound
Of moss, was spread a feast of summer fruits.
Which, nearer seen, seem'd refuse of a meal 30
By angel tasted or our Mother Eve ;
230 JOHN KEATS
For empty shells were scatter'd on the grass.
And grape-stalks but half bare, and remnants more
Sweet-smelling, whose pure kinds I could not know.
Still was more plenty than the fabled horn
Thrice emptied could pour forth at banqueting,
For Proserpine retum'd to her own fields.
Where the white heifers low. Aijid appetite,
More yearning than on earth I ever felt,
Growing within, I ate deliciously,^ 40
And, after not long, thirsted ; for thereby
Stood a cool vessel of transparent juice
Sipp'd by the wander'd bee, the which I took.
And pledging all the mortals of the world.
And all the dead whose names are in our lips,
Drank. That full draught is parent of my theme.
No Asian poppy nor elixir fine
Of the soon-fading, jealous Caliphat,
No poison gender'd in close monkish cell,
To thin the scarlet conclave of old men, 50
Could so have rapt unwilling life away.
Among the fragf^ant husks and berries crush'd
Upon the grass, I struggled hard against
The domineering potion, but in vain.
The cloudy swoon came on, and down I sank,
Like a Silenus on an antique vase.
How long I slumber'd 'tis a chance to guess.
When sense of life retum'd, I started up
As if with wings, but the fair trees were gone,
The mossy mound and arbour were no more : 60
I look'd around upon the curved sides
Of an old sanctuary, with roof august,
Builded so high, it seem'd that filmed clouds
Might spread beneath as o'er the stars of heaven.
So old the place was, I remember' d none
The like upon the earth : what I had seen
Of gray cathedrals, buttress' d walls, rent towers.
The superannuations of sunk realms,
Or Nature's rocks toil'd hard in waves and winds,
Seem'd but the faulture of decrepit things 70
To that eternal domed monument.
Upon the marble at my feet there lay
Store of strange vessels and large draperies.
Which needs had been of dyed asbestos wove,
Or in that place the moth could not corrupt,
So white the linen, so, in some, distinct
Ran imageries from a sombre loom.
All in a mingled heap confused there lay
THE FALL OF HYPERION 231
Robes, golden tongs, censer and chafing-dish,
Girdles, and chains, and holy jewelries. > 80
Turning from these with awe, once more I raised
My eyes to fathom the space every way :
The embossed roof, the silent massy range
Of columns north and south, ending in mist
Of nothing ; then to eastward, where black gates
Were shut against the sunrise evermore ;
Then to the west I Ipok'd, and saw far off
An image, huge of feature as a cloud.
At level of whose feet an altar slept,
To be approach'd on either side by steps go
And marble balustrade, and patient travail
To count with toil the innumerable degrees.
Towards the altar sober-paced I went.
Repressing haste as too unholy there ;
And, coming nearer, saw beside the shrine
One ministering ; and there arose a flame.
As in mid-day the sickening east-wind
Shifts sudden to the south, the small warm rain
Melts out the frozen incense from all flowers.
And fiUs the air with so much pleasant health 100
That even the dying man forgets his shroud ; —
Even so that lofty sacrificial fire.
Sending forth Maian incense, spread around
Forgetfulness of everything but bliss.
And clouded all the altar with soft smoke ;
From whose white fragrant curtains thus I heard
Language pronounced : " If thou canst not ascend
These steps, die on that marble where thou art.
Thy flesh, near cousin to the common dust.
Will parch for lack of nutriment ; thy bones no
Will wither in few years, and vanish so
That not the quickest eye could find a grain
Of what thou now art on that pavement cold.
The sands of thy short life are spent this hour,
And no hand in the universe can turn
Thy hourglass, if these gummed leaves be burnt
Ere thou canst mount up these immortal steps."
I heard, I look'd : two senses both at once,
So fine, so subtle, felt the tyranny
Of that fierce threat and the hard task proposed. 120
Prodigious seem'd the toil ; the leaves were yet
Burning, when suddenly a palsied chill
Struck from the paved level up my limbs.
And was ascending quick to put cold grasp
232 JOHN KEATS
Upon those streams that pulse beside the throat.
I shriek'd, and the sharp anguish of my shriek
Stung my own ears ; I strove hard to escape
The numbness, strove to gain the lowest step.
Slow, heavy, deadly was my pace : the cold
Grew stifling, suffocating at the heart ; 130
And when 1 clasp'd my hands I felt them not.
One minute before death my iced foot touch' d
The lowest stair;, and, as it touch'd, life seem'd
To pour in at the toes ; I mounted up
As once fair angels on a ladder flew
From the green turf to heaven. " Holy Power,"
Cried I, approaching near the homed shrine,
" What am I that should so be saved from death ?
What am I that another death come not
To choke my utterance, sacrilegious, here ? " 140
Then said the veiled shadow : " Thou hast felt
What 'tis to die and live again before
Thy fated hour ; that thou hadst power to do so
Is thine own safety ; thou hast dated on
Thy doom." " High Prophetess," said I, " purge off,
Benign, if so it please thee, my mind's film."
" None can usurp this height," returned that shade,
" But those to whom the miseries of the world
Are misery, and will not let them rest.
All else who find a haven in the world, 150
Where they may thoughtless sleep away their days.
If by a chance into this fene they come.
Rot on the pavement where thou rottedst half."
" Are there not thousands in the world," said I,
Encouraged by the sooth voice of the shade,
" Who love their fellows even to the death.
Who feel the giant agony of the world.
And more, like slaves to poor humanity.
Labour for mortal good } I sure should see
Other men here, but I am here alone." 160
"Those whom thou spakest of are no visionaries,"
Rejoin'd that voice ; " they are no dreamers weak ;
They seek no wonder but the human face.
No music but a happy-noted voice :
They come not here, they have no thought to come ;
And thou art here, for thou art less than they.
What benefit canst thou do, or all thy tribe.
To the great world ? Thou art a dreaming thing,
A fever of thyself : think of the earth ;
What bUss, even in hope, is there for thee ? 170
What haven ? every creature hath its home,
THE FALL OF HYPERION
Evety sole man hath days of joy and pain,
Whether his labours be sublime or low —
The pain alone, the joy alone, distinct :
Only the dreamer venoms all his days.
Bearing more woe than all his sins deserve.
' Therefore, that happiness be somewhat shared.
Such things as thou art are admitted oft
Into like gardens thou didst pass erewhile.
And suffer'd in these temples : for that cause i8o
Thou standest safe beneath this statue's knees."
" That I am favour'd for unworthiness.
By such propitious parley medicined
In sickness not ignoble, I rejoice,
Aye, and could weep for love of such award."
So answer'd I, continuing, " If it please.
Majestic shadow, tell me where I am,
Whose altar this, for whom this incense curls ;
What image this whose face I cannot see
For the broad marble knees ; and who thou art, igo
Of accent feminine so courteous ? "
Then the tall shade, in drooping linen veil'd,
Spoke out, so much more earnest, that her breath
Stirr'd the thin folds of gauze that drooping hung
About a golden censer from her hand
Pendent ; and by her voice I knew she shed
Long-treasured tears. "This temple, sad and lone.
Is all spared from the thunder of a war
Foughten long since by^iant hierarchy
Against rebellion : this old image here, zoo
Whose carved features wrinkled as he fell,
Is Saturn's ; I, Moneta, left supreme.
Sole goddess of this desolation."
I had no words to answer, for my tongue.
Useless, could find about its roofed home
No syllable of a fit majesty
To make rejoinder to Moneta's mourn :
There was a silence, while the altar's blaze
Was fainting for sweet food. I look'd thereon.
And on the paved floor, where nigh were piled 210
Faggots of cinnamon, and many heaps
Of other crisped spicewood : then again
I look'd upon the altar, and its horns
Whiten'd with ashes, and its languorous flame.
And then upon the oflferings again ;
And so, by turns, till sad Moneta cried :
"The sacrifice is done, but not the less
234 JOHN KEATS
Will I be kind to thee for thy good will.
My power, which to me is still a curse,
Shall be to thee a wonder ; for the scenes 220
Still swooning vivid through my globed brain,
With an electral changing misery,
Thou shalt with these dull mortal eyes behold
Free from all pain, if wonder pain thee not."
As near as an immortal's sphered words
Could to a mother's soften were these last :
And yet I had a terror of her robes,
And chiefly of the veils that from her brow
Hung pale, and curtain'd her in mysteries.
That made my heart too small to hold its blood. 230
This saw that Goddess, and with sacred hand
Parted the veils. Then saw I a wan face.
Not pined by human sorrows, but bright-blauch'd
By an immortal sickness which kills not ;
It works a constant change, which happy death
Can put no end to ; deathwards progressing
To no death was that visage ; it had past
The lily and the snow ; and beyond these
I must not think now, though I saw that face.
But for her eyes I should have fled away ; 240
They held me back with a benignant light,
Soft, mitigated by divinest lids
Half-closed, and visionless entire they seem'd
Of all external things ; they saw me not.
But in blank splendour beam'd, like the mild moon,
Who comforts those she sees not, who knows not
What eyes are upward cast. As I had found
A grain of gold upon a mountain's side,
And, twinged with avarice, strain'd out my eyes
To search its sullen entrails rich with ore, 250
So, at the view of sad Moneta's brow,
I asked to see what things the hollow brow
Behind environed : what high tragedy
In the dark secret chambers of her skull
Was acting, that could give so dread a stress
To her cold lips, and fill with such a light
Her planetary eyes, and touch her voice
With such a sorrow .'' " Shade of Memory ! "
Cried I, with act adorant at her feet,
" By all the gloom hung round thy fallen house, 260
By this last temple, by the golden age,
By great Apollo, thy dear foster-child,
And by thyself, forlorn divinity,
The pale Omega of a wither'd race,
THE FALL OF HYPERION 235
Let me behold, according as thou saidst,
What in thy brain so ferments to and fro ! "
No sooner had this conjuration past
My devout lips, than side by side we stood
(Like a stunt bramble by a solemn pine)
Deep in the shady sadness of a vale 270
Far sunken from the healthy breath of mom.
Far from the fiery noon and eve's one star.
Onward I look'd beneath the gloomy boughs.
And saw what first I thought an image huge.
Like to the image pedestall'd so high
In Saturn's temple ; then Moneta's voice
Came brief upon mine ear. " So Saturn sat
When he had lost his realms ;" whereon there grew
A power within me of enormous ken
To see as a god sees, and take the depth z8o
Of things as nimbly as the outward eye
Can size and shape pervade. The lofty theme
Of those few words hung vast before my mind
With half-unravell'd web. I set myself
Upon an eagle's watch, that I might see.
And seeing ne'er forget. No stir of life
Was in this shrouded vale,^not so much air
As in the zoning of a suipmer's day
Robs not one light seed from the feather'd grass ;
But where the dead leaf fell there did it rest. ago
A stream went noiseless by, still deaden' d more
By reason of the fallen divinity
Spreading more shade ; the Naiad 'mid her reeds
Prest her cold finger closer to her lips.
Along the margin-sand large foot-marks went
No further than to where old Saturn's feet
Had rested, and there slept how long a sleep !
Degraded, cold, upon the sodden ground
His old right hand lay nerveless, listless, dead,
Unsceptred, and his realmless eyes were closed ; 300
While his bow'd head seem'd listening to the Earth,
His ancient mother, for some comfort yet.
It seem'd no force could wake him from his place ;
But there came one who, with a kindred hand,
Touch'd his wide shoulders, after bending low
With reverence, though to one who knew it not.
Then came the grieved voice of Mnemosyne,
And grieved I hearken' d. "That divinity
Whom thou saw'st step from yon forlornest wood.
236 JOHN KEATS
And with slow pace approach our fallen king, 3,0
Is Thea, softest-natured of our brood."
I mark'd the Goddess, in fair statuary
Surpassing wan Moneta by the head.
And in her sorrow nearer woman's tears.
There was a list'ning fear in her regard.
As if calamity had but begun ;
As if the venom'd clouds of evil days
Had spent their malice, and the sidlen rear
Was with its stored thunder labouring up.
One hand she press'd upon that aching spot 320
Where beats the human heart, as if just there.
Though an immortal, she felt cruel pain ;
The other upon Saturn's bended neck
She laid, and to the level of his ear
Leaning, with parted lips some words she spoke
In solemn tenour and deep organ-tone ;
Some mourning words, which in our feeble tongue
Would come in this like accenting ; how frail
To that large utterance of the early gods !
" Saturn, look up ! and for what, poor lost king ? 330
I have no comfort for thee ; no, not one ;
I cannot say, wherefore thus sleepest thou ?
For Heaven is parted from thee, and the Earth
Knows thee not, so afflicted, for a god.
The Ocean, too, with all its solemn noise.
Has from thy sceptre pass'd ; and all the air
Is emptied of thy hoary majesty.
Thy thunder, captious at the new command.
Rumbles reluctant o'er our fallen house ;
And thy sharp lightning, in unpractised hands, 340
Scourges and bums our once serene domain. .
" With such remorseless speed still come new woes,
That unbelief has not a space to breathe.
Saturn ! sleep on : me thoughtless, why should I
Thus violate thy slumbrous solitude .''
Why should I ope thy melancholy eyes ?
Saturn ! sleep on, while at thy feet I weep."
As when upon a tranced summer-night
Forests, branch-charmed by the earnest stars.
Dream, and so dream all night without a noise, 350
Save from one gradual solitary gust
Swelling upon the silence, dying off.
As if the ebbing air had but one wave,
THE FALL OF HYPERION
So came these words and went ; the while in tears
She prest her fair large forehead to the earth.
Just where her fallen hair might spread in curls,
A soft and silken net for Saturn's feet.
Long, long these two were postured motionless,
Like sculpture builded-up upon the grave
Of their own power. A long awfiil time 360
I look'd upon them : still they were the same ;
The frozen God still bending to the earth.
And the sad Goddess weeping at his feet ;
Moneta silent. Without stay or prop
But my own weak mortality, I bore
The load of this eternal quietude.
The unchanging gloom and the three fixed shapes
Ponderous upon my senses, a whole moon ;
For by my burning brain I measured sure
Her silver seasons shedded on the night, 370
And every day by day methought I grew
More gaunt and ghostly. Oftentimes I pray'd
Intense, that death woidd take me from the vale
And all its burthens ; gasping with despair
Of change, hour after hour I cursed myself.
Until old Saturn raised his faded eyes,
And look'd around and saw his kingdom gone,
And all the gloom and sorrow of the place.
And that fair kneeling Goddess at his feet.
As the moist scent of flowers, and grass, and leaves, 380
Fills forest-dells with a pervading air.
Known to the woodland nostril, so the words
Of Saturn fill'd the mossy glooms around.
Even to the hollows of time-eaten oaks.
And to the windings of the foxes' hole.
With sad, low tones, while thus he spoke, and sent
Strange moanings to the solitary Pan.
" Moan, brethren, moan, for we are swallow'd up
And buried from all godlike exercise
Of influence benign on planets pale, 390
And peaceful sway upon man's harvesting.
And all those acts which Deity supreme
Doth ease its heart of love in. Moan and wail ;
Moan, brethren, moan ; for lo, the rebel spheres
Spin round ; the stars their ancient courses keep ;
Clouds still with shadowy moisture haunt the earth.
Still suck their fill of light from sun and moon ;
Still buds the tree, and still the seashores murmur ;
There is no death in all the universe.
JOHN KEATS
No smell of death. — ^There shall be death. Moan, moan ;
Moan, Cybele, moan ; for thy pernicious babes ^oi
Have changed a god into an aching palsy.
Moan, brethren, moan, for I have no strength left ;
Weak as the reed, weak, feeble as my voice.
Oh ! Oh ! the pain, the pain of feebleness ;
Moan, moan, for still I thaw ; or give me help ;
Throw down those imps, and give me victory.
Let me hear other groans, and trumpets blown
Of triumph calm, and hymns of festival.
From the gold peaks of heaven's high-piled clouds ; ^lo
Voices of soft proclaim, and silver stir
Of strings in hollow shells ; and there shall be
Beautiful things made new, for the surprise
Of the sky-children." So he feebly ceased.
With such a poor and sickly-sounding pause,
Methought I heard some old man of the earth
Bewailing earthly loss ; nor could my eyes
And ears act with that unison of sense
Which marries sweet sound with the grace of form.
And dolorous accent from a tragic harp 430
With large-limb'd visions. More I scrutinized.
Still fixt he sat beneath the sable trees.
Whose arms spread straggling in wild serpent forms.
With leaves all hush'd ; his awfiil presence there
(Now all was silent) gave a deadly lie
To what I erewhile heard : only his lips
Trembled amid the white curls of his beard ; < i>
They told the truth, though round the snowy locks
Hung nobly, as upon the face of heaven
A mid-day fleece of clouds. Thea arose, 430
And stretcht her white arm through the hollow dark.
Pointing some whither : whereat he too rose.
Like a vast giant, seen by men at sea
To grow pale from the waves at dull midnight.
They melted from my sight into the woods ;
Ere I could turn, Moneta cried, " These twain
Are speeding to the families of grief.
Where, rooft in by black rocks, they waste in pain
And darkness, for no hope." And she spake on.
As ye may read who can unwearied pass 440
Onward from the antechamber of this dream.
Where, even at the open doors, awhile
I must delay, and glean my memory
Of her high phrase-^perhaps no further dare.
THE FALL OF HYPERION
[CANTO II]
" TV yr ORTAL, that thou mayst understand aright,
J_YJ_ I humanize my sayings to thine ear.
Making comparisons of earthly things ;
Or thou mightst better listen to the wind,
Whose language is to thee a barren noise.
Though it blows legend-laden thro' the trees.
In melancholy realms big tears are shed.
More sorrow like to this, and such like woe.
Too huge for mortal tongue or pen of scribe.
The Titans fierce, self-hid or prison-bound, to
Groan for the old allegiance once more.
Listening in their doom for Saturn's voice.
But one of the whole eagle-brood still keeps
His sovereignty, and rule, and majesty :
Blazing Hyperion on his orbed fire
Still sits, still snuffs the incense teeming up.
From Man to the Sun's God — yet insecure.
For as upon the earth dire prodigies
Fright and perplex, so also shudders he ;
Not a dog's howl or gloom-bird's hated screech, zo
Or the familiar visiting of one
Upon the first toll of his passing bell.
Or prophesyings of the midnight lamp ;
But horrors, portioned to a giant nerve.
Make great H3rperion ache. His palace bright,
Bastioned with pyramids of shining gold.
And touched with shade of bronzed obelisks.
Glares a blood-red thro' all the thousand courts.
Arches, and domes, and fiery galleries ;
And all its curtains of Aurorian clouds 30
Flash angerly ; when he would taste the wreaths
Of incense, breathed aloft from sacred hills,
Instead of sweets, his ample palate takes
Savour of poisonous brass and metals sick ;
Wherefore when harbour'd in the sleepy West,
240 JOHN KEATS
After the full completion of fair day.
For rest divine upon exalted couch.
And slumber in the arms of melody.
He paces through the pleasant hours of ease,
With strides colossal, on from hall to hall, 40
While far within each aisle and deep recess
His winged minions in close clusters stand
Amazed, and full of fear ; like anxious men.
Who on a wide plain gather in sad troops,
When earthquakes jar their battlements and towers.
Even now where Saturn, roused from icy trance.
Goes step for step with Thea from yon woods,
Hyperion, leaving twilight in the rear.
Is sloping to the threshold of the West.
Thither we tend." Now in clear night I stood, 50
Reliev'd from the dusk vale. Mnemosyne
Was sitting on a square-edg'd polish'd stone,
That in its lucid depth reflected pure
Her priestess' garments. My quick eyes ran on
From stately nave to nave, from vault to vault,
Through bow'rs of fragrant and enwreathed light.
And diamond-paved lustrous long arcades.
Anon rush'd by the bright Hyperion ;
His flaming robes stream'd out beyond his heels.
And gave a roar as if of earthly fire, 60
That scared away the meek ethereal hours.
And made their dove-wings tremble. On he flared.
THE EVE OF SAINT MARK
UPON a Sabbath-day it fell ;
Twice holy was the Sabbath-bell,
I'h^t-fiailj^jM^olk to evening prayer ;
TMeei^^^HflKwere clean and fair
From wfaoHli^ drench of April rains ;
AAd, on tl^^^em window panes,
Tlie chiHyWHP faintly told
Of umnator^^llilen vallies cold,
Feen thorny bloomless hedge,
Of rivers new with spring-tide sedge, lo
Of primroses by shelter'd riUs,
And daisies on the aguish hills.
Twice holy was the Sabbath-bell :
The silent streets were crowded well
With staid and pious companies.
Warm from their fire-side orat'ries ;
And moving, with demurest air.
To even-song, and vesper prayer.
Each arched porch, and entry low.
Was fill'd with patient folk and slow, 20
With whispers hush, and shu£Bing feet.
While play'd the organ loud and sweet.
The bells had ceas'd, the prayers begun,
And Bertha had not yet half done
A curious volume, patch'd and torn.
That all day long, from earliest mom.
Had taken captive her two eyesj
Among its golden broideries ; rn
Perplex'd her with a thousand things, —
The stars of Heaven, and angels' wings, 30
Martyrs in a fiery blaze.
Azure saints in silver rays,
Moses' breastplate, and the seven
Candlesticks John saw in Heaven,
The winged Lion of Saint Mark,
16
242 JOHN KEATS
And the Covenantal Ark,
With its many mysteries.
Cherubim and golden mice.
Bertha was a maiden fair,
Dwelling in th' old Minster-square ; 40
From her fire-side she could see.
Sidelong, its rich antiquity.
Far as the Bishop's garden-wall ;
Where sycamores and elm-trees tail,
FuU-leav'd, the forest had outstript,
By no sharp north-wind ever nipt.
So shelter'd by the mighty pile.
Bertha arose, and read awhUei,
With forehead 'gainst the win '
Again she tried> and then agf^
Until the dusk eve left her T
Upon the l^end of St. Mark
From plaited lawn-fiill, fine j
She lifted up her soft warm I ^
With aching neck and swimming •
And daz'd with ssUntly imageries.
All was gloom, and silent all.
Save now and then the still foot-fall
Of one returning homewards late,
Past the echoiog mimster-gate. 60
The clamorous daws, that all the day
Above tree-tops and towers play.
Pair by pair had gone to rest.
Each in its ancient belfiy-nest.
Where asleep they fall betimes.
To music of the drowsy chimes.
AU was silent, aU was gloom.
Abroad and in the homely room :
Down she sat, poor cheated soul ! 70
And struck a lamp from the dismal coal ;
Lean'd forward, with bright drooping hair
And slant book, full against the glare.
Her shadow, in uneasy guise,
Hover'd about, a giant size.
On ceiliog-beam and old oak chair.
The parrot's cage, and pcuiel square ;
And the warm angled winter screen.
On which were many monsters seen,
Call'd doves of Siam, Lima mice.
And legless birds of Paradise, So
THE EVE OF ST. MARK 243
Macaw, and tender Avadavat,
And silken-furr'd Angora cat
Untir'd she read, her shadow still
Glower' d about, as it would fill
The room with wildest forms and shades,
As though some ghostly queen of spades
Had come to mock behind her back.
And dance, and ruiHe her garments black.
Untir'd she read the legend page.
Of holy Mark, from youth to age, go
On land, on sea, in pagan chains.
Rejoicing for his many pains.
Sometimes the learned eremite,
With golden star, or dagger bright,
Referr'd to pious poesies
Written in smallest crow-quill size
Beneath the text ; and thus the rhyme
Was parcell'd out from time to- time :
" Als writith he of swevenis.
Men han befome they wake in bliss, loo
Whanne that hir friendes thinke hem bound
In crimped shroude farre imder grounde ;
And how a litling child mote be
A saint er its nativitie,
Gif that the modre (God her blesse !)
Kepen in solitarinesse.
And kissen devoute the holy croce.
Of Goddes love, and Sathan's force, —
He writith ; and thinges many mo :
Of swiche thinges I may not show. no
Bot I must tellen verilie
Somdel of Saints Cicilie,
And chieflie what he auctorethe
Of Saints Markis life and dethe : "
At length her constant eyelids come
Upon the fervent martyrdom ;
Then lastly to his holy shrine.
Exalt amid the tapers' shine
At Venice, —
244 JOHN KEATS
LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI
(First Version)
OWHAT can ail thee Knight at arms
Alone and palely loitering ?
The sedge has withered from the Lake
And no birds sing !
2
O what can ail thee Knight at arms
So haggard, and so woe begone ?
The Squirrel's granary is fiill
And the harvest's done.
I see a lilly on thy brow
With anguish moist and fever dew.
And on thy cheeks a &ding rose
Fast withereth too —
I met a Lady in the Meads
Full beautiful, a &ery's child
Her hair was long, her foot was light
And her eyes were wild —
I made a Garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant Zone
She look'd at me as she did love
And made sweet moan —
LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI
(Revised Fersion)
AH, what can ail thee, wretched wight.
Alone and palely loitering ;
The sedge is wither'd from the lake.
And no birds sing.
2
Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight.
So haggard and so woe-begone ?
The squirreFs granary is full.
And the harvest's done.
I see a lily on thy brow.
With anguish moist and fever dew ;
And on thy cheek a fading rose
Fast withereth too.
I met a Lady in the meads
Full beautiful, a fairy's child ;
Her hair was long, her foot was light.
And her eyes were wUd.
I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long ;
For sideways would she lean, and sing
A fairy's song.
246 JOHN KEATS
I set her on my pacing steed
And nothing else saw all day long
For sidelong would she bend and sing
A feer/s song —
She found me roots of relish sweet
And honey wild and manna dew
And sure in language strange she said
I love thee true —
8
She took me to her elfin grot
And there she w^»t and si^'d fuU sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.
9
And there she lulled me asleep
And there I dream'd Ah Woe betide !
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side
10
I saw pale Kings, and Princes too
Pale warriors death pale were they all
They cried La belle dame sans merci
Thee hath in thrall.
11
I saw their starv'd lips in the gloam
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke, and found me here
On the cold hill's side
12
And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering ;
Though the sedge is withered from the Lake
And no birds sing — . . .
LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI «47
6
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone ;
She look'd at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.
She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew ;
And sure in language strange she said,
I love thee true.
8
She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she gaz'd and sighed deep.
And there I shut her wild sad eyes —
So kiss'd to sleep.
9
And there we slumber'd on the moss,
And there I dream' d, ah woe betide.
The latest dream I ever dream'd
On the cold hiU side.
10
I saw pale kings, and princes too.
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all ;
Who cried — " La belle Dame sans mercy
Hath thee in thrall ! "
11
I saw their starv'd lips in the gloom
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke, and found me here
On the cold hill side.
12
And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering.
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.
248 JOHN KEATS
ODES
FRAGMENT OF AN ODE TO MAIA, MAY, 1818
MOTHER of Hermes 1 and still youthful Maia !
May I sing to thee
As thou wast hynmed on the shores of Raise ?
Or may I woo thee
In earlier Sicilian ? or thy smiles
Seek as they once were sought, in Grecian isles,
Ry bards who died content on pleasant sward.
Leaving great verse unto a little clan ?
O, give me their old vigour, and unheard
Save of the quiet primrose, and the span
Of heaven and few ears.
Rounded by thee, my song should die away
Content as theirs.
Rich in the simple worship of a day.
ON INDOLENCE
' They toil not, neither do they spin."
ONE morn before me were three figures seen.
With bowed necks, and joined hands, side-faced ;
And one behind the other stepp'd serene.
In placid sandals, and in white robes graced ;
They pass'd, like figures on a marble urn.
When shifted round to see the other side ;
They came again ; as when the urn once more
Is shifted round, the first seen shades return ;
And they were strange to me, as may betide
With vases, to one deep in Phidian lore.
2
How is it. Shadows ! that I knew ye not ?
How came ye muffled in so hush a mask ?
Was it a silent deep-disguised plot
To steal away, and leave without a task
My idle days ? Ripe was the drowsy hour ;
The blissful cloud of summer-indolence
Benumb'd my eyes ; my pulse grew less and less ;
Pain had no sting, and pleasure's wreath no flower :
O, why did ye not melt, and leave my sense
Unhaunted quite of all but — nothingness ?
3
A third time pass'djthey by, and, passing, tum'd
Each one the &ce a moment whiles to me ;
Then faded, and to follow them I bum'd
And ached for wings, because I knew the three ;
The first was a &ir Maid, and Love her name ;
The second was Ambition, pale of cheek.
And ever watchful with fatigued eye ;
The last, whom I love more, the more of blame
Is heap'd upon her, maiden most unmeek, —
I knew to be my demon Poesy.
260 JOHN KEATS
4
They &dedj and, forsooth ! I wanted wings :
O folly ! What is Love ? and where is it ?
And for that poor Ambition ! it springs
From a man's little heart's short fever-fit ;
For Poesy ! — no, — she has not a joy, —
At least for me, — so sweet as drowsy noons,
And evenings steep'd in honied indolence ;
O, for an age so shelter'd from annoy.
That I may never know how change the moons.
Or hear the voice of busy common-sense !
And once more came they by ; — alas ! wherefore ?
My sleep had been embroider'd with dim dreams ;
My soul had been a lawn besprinkled o'er
With flowers, and stirring shades, and baffled beams :
The morn was clouded, but no shower fell,
Tho' in her lids hung the sweet tears of May ;
The open casement press'd a new-leaved vine.
Let in the budding warmth and throstle's lay ;
O Shadows ! 'twas a time to bid farewell !
Upon your skirts had fallen no tears of mine.
So, ye three Ghosts, adieu ! Ye cannot raise
My head cool-bedded in the flowery grass ;
For I would not be dieted with praise,
A pet-lamb in a sentimental farce !
Fade softly from my eyes, and be once more
In masque-like figures on the dreamy urn ;
Farewell ! I yet have visions for the night.
And for the day faint visions there is store ;
Vanish, ye Phantoms ! from my idle spright.
Into the clouds, and never more return !
TO FANNY
PHYSICIAN Nature ! let my spirit blood !
O ease my heart of verse and let me rest ;
Throw me upon thy Tripod, tiU the flood
Of stifling numbers ebbs from my full breast.
A theme ! a theme I great nature ! give a theme ;
Let me begin my dream.
I come — I see thee, as thou standest there.
Beckon me not into the wintry air.
2
Ah ! dearest love, sweet home of all my fears.
And hopes, and joys, and panting miseries, —
To-night, if I may guess, thy beauty wears
A smile of such delight.
As brilliant and as bright,
As when with ravish'd, aching, vassal eyes.
Lost in soft amaze,
I gaze, I gaze I
3
Who now, with greedy looks, eats up my feast ?
What stare outfaces now my silver moon ?
Ah ! keep that hand unravish'd at the least ;
Let, let, the amorous bum —
But, pr'}rthee, do not turn
The current of your heart from me so soon.
O ! save, in charity.
The quickest pulse for me.
4
Save it for me, sweet love ! though music breathe
Voluptuous visions into the warm air.
Though swimming through the dance's dangerous wreath ;
Be like an April day.
Smiling and cold and gay,
A temperate Uly, temperate as fair ;
Then, Heaven ! there will be
A warmer June for me.
252 JOHN KEATS
5
Why, this — you'll say, my Fanny I is not true :
Put your soft hand upon your snowy side.
Where the heart beats : confess — 'tis nothing new-
Must not a woman be
A feather on the sea,
Sway'd to and fto by every wind and tide ?
Of as uncertain speed
As blow-ball from the mead ?
I know it — and to know it is despair
To one who loves you as I love, sweet Fanny !
Whose heart goes flutt'ring for you every where.
Nor, when away you roam.
Dare keep its wretched home.
Love, love alone, his pains severe and many:
Then, loveliest ! keep me free,
From torturing jealousy.
Ah ! if you prize my subdued soul above
The poor, the fading, brief pride of an hour ;
Let none pro&ne my Holy See of love.
Or with a rude hand break
The sacramental cake :
Let none else touch the just new-budded flower
If not — may my eyes close.
Love 1 on their last repose.
TOi
WHAT can I do to drive away
Remembrance from my eyes ? for they have seen.
Aye, an hour ago, my brilliant Queen !
Touch has a memory. O say, love, say.
What can I do to kUl it and be free
In my old liberty ?
When every fair one that I saw was fair
Enough to catch me in but half a snare.
Not keep me there :
When, howe'er poor or particolour'd things, lo
My muse had wings.
And ever ready was to take her course
Whither 1 bent her force,
Unintellectual, yet divine to me ; —
Divine, I say ! — What sea-bird o'er the sea
Is a philosopher the while he goes
Winging along where the great water throes ?
How shall I do
To get anew
Those moulted feathers, and so mount once more 20
Above, above
The reach of fluttering Love,
And make him cower lowly while I soar ?
Shall I gulp wine ? No, that is vulgarism,
A heresy and schism.
Foisted into the canon-law of love ; —
No, — wine is only sweet to happy men ;
More dismal cares
Seize on me unawares, —
Where shall I learn to get my peace again ? 30
To banish thoughts of that most hateful land,
Dungeoner of my friends, that wicked strand
Where they were wreck'd and live a wrecked life ;
That monstrous region, whose duU rivers pour.
Ever from their sordid urns unto the shore,
Unown'd of any weedy-haired gods ;
254 JOHN KEATS
Whose winds, all zephjrrless, hold scourging rods.
Iced in the great lakes, to afflict mankind ;
Whose rank-grown forests, frosted, black, and blind,
Would fright a Diyad ; whose harsh herbaged meads ^o
Make lean and lank the starv'd ox while he feeds ;
There bad flowers have no scent, birds no sweet song.
And great unerring Nature once seems wrong.
O, for some sunny spell
To dissipate the shadows of this hell !
Say they are gone, — with the new dawning light
Steps forth my lady bright !
O, let me once more rest
My soul upon that daz^ing breast !
Let once again these aching arms be placed, y,
The tender gaolers of thy waist !
And let me feel that warm breath here and there
To spread a rapture in my very hair, —
O, the sweetness of the pain !
Give me those lips again !
Enough ! Enough ! it is enough for me
To dream of thee !
Lines supposed to have been addressed to Fanny Bratone
THIS living hand, now warm and capable
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
And in the icy silence of the tomb.
So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights
That thou would[st] wish thine own heart dry of blood
So in my veins red life might stream again.
And thou be conscience-calm' d — see here it is —
I hold it towards you.
SONGS AND LYRICS
ON . . .
' I ""HINK not of it, sweet one, so ;-
I Give it not a tear ;
Sigh thou mayst, and bid it go
Any — any where.
Do not look so sad, sweet one, —
Sad and fadingly ; /
Shed one drop then, — it is gone —
O 'twas born to die !
Still so pale ? then, dearest, weep ;
Weep, I'll count the tears,
And each one shall be a bliss
For thee in after years.
Brighter has it left thine eyes
Than a sunny rill ;
And thy whispering melodies
Are tenderer still.
Yet — as all things mourn awhile
At fleeting blisses ;
Let us too ; but be our dirge
A dirge of kisses.
LINES
UNFELT, unheard, unseen,
I've left my little queen,
Her languid arms in silver slumber lying :
Ah ! through their nestling touch.
Who — who could tell how much
There is for madness — cruel, or complying ?
256 JOHN KEATS
Those faery lids how sleek !
Those lips how moist ! — ^they speak,
In ripest quiet, shadows of sweet sounds :
Into my fiincy's ear
Melting a burden dear,
How " Love doth know no fullness, nor no bounds."
True ! — ^tender monitors !
I bend unto your laws :
This sweetest day for dalliance was bom !
So, without more ado,
I'll feel my heaven anew,
For all the blushing of the hasty mom.
Where's the Poet ?
WHERE'S the Poet ? show him ! show him.
Muses nine ! that I may know him.
'Tis the man who with a man
Is an equal, be he King,
Or poorest of the beggar-clan,
Or any other wondrous thing
A man may be 'twixt ape and Plato ;
'Tis the man who with a bird,
Wren, or Eagle, finds his way to
All its instincts ; he hath heard
The Lion's roaring, and can tell
What his homy throat expresseth.
And to him the Tiger's yell
Comes articulate and presseth
On his ear like mother-tongue.
"Under the flag
Of each his faction, they to battle bring
Their embryo atoms." — Milton.
WELCOME joy, and welcome sorrow,
Lethe's weed and Hermes' feather ;
Come to-day and come to-morrow,
I do love you both together !
I love to mark sad faces in fair weather ;
And hear a merry- laugh amid the thunder ;
Fair and foul I love together :
Meadows sweet where flames are under,
And a giggle at a wonder ;
Visage sage at pantomime ;
ON A LOCK OF MILTON'S HAIR 257
Funeral, and steeple-chime ;
Infant playing with a skull ;
Morning fair, and shipwreck'd hull ;
Nightshade with the woodbine kissing ;
Serpents in red roses hissing ;
Cleopatra regal-dress' d
With the aspic at her breast ;
Dancing musiCj music sad,
Both together, sane and mad ;
Muses bright and muses pale ; zo
Sombre Saturn, Momus hale ; —
Laugh and sigh, and laugh again ;
Oh ! the sweetness of the pain !
Muses bright and muses pale.
Bare your faces of the veil ;
Let me see ; and let me write
Of the day and of the night —
Both together : — let me slake
All my thirst for sweet heart-ache ;
Let my bower be of yew, 30
Interwreath'd with myrtles new ;
Pines and lime trees full in bloom,
And my couch a low grass-tomb.
On a Lock of Milton's Hair
CHIEF of organic nimibers !
Old Scholar of the Spheres I
Thy spirit never slumbers,
But rolls about our ears
For ever and for ever !
O what a mad endeavour
Worketh He,
Who to thy sacred and ennobled hearse
Would offer a burnt sacrifice of verse
And melody.
How heavenward thou soundest !
Live Temple of sweet noise.
And Discord unconfoundest,
Giving Delight new joys.
And Pleasure nobler pinions :
O where are thy dominions ?
17
258 JOHN KEATS
Lend thine ear
To a young Dalian oath — ay, by thy soul,
By all that from thy mortal lips did roll.
And by the kernel of thy earthly love.
Beauty in things on earth and things above.
I swear !
When every childish fashion
Has vanished from my rhyme.
Will I, grey gone in passion,
Leave to an after-time
Hymning and Harmony
Of thee and of thy works, and of thy life ;
But vain is now the burning and the strife ;
Pangs are in vain, until I grow high-rife
With old Philosophy,
And mad with glimpses of futurity.
For many years my offerings must be hush'd ;
When I do speak, I'll think upon this hour.
Because I feel my forehead hot and flushed.
Even at the simplest vassal of thy power.
A lock of thy bright hair, —
Sudden it came,
And I was startled when I caught thy name
Coupled so unaware ;
Yet at the moment temperate was my blood —
I thought I had beheld it from the flood !
o
WHAT THE THRUSH SAID
To Reynolds
THOU whose face hath felt the Winter's wind,
_ Whose eye has seen the snow-clouds hung in mist
And the black elm tops 'mong the freezing stars !
To thee the spring will be a harvest time.
O thou whose only book has been the light
Of supreme darkness, which thou feddest on
Night after night, when Phoebus was away !
To thee the Spring shall be a triple morn.
O fret not after knowledge. I have none.
And yet my song comes native with the warmth.
O fret not after knowledge I I have none.
And yet the evening listens. He who saddens
At thought of idleness cannot be idle.
And he's awake who thinks himself asleep.
FAERY SONGS
SHED no tear ! oh shed no tear !
The flower will bloom another year.
Weep no more ! oh weep no more !
Young buds sleep in the root's white core.
Dry your eyes ! oh dry your eyes !
For I was taught in Piaradise
To ease my breast of melodies —
Shed no tear.
Overhead ! look overhead !
'Mong the blossoms white and red —
Look up, look up. I flutter now
On this flush pomegranate bough.
See me ! 'tis this silvery bill
Ever cures the good man's ill.
Shed no tear ! Oh shed no tear !
The flower will bloom another year.
Adieu, adieu I — I fly, adieu !
I vanisH in the heaven's blue —
Adieu I Adieu !
II
Ah ! woe is me ! poor silver-wingj!
That I must chant thy lady's dirge.
And death to this fair haunt of spring.
Of melody, and streams of flowery verge, —
Poor sUver-wing ! ah ! woe is me !
That I must see
These blossoms snow upon thy lady's pall !
Go, pretty page I and in her ear
Wldsper that the hour is near !
Softly tell her not to fear
Such calm favonian burial !
Go, pretty page ! and soothly tell, —
The blossoms hang by a melting spell,
And fall they must, ere a star wink thrice
Upon her closed eyes.
That now in vain are weeping their last tears,
At sweet life leaving, and these arbours green, —
Rich dowry from the Spirit of the Spheres,^
Alas ! poor Queen 1
260 JOHN KEATS
DAISY'S SONG
1
THE sun, with his great eye,
Sees not so much as I ;
And the moon, all silver-proud.
Might as well be in a cloud.
2
And O the spring — the spring !
I lead the life of a king !
Couch'd in the teeming grass,
I spy each pretty lass.
3
I look where no one dares.
And I stare wjiere no one stares.
And when the night is nigh.
Lambs bleat my lullaby.
SONG
1
THE stranger lighted from his steed.
And ere he spake a word
He seized my lady's lily hand.
And kiss'd it all unheard.
2
The stranger walk'd into the hall,
And ere he spake a word
He kiss'd my lady's cherry lips.
And kiss'd 'em all unheard.
3
The stranger walk'd into the bower, —
But my lady first did go, —
Aye hand in hand into the bower
Where my lord's roses blow.
4
My lady's maid had a silken scarf
And a golden ring had she,
And a kiss from the stranger, as off he went
Again on his fair palfrey.
Asleep ! 0 sleep a little while
ASLEEP ! O sleep a little while, white pearl
And let me kneel, and let me pray to thee,
And let me call Heaven's blessing on thine eyes.
And let me breathe into the happy air
That doth enfold and touch thee all about.
Vows of my slavery, my giving up.
My sudden adoration, my great love !
w
Where be ye going, you Devon Maid f
1
HERE be ye going, you Devon maid ?
And what have ye there in the basket ?
Ye tight little feiry, just fresh from the dairy.
Will ye give me some cream if I ask it ?
2
I love your Meads, and I love your flowers.
And I love your junkets mainly.
But 'hind the door I love kissing more,
O look not so disdainly.
I love your hills and I love your dales,
And I love your flocks a-bleating —
But O, on the heather to lie together.
With both our hearts a-beating !
4,
I'll put yoiu: basket all safe in a nook ;
Your shawl I'll hang on the willow ;
And we will sigh in the daisy's eye.
And kiss on a grass green pillow.
MEG MERRILIES
OLD MEG she was a Gipsy,
And liv'd upon the Moors :
Her bed it was the brown heath turf.
And her house was out of doors.
262 JOHN KEATS
2
Her apples were swart blackberries.
Her currants pods o' broom ;
Her wine was dew of the wild white rose.
Her book a churchyard tomb.
3
Her Brothers were the craggy hills,
Her Sisters larchen trees —
Alone with her great family
She liv'd as she did please.
No breakfast had she many a morn,
No dinner many a noon.
And 'stead of supper she would stare
Full hard against the Moon.
5
But every mom of woodbine fresh
She made her garlanding.
And every night the dark glen Yew
She wove, and she would sing.
6
And with her fingers old and brown
She plaited Mats o' Rushes,
And gave them to the Cottagers
She met among the Bushes.
7
Old Meg was brave as Margaret Queen
And tall as Amazon :
An old red blanket cloak she wore ;
A chip hat had she on.
God rest her aged bones somewhere —
She died fuU long agone !
STAFFA
NOT Aladdin magian
Ever such a work began ;
Not the wizard of the Dee
Ever such a dream could see ;
Not St. John, in Patmos' Isle,
In the passion of his toil,
STAFFA
When he saw the churches seven.
Golden aisled, built up in heaven,
Gaz'd at such a rugged wonder.
As I stood its roofing under, lo
Lo 1 I saw one sleeping there.
On the marble cold and bare.
While the surges wash'd his feet.
And his garments white did beat
Drench'd about the sombre rocks.
On his neck his weU-grown locks.
Lifted dry above the main.
Were upon the curl again.
" What is this ? and what art thou ? "
Whisper'd I, and touch'd his brow ; 20
" What art thou ? and what is this ? "
Whisper'd I, and strove to kiss
The spirit's hand, to wake his eyes ;
Up he started in a trice :
" I am Lycidas," said he,
"Fam'd in funeral minstrelsy !
This was architectxu*'d thus
By the great Oceanus ! —
Here his mighty waters play
HoUow organs all the day ; 30
Here by turns his dolphins aU,
Finny palmers great and small.
Come to pay devotion due —
Each a mouth of pearls must strew.
Many a mortal of these days.
Dares to pass our sacred ways.
Dares to touch audaciously
This Cathedral of the Sea !
I have been the pontiff-priest
Where the waters never rest, 40
Where a fledgy sea-bird choir
Soars for ever ; holy fire
I hare hid from mortal man ;
Proteus is my Sacristan.
But the dulled eye of mortal
Hath pass'd beyond the rocky portal ;
So for ever will I leave
Such a taint, and soon unweave
All the magic of the place."
So saying, with a Spirit's glance 50
He dived !
264 JOHN KEATS
A PROPHECY
To his brother George in America
''T^IS the witching hour of night,
J^ Orbed is the moon and bright,
And the stars they glisten, glisten,
Seeming with bright eyes to listen —
For what listen they ?
For a song and for a charm,
See they glisten in alarm,
And the moon is waxing warm
To hear what I shall say.
Moon ! keep wide thy golden ears — lo
Hearken, stars ! and hearken, spheres ! —
Hearken, thou eternal sky !
I sing an infant's lullaby,
A pretty lullaby.
Listen, Usten, listen, listen.
Glisten, glisten, glisten, glisten.
And hear my lullaby !
Though the rushes that will make
Its cradle still are in the lake —
Though the linen that will be 20
Its swathe, is on the cotton tree —
Though the woollen that will keep
It warm, is on the silly sheep —
Listen, starlight, listen, listen.
Glisten, glisten, glisten, glisten.
And hear my lullaby !
Child, I see thee ! Child, I've found thee
Midst of the quiet all around thee !
Child, I see thee ! Child, I spy thee !
And thy mother sweet is nigh thee ! 30
Child, I know thee ! Child no more.
But a Poet evermore !
See, see, the lyre, the 130-6,
In a flame of fire.
Upon the little cradle's top
Flaring, flaring, flaring.
Past the eyesight's bearing.
Awake it from its sleep,
And see if it can keep
Its eyes upon the blaze — 40
Amaze, amaze !
It stares, it stares, it stares.
It dares what no one dares !
A PROPHECY 265
It lifts its little hand into the flame
Unharm'd, and on the strings
Paddles a little tune, and sings,
With dumb endeavour sweetly —
Bard art thou completely !
Little chUd
O' th' western wild, 50
Bard art thou completely !
Sweetly with dumb endeavour,
A Poet now or never,
Little child
O' th' western wild,
A Poet now or never !
SONG
IN A DREAR-NIGHTED DECEMBER
1
IN a drear-nighted December,
Too happy, happy tree.
Thy branches ne'er remember
Their green felicity :
The north cannot undo them
With a sleety whistle through them ;
Nor frozen thawings glue them
From budding at the prime.
2
In a drear-nighted December,
Too happy, happy brook, 10
Thy bubblings ne'er remember
Apollo's smnmer look ;
But with a sweet forgetting,
They stay their crystal fretting.
Never, never petting
About the frozen time.
3
Ah ! would 'twere so with many
A gentle girl and boy !
But were there ever any
Writhed not at passed joy ? 20
To know the change and feel it.
When there is none to heal it
Nor numbed sense to steel it.
Was never said in rhyme.
266 JOHN KEATS
H
SONG
1
USH, hush ! tread softly ! hush, hush my dear !
^ ^ All the house is asleep, but we know very well
Tharthe jealous, the jealous old bald-pate may hear,
Tho' you've padded his night-cap — O sweet Isabel !
Tho' your feet are more hght than a Faery's feet,
Who dances on bubbles where brooklets meet, —
Hush, hush ! soft tiptoe ! hush, hush my dear !
For less than a nothing the jealous can hear.
No leaf doth tremble, no ripple is there
On the river,-^airs still, and the night's sleepy eye
Closes up, and forgets all its Lethean care,
Charm'd to death by the drone of the hummmg May-fly ;
And the Moon, whether prudish or complaisant.
Has fled to her bower, well knowing I want
No light in the dusk, no torch in the gloom.
But my Isabel's eyes, and her lips pulp'd with bloom.
Lift the latch ! ah gently ! ah tenderly — sweet !
We are dead if that latchet gives one little clink !
Well done — now those lips, and a flowery seat —
The old man may sleep, and the planets may wink ;
The shut rose shall dream of our loves, and awake
Full blown, and such warmth for the morning take,
The stock-dove shall hatch her soft brace and shall coo,
While I kiss to the melody, aching all through !
SONG
I HAD a dove and the sweet dove died ;
And I have thought it died of grieving :
O, what could it grieve for ? Its feet were tied.
With a silken thread of my own hand's weaving ;
Sweet little red feet ! why should you die —
Why should you leave me, sweet bird ! why ?
You liv'd alone in the forest-tree,
Why, pretty thing ! would you not live with me .-'
I kiss'd you oft and gave you white peas ;
Why not live sweetly, as in the green trees ?
SONG OF FOUR FAIRIES
FiHE, Air, Earth, and Water,
Salamander, Zephyr, Dusketha, and Breama
Salamander
T T APPY, happy glowing fire !
Y I Zeph. Fragrant air ! delicious light !
Dus. Let me to my glooms retire !
Bre. I to green-weed rivers bright !
Sal. Happy, happy glowing fire !
Dazzling bowers of soft retire,
Ever let my nourish'd wing.
Like a bat's, still wandering,
Faintless fan your fiery spaces.
Spirit sole in deadly places. lo
In unhaunted roar and blaze,
Open eyes that never daze.
Let me see the myriad shapes
Of men, and beasts, and fish, and apes,
Portray'd in many a fiery den.
And wrought by spumy bitumen
On the deep intenser roof,
Arched every way aloof.
Let me breathe upon their skies.
And anger their live tapestries ; 20
Free from cold, and every care
Of chilly rain and shivering air.
Zeph. Spirit of Fire ! away ! away !
Or your very roundelay
Will sear my plumage newly budded
From its quilled sheath, all studded
With the self-same dews that fell
On the May-grown Asphodel.
Spirit of Fire — away ! away !
Bre. Spirit of Fire — away ! away ! 30
Zephyr, blue-eyed fairy, turn.
And see my cool sedge-buried urn.
Where it rests its mossy brim
'Mid water-mint and cresses dim ;
And the flowers, in sweet troubles.
Lift their eyes above the bubbles.
Like our Queen, when she would please
268 JOHN KEATS
To sleep and Oberon will tease —
Love me, blue-eyed Fairy ! true.
Soothly I am sick for you. 40
Zeph. Gentle Breama ! by the first
Violet young nature nurst,
I will bathe myself with thee,
So you sometimes follow me
To my home, far, fer in west,
Beyond the nimble-wheeled quest
Of the golden-browed sun.
Come wititi me, o'er tops of trees.
To my fragrant palaces,
Where they ever floating are 50
Beneath the cherish of a star
Call'd Vesper, who with silver veil
Ever hides his brilliance pale,
Ever gently-drows'd doth keep
Twilight for the Fayes to sleep.
Fear not that your watery hair
WiU thirst in drouthy ringlets there ;
Clouds of stored summer rains
Thou shalt taste, before the stains
Of the mountain soil they take, 60
And too unlucent for thee make.
I love thee, crystal Fairy, true !
Sooth I am as sick for you !
Sal. Out, ye aguish Fairies, out !
Chilly lovers, what a rout
Keep ye with your frozen breath,
Colder than the mortal death !
Adder-eyed Dusketha, speak !
Shall we leave these, and go seek
In the earth's wide entrails old 70
Couches warm as theirs are cold .■"
0 for a fiery gloom and thee,
Dusketha, so enchantingly
Freckle-wing'd and lizard-sided I
Dus. By thee, Sprite, will I be guided !
1 care not for cold or heat ;
Frost and flame, or sparks, or sleet,
To my essence are the same ; —
But I honour more the flame.
Sprite of Fire, I follow thee 80
Wheresoever it may be, —
To the torrid spouts and fountains,
Underneath earth-quaked mountains ;
Or, at thy supreme desire,
SONG OF FOUR FAIRIES 269
Touch the very pulse of fire
With my bare unlidded eyes.
Sal. Sweet Dusketha ! paradise !
Off, ye icy Spirits, fly !
Frosty creatures of the sky !
Dus. Breathe upon them, fiery sprite ! go
T> \ Away ! away to our delight !
Sal, Go, feed on icicles, while we
Bedded in tongue-flames will be.
Dus. Lead me to those feverish glooms,
Sprite of Fire !
Bre. Me to the blooms.
Blue-eyed Zephyr, of those flowers
Far in the west where the May-cloud lowers ;
And the beams of still Vesper, when winds are all wist.
Are shed through the rain and the milder mist,
And twilight your floating bowers. loo
270 JOHN KEATS
EPISTLE
TO
JOHN HAMILTON REYNOLDS
DEAR Reynolds ! as last night I lay in bed.
There came before my eyes that wonted thread
Of shapes, and shadows, and remembrances.
That every other minute vex and please :
Things all disjointed come from north and south, —
Two Witch's eyes above a Cherub's mouth,
Voltaire with casque and shield and habergeon.
And Alexander with his nightcap on ;
Old Socrates a-tying his cravat.
And Hazlitt playing with Miss Edgeworth's Cat ;
And Junius Brutus, pretty well so so.
Making the best of 's way towards Soho.
Few are there who escape these visitings, —
Perhaps one or two whose lives have patent wings.
And thro' whose curtains peeps no hellish nose.
No wild-boar tushes, and no Mermaid's toes ;
But flowers bursting out with lusty pride,
And young JEolian harps personified ;
Some Titian colours touch' d into real life, —
The sacrifice goes on ; the pontiff knife
Gleams in the Sun, the milk-white heifer lows.
The pipes go shrilly, the libation flows :
A white sail shows above the green-head cliff.
Moves round the point, and throws her anchor stiff;
The mariners join hymn with those on land.
You know the Enchanted Castle, — it doth stand
Upon a rock, on the border of a Lake,
Nested in trees, which all do seem to shake
From some old magic-like Urganda's Sword,
EPISTLE TO JOHN HAMILTON REYNOLDS 271
O Phoebus ! that I had thy sacred word 30
To show this Castle, in fair dreaming wise.
Unto my friend, while sick and ill he lies !
You know it well enough, where it doth seem
A mossy place, a Merlin's Hall, a dream ;
You know the clear Lake, and the little Isles,
The mountains blue, and cold near neighbour rills.
All which elsewhere are but half animate ;
There do they look alive to love and hate,
To smiles and frowns ; they seem a lifted mound
Above some giant, pulsing underground. 40
Part of the Building was a chosen See,
Built by a banished Santon of Chaldee ;
The other part, two thousand years from him,
Was built by Cuthbert de Saint Aldebrim ;
Then there's a little wing, far from the Sun,
Built by a Lapland Witch tum'd maudlin Nun ;
And many other juts of aged stone
Founded with many a mason-devil's groan.
The doors all look as if they oped themselves.
The windows as if latched by Fays and Elves, 50
And from them comes a silver flash of light.
As from the westward of a Summer's njght ;
Or like a beaute^ous woman's large blue eyes
Gone mad thro' olden songs and poesies.
See ! what is coming from the distance dim !
A golden Galley all in silken trim !
Three rows of oars are lightening, moment whiles.
Into the verd'rous bosoms of those isles ;
Towards the shade, under the Castle wall,
It comes in silence, — now 'tis hidden all. 60
The Clarion sounds, and from a Postern-gate
An echo of sweet music doth create
A fear in the poor Herdsman, who doth bring
His beasts to trouble the enchanted spring, —
He tells of the sweet music, and the spot.
To all his friends, and they believe him not.
O that our dreamings all, of sleep or wake,
Would all their colours from the sunset take :
From something of material sublime.
Rather than shadow oiu* own soul's day-time 70
In the dark void of night. For in the world
272 JOHN KEATS
We jostle, — but my flag is not unfurl'd
On the Admiral-staff, — and so philosophize
I dare not yet ! Oh, never will the prize.
High reason, and the love of good and ill.
Be my award ! Things cannot to the will
Be settled, but they tease us out of thought ;
Or is it that imagination brought
Beyond its proper bound, yet still confin'd.
Lost in a sort of Purgatory blind, 80
Cannot refer to any standard law
Of either earth or heaven ? It is a flaw
In happiness, to see beyond our bourn, —
It forces us in summer skies to mourn.
It spoils the singing of the Nightingale.
Dear Re)molds'! I have a mysterious tale.
And cannot speak it : the first page I read
Upon a Lampit rock of green sea-weed
Among the breakers ; 'twas a quiet eve.
The rocks were silent, the wide sea did weave go
An untumultous fringe of silver foam
Along the flat brown sand ; I was at home
And should have been most happy, — but I saw
Too far into the sea, where every maw
The greater on the less feeds evermore. —
But I saw too distinct into the core
Of an eternal fierce destruction.
And so from happiness I far was gone.
Still am I sick of it, and tho', to-day,
I've gather'd young spring-leaves, and flowers gay 100
Of periwinkle and wild strawberry.
Still do I that most fierce destruction see, —
The Shark at savage prey, — the Hawk at pounce, —
The gentle Robin, like a Pard or Ounce,
Bavening a worm, — Away, ye horrid moods !
Moods of one's mind ! You know I hate them well.
You know I'd sooner be a clapping Bell
To some Kamtschatcan Missionary Church,
Than with these horrid moods be left i' the lurch.
SONNETS
I
OH ! how I love, on a fair summer's eve,
When streams of light pour down the golden west.
And on the balmy zephyrs tranquil rest
The silver clouds, far — far away to leave
All meaner thoughts, and take a sweet reprieve
From little cares ; to find, with easy quest,
A fragrant wild, with Nature's beauty drest.
And there into delight my soul deceive.
There warm my breast with patriotic lore.
Musing on Milton's fate — on Sydney's bier —
Till their stem forms before my mind arise :
Perhaps on wing of Poesy upisoar.
Full often dropping a delicious tear,
WheD some melodious sorrow spells mine eyes.
II
A FTER dal-k vapours have oppress'd our plains
J^\ For a long dreary season, comes a day
Bom of the gentle South, and clears away
From the sick heavens all unseemly stains.
The anxious month, relieved of its pains,
Takes as a long-lost right the feel of May,
The eye-lids with the passing coolness play.
Like rose-leaves with the drip of summer rains.
And calmest thoughts come round us — as of leaves
Budding — fruit ripening in stillness — autumn suns
Smiling at eve upon the quiet sheaves, —
Sweet Sappho's cheek, — a sleeping in&nt's brieath, —
Thfe ^adlial Sand that through an hour-glass runs,—
A woodland rivulet, — a Poet's death.
i8
274 JOHN KEATS
III
Written on the blank space of a leaf at the end oj Chaucer's tale oj
The Flomre and the Lefe
THIS pleasant tale is like a little copse :
The honied lines so freshly interlace,
To keep the reader in so sweet a place.
So that he here and there full-hearted stops ;
And oftentimes he feels the dewy drops
Come cool and suddenly against his face.
And, by the wandering melody, may trace
Which way the tender-legged linnet hops.
Oh ! what a power has white simplicity !
What mighty power has this gentle story !
I, that do ever feel athirst for glory.
Could at this moment be content to lie
Meekly upon the grass, as those whose sobbings
Were heard of none beside the mournful robins.
IV
TO HAYDON
With a Sonnet on seeing the Elgin Marbles
HAYDON ! forgive me that I cannot speak
Definitively of these mighty things ;
Forgive me, that I have not eagle's wings.
That what I want I know not where to seek.
And think that I would not be over-meek.
In rolling out upfollow'd thunderings.
Even to the steep of Heliconian springs.
Were I of ample strength for such a freak.
Think, too, that all th<-se numbers should be thine ;
Whose else ? In this who touch thy vesture's hem ?
For, when men stared at what was most divine
With brainless idiotism and o'erwise phlegm.
Thou hadst beheld the full Hesperian shrine
Of their star in the east, and gone to worship them !
SONNETS 275
On seeing the Elgin Marbles Jor the Jirst time
MY spirit is too weak ; mortality-
Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep,
And each imagined pinnacle and steep
Of godlike hardship tells me I must die
Like a sick eagle looking at the sky.
Yet 'tis a gentle luxury to weep.
That I have not the cloudy winds to keep
Fresh for the opening of the morning's eye.
Such dim-conceived glories of the brain
Bring round the heart an indescribable feud ;
So do these wonders a most dizzy pain.
That mingles Grecian grandeur with the rude
Wasting of old Time — ^with a billowy main
A sun, a shadow of a magnitude.
VI
On a Picture of Leander
C"*OME hither all sweet maidens soberly,
^ Down-looking aye, and with a chasten'd light
Hid in the fringes of your eyelids white.
And meekly let your fair hands joined be.
As if so gentle that ye could not see,
Untouch'd, a victim of your beauty bright.
Sinking away to his young spirit's night,
Sinking bewilder'd 'mid the dreary sea :
'Tis young Leander toiling to his death ;
Nigh swooning, he doth purse his weary lips
For Hero's cheek, and smiles against her smile.
O horrid dream ! see how his body dips.
Dead-heavy ; arms and shoulders gleam awhile ;
He's gone ; up bubbles all his amorous breath !
276 JOHN KEATS
VII
On the Sea
IT keeps eternal whisperings around
Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell
Gluts twice ten thousand caverns, till the spell
Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound.
Often 'tis in such gentle temper found,
That scarcely will the very smallest shell
Be moved for days from where it sometime fell,
When last the winds of heaven were unbound.
O ye ! who have your eye-balls vex'd and tired.
Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea ;
O ye ! whose ears are dinn'd with uproar rude.
Or fed too much with cloying melody, —
Sit ye near some old cavern's mouth, and brood
Until ye start, as if the sea-nymphs quired !
VIII
On Leigh Hunt's Poem, The Story of Rimini
WHO loves to peer up at the morning sun.
With half-shut eyes and comfortable cheek.
Let him, with this sweet tale, fuU often seek
For meadows where the little rivers run ;
Who loves to linger with that brightest one
Of Heaven — Hesperus — let him lowly speak
These numbers to the night, and starlight meek.
Or moon, if that her hunting be begun.
He who knows these delights, and too is prone
To moralise upon a smile or tear.
Will find at once a region of his own,
A bower for his spirit, and will steer
To alleys, where the fir-tree drops its cone.
Where robins hop, and fallen leaves are sear.
SONNETS 277
IX
On sitting donm to read King Lear once again
OGOLDEN-TONGUED Romance with serene lute !
Fair plumed S3Ten ! Queen of far away !
Leave melodizing on this wintry day,
Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute :
Adieu ! for once again the fierce dispute,
Betwixt damnation and impassion'd clay
Must I burn through ; once more humbly assay
The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit.
Chief Poet ! and ye clouds of Albion^
Begetters of our deep eternal theme,
When through the old oak forest I am gone.
Let me not wander in a barren dream,
But when I am consumed in the fire.
Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire.
X
WHEN I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charact'ry,
Hold like full gamers the fuU-ripen'd grain ;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd iSice,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance.
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance ;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour !
That I shall never look upon thee more.
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love ! — then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think.
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.
278 JOHN KEATS
XI
TO THE NILE
SON of the old moon-mountains African !
Stream of the Pyramid and Crocodile !
We call thee fruitful, and, that very while
A desert fills our seeing's inward span.
Nurse of swart nations since the world began.
Art thou so fruitful ? or dost thou beguile
Those men to honour thee, who, worn with toil.
Rest them a space 'twixt Cairo and Decan ?
O may dark fancies err ! They surely do ;
'Tis ignorance that makes a barren waste
Of all beyond itself. Thou dost bedew
Green rushes like our rivers, and dost taste
The pleasant sun-rise. Green isles hast thou too.
And to the sea as happily dost haste.
XII
TO SPENSER
SPENSER ! a jealous honourer of thine,
A forester deep in thy midmost trees.
Did, last eve, ask my promise to refine
Some English, that might strive thine ear to please.
But, Elfin-poet ! 'tis impossible
For an inhabitant of wintry earth
To rise, like Phoebus, with a golden quill.
Fire-wing' d, and make a morning in his mirth.
It is impossible to 'scape from toil
O' the sudden, and receive thy spiriting :
The flower must drink the nature of the soil
Before it can put forth its blossoming :
Be with me in the summer days, and I
Will for thine honour and his pleasure try.
SONNETS 279
XIII
TO
TIME'S sea hath been five years at its slow ebb ;
Long hours have to and fro let creep the sand ;
Since I was tangled in thy beauty's web.
And snared by the ungloving of thine hand.
And yet I never look on midnight sky,
But I behold thine eyes' well memoried light ;
I cannot look upon the rose's dye.
But to thy cheek my soul doth take its flight ;
1 cannot look on any budding flower,
But my fond ear, in &ncy at thy lips.
And hearkening for a love-sound, doth devour
Its sweets in the wrong sense : — Thou dost eclipse
Every delight with sweet remembering,
And grief unto my darling joys dost bring.
XIV
Answer to a Sonnet by J. H. Reynolds, ending —
' ' Dark eyes are dearer far
Than those that mock the hyacinthine bell."
BLUE ! 'Tis the life of heaven, — the domain
Of Cynthia, — the wide palace of the sun,— •
The tent of Hesperus, and all his train, —
The bosomer of clouds, gold, grey, and dun.
Blue ! 'Tis the life of waters — ocean
And all its vassal streams : pools numberless.
May rage, and foam, and fret, but never can
Subside, if not to dark blue nativeness.
Blue ! Gentle cousin of the forest-green.
Married to green in all the sweetest flowers —
Forget-me-not, — the blue-bell, — and, that queen
Of secrecy, the violet : what strange powers
Hast thou, as a mere shadow ! But how great.
When in an Eye thou art, alive with fate !
280 JOHN KEATS
XV
OTHAT a week could be an age, and we
Felt parting and warm meeting every week,
Then one poor year a thousand years would be.
The flush of welcome ever on the cheek :
So could we live long life in little space,
So time itself would be annihilate,
So a day's journey in oblivious haze
To serve our joys would lengthen and dilate.
O to arrive each Monday morn from Ind !
To land each Tuesday from the rich Levant !
In little time a host of joys to bind.
And keep our souls in one eternal pant !
This mom, my friend, and yester-evening taught
Me how to harbour such a happy thought.
XVI
THE HUMAN SEASONS
FOUR Seasons fill the measure of the year ;
There are four seasons in the mind of man :
He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear
Takes in all beauty with an easy span :
He has his Summer, when luxuriously
Spring's honied cud of youthful thought he loves
To ruminate, and by such dreaming high
Is nearest unto Heaven : quiet coves
His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings
He furleth close ; contented so to look
On mists in idleness — to let fair things
Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook.
He has his Winter too of pale misfeature.
Or I else he would forego his mortal nature.
SONNETS 281
XVII
TO HOMER
STANDING aloof in giant ignorance,
Of thee I hear and of the Cyclades,
As one who sits ashore and longs perchance
To visit dolphin-coral in deep seas.
So thou wast blind ! — but then the veil was rent ;
For Jove uncurtain'd Heaven to let thee live,
And Neptune made for thee a spermy tent.
And Pan made sing for thee his forest-hive ;
Aye, on the shores of darkness there is light,
And precipices show untrodden green ;
There is a budding morrow in midnight^ —
There is a triple sight in blindness keen ;
Such seeing hadst thou, as it once befel
To Dian, Queen of Earth, and Heaven, and Hell.
XVIII
On visiting the Tomb of Burns
THE town, the churchyard, and the setting sun,
The clouds, the trees, the rounded hills all seem.
Though beautiful, cold — strange — as in a dream,
I dreamed long ago, now new begun.
The short-lived paly Summer is but won
From Winter's ague, for one hour's gleam ;
Though sapphire- warm, their stars do never beam :
All is cold Beauty ; pain is never done :
For who has mind to relish, Minos-wise,
The Real of Beauty, free fi-om that dead hue
Sickly imagination and sick pride
Cast wan upon it ! Burns ! with honour due
I oft have honour'd thee. Great shadow ! hide
Thy &ce ; I sin against thy native skies,
282 JOHN KEATS
XIX
TO AILSA ROCK
HEARKEN, thou craggy ocean-pyramid,
Give answer by thy voice — the sea-fowls' screams !
When were thy shoulders mantled in huge streams ?
When from the sun was thy broad forehead hid ?
How long is't since the mighty Power bid
Thee heave to airy sleep from &thom dreams —
Sleep in the lap of thunder or sunbeams —
Or when grey clouds are thy cold coverlid !
Thou answer'st not ; for thou art dead asleep.
Thy life is but two dead eternities,
The last in air, the former in the deep !
First with the whales, last with the eagle-skies !
Drown'd wast thou till an earthquake made thee steep,
Another cannot wake thy giant size !
XX
Written upon Ben Nevis
READ me a lesson, Muse, and speak it loud
Upon the top of Nevis, blind in mist !
I look into the chasms, and a shroud
Vapourous doth hide them, — just so much I wist
Mankind do know of hell ; I look o'erhead,
And there is sullen mist, — even so much
Mankind can tell of heaven ; mist is spread
Before the earth, beneath me, — even such.
Even so vague is man's sight of himself !
Here are the craggy stones beneath my feet, —
Thus much I know that, a poor witless elf,
I tread on them, — that all my eye doth meet
Is mist and crag, not only on this height,
But in the world of thought and mental might !
SONNETS 283
XXI
Written in ike Cottage where Bums was bom
'T~*HIS mortal body of a thousand days
\_ Now fills, O Bums, a space in tWne own room,
'^iere thou didst dream alone on budded bays,
Happy and thoughtless of thy day of doom !
My pulse is warm with thine own Barley-bree,
My head is light with pledging a great soul.
My eyes are wandering, and I cannot see.
Fancy is dead and drunken at its goal ;
Yet can I stamp my foot upon thy floor.
Yet can I ope thy window-sash to find
The meadow thou hast tramped o'er and o'er, —
Yet can I think of thee tiU thought is blind, —
Yet can I gulp a bumper to thy name, —
O smfle among the shades, for this is fame !
XXII
Fragment of a sonnet (translated from Ronsard)
NATURE witheld Cassandra in the skies
For more adornment, a full thousand years ;
She took their cream of Beauty's fairest dyes.
And shaped and tinted her above all peers :
Meanwhile Love kept her dearly with his wings.
And underneath their shadow fiU'd her eyes
With such a richness that the cloudy Kings
Of high Olympus utter'd slavish sighs.
When from the Heavens I saw her first descend,
My heart took fire, and only burning pains —
They were my pleasures — they my Life's sad end ;
Love pour'd her beauty into my warm veins.
284 JOHN KEATS
XXIII
TO SLEEP
OSOFT embalmer of the still midnight !
Shutting, with careful fingers and benign.
Our gloom-pleased eyes, embower'd frpm the Ught,
Enshaded in forgetfulness divine ;
O soothest Sleep ! if so it please thee, close.
In midst of this thine hjrmn, my willing eyes.
Or wait the amen, ere thy poppy throws
Around my bed its lulling charities ;
Then save me, or the passed day will shine
Upon my pillow, breeding many woes ;
Save me from curious conscience, that stiU lords
Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole ;
Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards.
And seal the hushed casket of my soul.
XXIV
WHY did 1 laugh to-night ? No voice will tell :
No God, no Demon of severe response.
Deigns to reply from Heaven or from Hell.
Then to my human heart I turn at once.
Heart ! Thou and I are here, sad and alone ;
Say, wherefore did I laugh ? O mortal pain !
O Darkness ! Darkness ! ever must I moan.
To question Heaven and Hell and Heart in vain.
Why did I laugh ? I know this Being's lease.
My fancy to its utmost blisses spreads ;
Yet would I on this very midnight cease.
And the world's gaudy ensigns see in shreds ;
Verse, Fame, and Beauty are intense indeed.
But Death intepser — Death is Life's high meed.
SONNETS iaii
XXV
On a Dream
AS Hermes once took to his feathers light.
When lulled Argiis, baffled, swoon'd and slept.
So on a Delphic reed, my idle spright.
So play'd, so charm 'd, so conquer' d, so bereft
The dragon-world of aU its hundred eyes ;
And seeing it asleep, so fled away.
Not to pure Ida with its snow-cold skies.
Nor unto Tempe, where Jove grieved a day ;
But to that second circle of sad Hell,
Where in the gust, the whirlwind, and the flaw
Of rain and hail-stones, lovers need not tell
Their sorrows, — pale were the sweet Ups I saw,
Pale were the lips I kiss'd, and fair the form
I floated with, about that melancholy storm.
XXVI
On Fame
FAME, like a wayward girl, will still be coy
To those who woo her with too slavish knees.
But makes surrender to some thoughtless boy.
And dotes the niore upon a heart at ease ;
She is a Gripsy will not speak to those
Who have not learnt to be content without her ;
A Jilt, whose ear was never whisper'd close,
Who thinks they scandal her who talk about her ;
A very Gipsy is she, Nilus-bom,
Sister-in-law to jealous Potiphar ;
Ye love-sick Bards ! repay her scorn for scorn ;
Ye Artists lovelorn ! madmen that ye are !
Make your best bow to her and bid adieu,
Then, if she likes it, she will follow you.
286 JOHN KEATS
XXVII
On Fame
" You cannot eat your cake and have it too." — Proverb.
HOW fever'd is the man, who cannot look
Upon his mortal days with temperate blood,
Who vexes all the leaves of his life's book.
And robs his fair name of its maidenhood ;
It is as if the rose should pluck herself,
Or the ripe plum finger its misty, bloom.
As if a Naiad, like a meddling elf,
Should darken her pure grot with muddy gloom ;
But the rose leaves herself upon the briar.
For winds to kiss and grateful bees to feed,
And the ripe plum still wears its dim attire ;
The undisturbed lake has crystal space ;
Why then should man, teasing the world for grace,
Spoil his salvation for a fierce miscreed ?
XXVIII
IF by dull rhymes our English must be chain'd,
And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet
Fetter'd, in spite of pained loveliness ;
Let us find out, if we must be constrain'd.
Sandals more interwoven and complete
To fit the naked foot of poesy ;
Let us inspect the Ijrre, and weigh the stress
Of every chord, and see what may be gain'd
By ear industrious, and attention meet ;
Misers of soimd and syllable, no less
Than Midas of his coinage, let us be
Jealous of dead leaves in the bay wreath crown ;
So, if we may not let the Muse be free.
She will be bound with garlands of her own.
SONNETS 287
XXIX
THE day is gone, and all its sweets are gone !
Sweet voice, sweet lips, soft hand, and softer breast.
Warm breath, light whisper, tender semi-tone.
Bright eyes, accomplish'd shape, and lang'rous waist !
Faded the flower and all its budded charms.
Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes.
Faded the shape of beauty from my arms.
Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise —
Vanish'd imseasonably at shut of eve.
When the dusk holiday — or holinight
Of fragrant-curtain'd love begins to weave
The woof of darkness thick, for hid delight ;
But, as I've read love's missal through to-day.
He'll let me sleep, seeing I fast and pray.
XXX
I CRY your mercy — pity — ^love ! — aye, love !
Merciful love that tantalises not,
One-thoughted, never-wandering, guileless love.
Unmask' d, and being seen — without a blot !
O ! let me have thee whole, — all — all — be mine !
That shape, that fairness, that sweet minor zest
Of love, your kiss, — those hands, those eyes divine.
That warm, white, lucent, million-pleasured breast,-
Yourself — ^your soul — in pity give me all.
Withhold no atom's atom or I die,
Or living on, perhaps, your wretched thrall.
Forget, in the mist of idle misery.
Life's purposes, — the palate of my mind
Losing its gust, and my ambition blind !
288 JOHN KEATS
XXXI
Written on a Blank Page in Shakespeare's Poems, facing A Lover's
Complaint
* 13 RIGHT star ! would I were steadfast as thou art —
*" J3 Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart.
Like Nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores.
Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors —
No — yet stiU steadfast, stiU unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast.
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell.
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest.
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever — or else swoon to death.
OTHO THE GREAT
A TRAGEDY IN FIVE ACTS
19
/
DRAMATIS PERSONiEl
Otho the Gkeat, Emperor of Germany.
LUDOLFH, his Son.
Conrad, Duke ofPranconia.
Albert, a Knight, favoured by Otho.
SiGIFRED, an Officer, friend of Ludolph.
Theodore, i „_
GONFRID, '\Officers.
Ethelbert, an Abbot.
Gersa, Prince of Hungary.
An Hungarian Captain.
Physician.
Page.
Nobles, Knights, Attendants, and Soldiers.
Erminia, Niece of Otho.
AURANTHE, Conracfs Sister.
Ladies and Attendants.
Scene. The Castle of Friedburg, its vicinity, and the Hungarian Camp,
Time. One Day.
OTHO THE GREAT
ACT I
Scene I. — An Apartment in the Castle.
Enter Conrad.
SO, I am safe emerged from these broils !
Amid the wreck of thousands I am whole ;
For every crime I have a laurel-wreath.
For every lie a lordship. Nor yet has
My ship of fortune furl'd her silken sails, —
Let her glide on ! This danger'd neck is saved,
By dexterous policy, from the rebel's axe ;
And of my ducal palace not one stone
Is bruised by the Hungarian petards.
Toil hard, ye slaves, and from the miser-earth
Bring forth once more my bullion, treasured deep.
With all my jewell'd salvers, silver and gold.
And precious goblets that make rich the wine.
But why do I stand babbling to myself.''
Where is Auranthe ? I have news for her
Shall—
Enter Auranthe.
Auranthe. Conrad ! what tidings } Good, if I may guess
From your alert eyes and high-lifted brows.
What tidings of the battle? Albert.? Ludolph? Otho?
Cmrad. You guess aright. And, sister, slurring o'er
Our by-gone quarrels, I confess my heart
Is beating with a child's anxiety.
To make our golden fortune known to you.
Auranthe. So serious ?
Conrad. Yes, so serious, that before
I utter even the shadow of a hint
JOHN KEATS [act i., sc. i
Concerning what will make that sin-worn cheek
Blush joyous blood through every lineament.
You must make here a solemn vow to me.
Aurantke. I pr'ythee, Conrad, do not overact
The hypocrite. What vow would you impose ?
Conrad. Trust me for once. That you may be assured 30
'Tis not confiding in a broken reed,
A poor court-bankrupt, outwitted and lost,
Revolve these &cts in your acutest mood.
In such a mood as now you listen to me :
A few days since, I was an open rebel, —
Against the Emperor had subom'd his son, —
Drawn off his nobles to revolt, — and shown
Contented fools causes for discontent.
Fresh hatch'd in my ambition's eagle-nest ;
So thrived I as a rebel, — ^and, behold ! 40
Now I am Otho's favourite, his dear friend.
His right hand, his brave Conrad !
Auranihe. I confess
You have intrigued with these unsteady times
To admiration. But to be a fevourite !
Conrad. I saw my moment. The Hungarians,
Collected silently in holes and comers.
Appear' d, a sudden host, in the open day.
I should have perish'd in our empire's wreck,
But, calling interest loyalty, swore faith
To most believing Otho ; and so help'd 50
His blood-stain'd ensigns to the victory
In yesterday's hard fight, that it has tum'd
The edge of his sharp wrath to eager kindness.
Aurantke. So far yourself. But what is this to me
More than that I am glad ? I gratulate you.
Conrad. Yes, sister, but it does regard you greatly.
Nearly, momentously, — aye, painfully !
Make me this vow —
Aurantke. Concerning whom or what ?
Conrad. Albert !
Aurantke. I would inquire somewhat of him. 60
You had a letter from me touching him ?
No treason 'gainst his head in deed or word !
Surely you spared him at my earnest prayer ?
Give me the letter — it should not exist 1
Conrad. At one pernicious charge of the enemy
I, for a moment-whiles, was prisoner ta'en
And rifled, — stuff! the horses' hoofs have minced it!
Aurantke. He is alive .■'
Conrad. He is ! but here make oath
Acf I., sc. 1] OTHO THE GREAT 29^
To alienate him from your scheming brain.
Divorce him from your solitary thoughts.
And cloud him in such utter banishment, 70
That when his person meets again your eye
Your vision shall quite lose its memory.
And wander past him as through vacancy.
Auranthe. I'll not be perjured.
Conrad. No, nor great, nor mighty ;
You would not wear a crown, or rule a kingdom.
To you it is indifferent ?
Auranthe. What means this ?
Conrad. You'll not be perjured ! Go to Albert then.
That camp-mushroom — dishonour of our house.
Go, page his dusty heels upon a march.
Furbish his jingling baldric while he sleeps, 80
And share his mouldy ration in a siege.
Yet stay, — perhaps a charm may call you back.
And make the widening circlets of your eyes
Sparkle with healthy fevers. — The Emperor
Hath given consent that you should marry Ludolph !
Auranthe. Can it be, brother ? For a golden crown
With a queen's awful lips I doubly thank you !
This is to wake in Paradise ! Farewell,
Thou clod of yesterday ! — 'twas not myself!
Not tiU this moment did I ever feel go
My spirit's faculties ! I'll flatter you
For this, and be you ever proud of it ;
Thou, Jove-like, struck' dst thy forehead.
And from the teeming marrow of thy brain
I spring complete Minerva ! But the prince —
His highness Ludolph — where is he ?
Conrad. I know not :
When, lackeying my counsel at a beck.
The rebel lords, on bended knees, received
The Emperor's pardon, Ludolph kept aloof,
Sole, in a stiff, fool-hardy, sulky pride ; 100
Yet, for all this, I never saw a father
In such a sickly longing for his son.
We shall soon see him ; for the Emperor
He will be here this morning.
Auranthe. That I heard
Among the midnight rumours from the camp.
Conrad. You give up Albert to me ?
Auranthe. Harm him not !
E'en for his highness Ludolph's sceptry hand,
I would not Albert suffer any wrong.
Conrad. Have I not laboured, plotted — ?
JOHN KEATS [act i., sc. i
Auranthe. See you spare him :
Nor be pathetic, my kind benefactor ! no
On all the many bounties of your hand,
'Twas for yourself you laboured — ^not for me !
Do you not count, when I am queen, to take
Advantage of your chance discoveries
Of my poor secrets, and so hold a rod
Over my life ?
Conrad. Let not this slave — this villain —
Be cause of feud between us. See ! he comes !
Look, woman, look, your Albert is quite safe !
In haste it seems. Now shall I be in the way.
And wish'd with silent curses in my grave, 120
Or side by side with 'whelmed mariners.
Enter Albert.
Albert. Fair on your graces fall this early morrow !
So it is like to do, without my prayers.
For your right noble names, like favourite tunes.
Have fallen full frequent from our Emperor's lips,
High commejited with smiles.
Auranthe. Noble Albert !
Conrad {aside). Noble !
Auranthe. Such salutation argues a glad heart
In our prosperity. We thank you, sir.
Albert. Lady ! O, woidd to Heaven your poor servant
Could do you better service than mere words ! 130
But I have other greeting than mine own, —
From no less man than Otho, who has sent
This ring as pledge of dearest amity ;
'Tis chosen, I hear, from Hymen's jewel'ry.
And you will prize it, lady, I doubt not.
Beyond all pleasures past, and all to come.
To you, great duke —
Conrad. To me ! What of me, ha .''
Albert. What pleased your grace to say }
Conrad. Your message, sir 1
Albert. You mean not this to me ?
Conrad. Sister, this way ;
For there shall be no " gentle Alberts " now, [Aside. 140
No "sweet Auranthesl "
[Exeunt Conrad and Adranthe.
Albert (solus). The duke is out of temper ; if he knows
More than a brother of a sister ought
I should not quarrel with his peevisliness.
Auranthe — Heaven preserve her always fair ! —
Is in the heady, proud, ambitious vein ;
ACT I., sc. n] OTHO THE GREAT 295
I bicker not with her, — bid her farewell ;
She has taken flight from me, then let her soar, —
He is a fool who stands ajt'pining gaze !
But for poor Ludolph, he is food for sorrow : 150
No levelling bluster of my licensed thoughts.
No military swagger of my mind.
Can smother from myself the wrong I've done him, —
Without design, indeed, — ^yet it is so, —
And opiate for the conscience have I none !
[Emt
Scene II. — The Court-yard of the Castle,
Martial Music. Enter, from the outer gate, Otho, Nobles, Knights, and
Attendants. The Soldiers halt at the gate, with Banners in sight.
Otho. Where is my noble herald ?
Enter Conrad from the Castle, attended by Itvo Knights and Servants.
Albert following.
Well, hast told
Auranthe our intent imperial ?
Lest our rent banners, too o' the sudden shown.
Should fright her silken casements, and dismay
Her household to our lack of entertainment.
A victory !
Conrad. God save illustrious Otho I
Otho. Aye, Conrad, it wiU pluck out all grey hairs ;
It is the best physician for the spleen ;
The courtliest inviter to a feast ;
The subtlest excuser of small faults ; 10
And a nice judge in the age and smack of wine.
Enter, from the Castle, Auranthe, followed by Pages holding up her
robes, and a train of Women. She kneels.
Hail my sweet hostess ! I do thank the stars,
Or my good soldiers, or their ladies' eyes.
That, after such a merry battle fought,
I can, all safe in body and in soul.
Kiss your fair hand and lady fortune's too.
My ring ! now, on my life, it doth rejoice
These lips to feel 't on this soft ivory !
Keep it, my brightest daughter ; it may prove
The little prologue to a line of kings. 20
I strove against thee and my hot-blood son.
296 JOHN KEATS [act l., sc. ii
Dull blockhead that I was to be so blind ;
But now my sight is clear ; forgive me, lady.
Auranthe. My lord, I was a vassal to your frown.
And now your favour makes me but more humble ;
In wintry winds the simple snow is safe,
But fadeth at the greeting of the sun :
Unto thine anger I might well have spoken.
Taking on me a woman's privilege.
But this so sudden kindness makes me dumb. 30
Otho. What need of this ? Enough, if you will be
A potent tutoress to my wayward boy,
And teach him, what it seems his nurse could not.
To say, for once, I thank you. Sigifred !
Albert. He has not yet returned, my gracious liege.
Otho. What then ! No tidings of my friendly Arab ?
Conrad. None, mighty Otho. \To ofw of his Knights, who goes out.
Send forth instantly
An hundred horsemen from my honoured gates.
To scour the plains and search the cottages.
Cry a reward to him who shall first bring 40
News of that vanished Arabian, —
A full- heaped helmet of the purest gold.
Otho. More thanks, good Conrad ; for, except my son's.
There is no face I rather would behold
Than that same quick-eyed pagan's. By the saints.
This coming night of banquets must not light
Her dazzling torches ; nor the music breathe
Smooth, without clashing cymbal, tones of peace
And indoor melodies ; nor the ruddy wine
Ebb spouting to the lees ; if I pledge not, 50
In my first cup, that Arab !
Albert. Mighty monarch,
I wonder not this stranger's victor-deeds
So hang upon your spirit. Twice in the fight
It was my chance to meet his olive brow.
Triumphant in the enemy's shatter'd rhomb ;
And, to say truth, in any Christian arm
I never saw such prowess.
Otho. Did you ever ?
O, 'tis a noble boy ! — tut ! — ^what do I say .'
. I mean a triple Saladin, whose eyes,
When in the glorious scuffle they met mine, 60
Seem'd to say, " Sleep, old man, in safety sleep ;
I am the victory ! "
Conrad. Pity he's not here.
Otho. And my son too, pity he is not here.
Lady Auranthe, I would not make you blush.
ACT I., SO. II] OTHO THE GREAT 297
But can you give a guess where Ludolph is ?
Know you not of him ?
Auranthe. Indeed, my liege, no secret —
Otho. Nay, nay, without more words, dost know of him ?
Auranthe. I would I were so over-fortunate.
Both for his sake and mine, and to make glad
A father's ears with tidings of his son. ^o
Otho. I see 'tis like to be a tedious day.
Were Theodore and Gonfrid and the rest
Sent forth with my commands ?
Albert. Aye, my lord.
Otho. And no news ! No news ! ' Faith 1 'tis very strange
He thus avoids us. Lady, is 't not strange ?
Will he be truant to you too ? It is a shame.
Conrad. Wilt please your highness enter, and accept
The unworthy welcome of your servant's house ?
Leaving your cares to one whose diligence
May in few hours make pleasures of them all. 80
Otho. Not so tedious, Conrad. No, no, no, —
1 must see Ludolph or the — what's that shout }
Voices tdthout. Huzza ! huzza ! Long live the Emperor !
Other voices. Fall back ! Away there !
Otho. Say, what noise is that ?
[Albert advancing jrom the back of the Stage, whither he had
hastened on hearing the cheers of the soldiery.
Albert. It is young Gersa, the Hungarian prince,
Pick'd like a red stag from the fallow herd
Of prisoners. Poor prince, forlorn he steps.
Slow, and demure, and proud in his despair.
If I may judge by his so tragic bearing.
His eye not downcast, and his folded arm, go
He doth this moment wish himself asleep
Among his fallen captains on yon plains.
Enter Gersa, in chains, and guarded.
Otho. Well said. Sir Albert.
Gersa. Not a word of greeting }
No welcome to a princely visitor,
Most mighty Otho ? Will not my great host
Vouchsafe a syllable, before he bids
His gentlemen conduct me with all care
To some securest lodging — cold perhaps !
Otho. What mood is this ? Hath fortune touch'd thy brain ?
Gersa. O kings and princes of this fev'rous world, 100
298 JOHN KEATS [act i., sc. n
What abject things, what mockeries must ye be.
What nerveless minions of safe palaces.
When here, a monarch, whose proud foot is used
To fallen princes' necks as to Us stirrup.
Must needs exclaim that I am mad forsooth.
Because I cannot flatter with bent knees
My conqueror !
Otho. Gersa, I think you wrong me :
I think I have a better fame abroad.
Gersa. I prji;hee mock me not with gentle speech,
But, as a favour, bid me from thy presence ; no
Let me no longer be the wondering food
Of all these eyes ; ptythee command me hence !
Otko. Do not mistake me, Gersa. That you may not.
Come, fair Auranthe, try if your soft hands
Can manage those hard rivets, to set free
So brave a prince and soldier.
Auranthe {sets him free). Welcome task !
Gersa. I am wound up, in deep astonishment 1
Thank you, fair lady. Otho ! emperor !
You rob me of myself; my dignity
Is now your infant ; I am a weak child. 120
Otho. Give me your hand, and let this kindly grasp
Live in our memories.
Gersa. In mine it wiU.
I blush to think of my unchasten'd tongue ;
But I was haunted by the monstrous ghost
Of all our slain battalions. Sire, reflect.
And pardon you will grant, that, at this hour.
The bruised remnants of our stricken camp
Are huddling undistinguished my dear friends.
With common thousands, into shallow graves.
Otho. Enough, most noble Gersa. You are free 130
To cheer the brave remainder of your host
By your own healing presence, and that too.
Not as their leader merely, but their king ;
For, as I hear, the wily enemy
Who eas'd the crownet from your infant brows.
Bloody Taraxa, is among the dead.
Gersa. Then I retire, sosgenerous Otho please,
Bearing with me a weight of benefits
Too heavy to be borne.
Otho. It is not so ;
Still understand me. King of Hungary, 140
Nor judge my open purposes awry.
Though I did hold you high in my esteem
For your selfs sake^ I do not personate
ACT I., sc. II] OTHO THE GREAT 299
The stage-play emperor to entrap applause.
To set the silly sort o' the world agape,
And make the politic smile ; no, I have heard
How in the Council you condemn'd this war.
Urging the perfidy of broken faith, —
For that 1 am your friend.
Gersa. If ever, sire.
You are my enemy, I dare here swear 150
'Twill not be Gersa's fault. Otho, ferewell I
Otho. Will you return. Prince, to our banqueting ?
Gersa. As to my father's board I will return.
Otho, Conrad, with all due ceremony, give
The prince a regal escort to his camp ;
Albert, go thou and bear him company.
Gersa, farewell 1
Gersa. All happiness attend you !
Otko. Return with what good speed you may ; for soon
We must consult upon our terms of peace.
[Exeunt Gersi and Albert tvitk others.
And thus a marble column do I build 160
To prop my empire's dome. Conrad, in thee
I have another steadfast one, to uphold
The portals of my state ; and, for my own
Pre-eminence and safety, I will strive
To keep thy strength upon its pedestal.
For, without thee, this day I might have been
A show-monster about the streets of Prague,
In chains, as just now stood that noble prince :
And then to me no mercy had been shown.
For when the conquer'd lion is once dungeoned, 170
Who lets him forth again, or dares to give
An old lion sugar-cates of mild reprieve ?
Not to thine ear alone I make confession.
But to all here, as, by experience,
I know how the great basement of all power
Is frankness, and a true tongue to the world ;
And how intriguing secrecy is proof
Of fear and weakness, and a hollow state.
Conrad, I owe thee much.
Conrad. To kiss that hand.
My Emperor, is ample recompense, 180
For a mere act of duty.
Otho. Thou art wrong ;
For what can any man on earth do more ?
We will make trial of your house's welcome.
My bright Auranthe !
Conrad, How is Friedburg honoured !
300 JOHN KEATS [act t., se. ni
Enter Ethelbert aTtd six Monks.
Ethelhert. The benison of heaven on your head.
Imperial Otho !
Otho. Who stays me ? Speak ! Quick !
Ethelbert. Pause but one moment, mighty conqueror !
Upon the threshold of this house of joy.
Otho. Vray, do not prose, good Ethelbert, but speak
What is your purpose. igo
Ethelbert. The restoration of some captive maids.
Devoted to Heaven's pious ministries,
Who, driven forth from their religious cells
And kept in thraldom by our enemy,
When late this province was a lawless spoil.
Still weep amid the wild Hungarian camp.
Though hemm'd around by thy victorious arms.
Otho. Demand the holy sisterhood in our name
From Gersa's tents. Farewell, old Ethelbert.
Ethelbert. The saints will bless you for this pious care. 200
Otho. Daughter, your hand ; Ludolph's would fit it best.
Conrad. Ho ! let the music soiind !
[Music. Ethelbert raises his hands, as in benediction of Otho.
Exeunt severally. The scene closes on them.
SCENE III. — The Country, with the Castle in the distance.
' Enter Ludolph and Sioifred.
Ludolph, You have my secret ; let it not be breath'd.
Sigifred. Still give me leave to wonder that the Prince
Ludolph and the swift Arab are the same ;
Still to rejoice that 'twas a German arm
Death doing in a turban'd masquerade.
Ludolph. The Emperor must not know it, Sigifred.
^i^fred, I pry thee, why .'' What happier hour of time
Could thy pleased star point down upon from heaven
With silver index, bidding thee make peace ?
Ludolph. Still it must not be known, good Sigifred ;
The star may point oblique.
Sigifred. If Otho knew
His son to be that unknown Mussulman
After whose spurring heels he sent me forth.
With one of his well-pleased Olympian oaths.
The charters of man's greatness, at this hour
He would be watching round the castle walls,
ACT I., sc. m] OTHO THE GREAT 301
And, like an anxious warder, strain his sight
For the first glimpse of such a son return' d —
Ludolph ! — ^that blast of the Hungarians,
That Saracenic meteor of the fight, 20
That silent fury, whose fell scjrmitar
Kept danger all aloof from Otho's head.
And left him space for wonder.
Ludolph. Say no more.
Not as a swordsman would I pardon claim.
But as a son. The bronzed centurion,
Long toil'd in foreign wars, and whose high deeds
Are shaded in a forest of tall spears.
Known only to his troop, hath greater plea
Of favour with my sire than I can have.
Sigifred. My lord, forgive me that I cannot see 30
How this proud temper with clear reason squares.
What made you then, with such an anxious love,
Hover around that life, whose bitter days
You vext with bad revolt ? Was't opium.
Or the mad-fumed wine ? Nay, do not frown,
I rather would grieve with you than upbraid.
Ludolph. I do believe you. No, 'twas not to make
A father his son's debtor, or to heal
His deep heart-sickness for a rebel child.
'Twas done in memory of my boyish days, 40
Poor cancel for his kindness to my youth.
For all his calming of my childish griefs.
And all his smiles upon my merriment.
No, not a thousand foughten fields could sponge
Those days paternal from my memory.
Though now upon my head he heaps disgrace.
Sigifred. My Prince, you think too harshly —
hadolph. Can I so }
Hath he not gall'd my spirit to the quick .''
And with a sullen rigour obstinate
Pour'd out a phial of wrath upon my faults, 50
Hunted me as the Tartar does the boar.
Driven me to the very edge o' the world.
And almost put a price upon my head ?
Sigifred. Remember how he spared the rebel lords.
Ludolph. Yes, yes, I know he hath a noble nature
That cannot trample on the fallen. But his
Is not the only proud heart in his realm.
He hath wrong'd me, and I have done him wrong ;
He hath loved me, and I have shown him kindness ;
We should be almost equal.
Sigifred. Yet, for all this, 60
302 JOHN KEATS [act i., so. hi
I would you had appear'd among those lords,
And ta'en his favour.
Ludolph. Ha ! Till now I thought
My friend had held poor Ludolph's honour dear.
What ! Would you have me sue before his throne
And kiss the courtier's missal, its silk steps ?
Or hug the golden housings of his steed.
Amid a camp whose steeled swarms I dared
But yesterday ? and, at the trumpet sound.
Bow, like some unknown mercenary's flag.
And lick the soiled grass ^ No, no, my friend, ' 70
I would not, I, be pardon'd in the heap,
And bless indemnity with all that scum,- —
Those men I mean, who on my shoulders propp'd
Their weak rebellion, winning me with lies.
And pitying forsooth my many wrongs ;
Poor self-deceived wretches, who must think
Each one himself a king in embryo.
Because some dozen vassals cry'd. My' lord !
Cowards, who never knew their little hearts
Till flurried danger held the mirror up, 80
And then they own'd themselves without a blush.
Curling, like spaniels, round my father's feet.
Such things deserted me and are forgiven.
While I, least guilty, am an outcast still, —
And will be, for I love such fair disgrace.
Sigifred. I know the clear truth ; so would Otho see,
For he is just and noble. Fain would I
Be pleader for you —
Ludolph, He'll hear none of it ;
You know his temper, hot, proud, obstinate ;
Endanger not yourself so uselessly. 90
I will encounter his thwart spleen myself,
To-day, at the Duke Conrad's, where he keeps
His crowded state after the victory.
There will I be, a most unwelcome guest.
And parley with him, as a son should do
Who doubly loathes a father's t)Tanny ;
Tell him how feeble is that t3n:aimy ;
How the relationship of father and son
Is no more valid than a silken leash
Where lions tug adverse, if love grow not 100
From interchanged love through many years.
Ay, and those turreted Franconian walls.
Like to a jealous casket, hold my pearl —
My fair Auranthe ! Yes, I will be there.
Sigifred. Be not so rash ; wait till his wrath shall pass,
ACT n., sc. I] OTHO THE GREAT
Until his royal spirit softly ebbs.
Self-influenced ; then, in his morning dreams
He wiU forgive thee, and awake in grief
To have not thy good-morrow.
Ludolph. Yes, to-day
I must be there, while her young pulses beat no
Among the new-plumed minions of the war.
Have you seen her of late ? No ? Auranthe,
Franconia's fair sister, 'tis I mean.
She should be paler for my troublous days —
And there it is — ^my father's iron lips
Have sworn divorcement 'twixt me and my right.
- Sigifred (aside). Auranthe ! I had hoped this whim had pass'd.
Ludolph. And, Sigifred, with all his love of justice.
When will he take that grandchild in his arms.
That, by my love I swear, shall soon be his } 120
This reconcilement is impossible.
For see — ^but who are these ?
Sigifred. They are messengers
From our great emperor ; to you, I doubt not,
For couriers are abroad to seek you out.
Enter Theodore and Gonfred.
Theodore. Seeing so many vigilant eyes explore
The province to invite your highness back
To your high dignities, we are too happy.
Gonfred. We have no eloquence to colour justly
The emperor's anxious wishes.
Ludolph. Go. I follow you.
[Exeunt Theodore and Gonfred.
I play the prude : it is but venturing — 130
Why should he be so earnest .'' Come, my friend.
Let us to Friedburg castle.
ACT II
Scene I. — An Ante-chamber in the Castle.
Enter Ludolph and Sigifred.
Ludolph.
NO more advices, no more cautioning ;
I leave it all to fete — to any thing !
I cannot square my conduct to time, place.
Or circumstance ; to me 'tis all a mist !
JOHN KEATS [act ii., sc. i
Sigifred, I say no more.
Ludolph. It seems I am to wait
Here in the ante-room ; — that may be a trifle.
You see now how I dance attendance here,
Without that tyrant temper, you so blame.
Snapping the rein. You have medicin'd me
With good advices ; and I here remain, lo
In this most honourable anteroom.
Your patient scholar.
Sigtfred. Do not wrong me. Prince.
By heavens, I'd rather kiss Duke Conrad's slipper,
When in the morning he doth yawn with pride.
Than see you humbled but a half-degree !
Truth is, the Emperor would fain dismiss
The nobles ere he sees you.
Enter Gonphkd, Jrom the Council-room.
Ludolpk. Well, sir ! what ?
Gonfred. Great honour to the Prince ! The Emperor,
Hearing that his brave son had re-appeared.
Instant dismiss'd the Council from his sight, 20
As Jove fans off the clouds. Even now they pass.
[Eat.
[Enter the Nobles from the Council-room. They cross the stage, homing
with respect to Ludolph, he Jromning on them. Conrad follows.
Exeunt Nobles.
Ludolph. Not the discoloured poisons of a fen.
Which he who breathes feels warning of his death.
Could taste so nauseous to the bodily sense,
As these prodigious sycophants disgust
The soul's fine palate.
Conrad. I*rincely Ludolph, hail !
Welcome, thou younger sceptre to the realm !
Strength to thy virgin crownet's golden buds.
That they, against the winter of thy sire,
May burst, and swell, and flourish round thy brows, 30
Maturing to a weighty diadem !
Yet be that hour far off ; and may he live.
Who waits for thee, as the chapp'd earth for rain.
Set my life's star ! I have lived long enough.
Since under my glad roof, propitiously,
Father and son each other repossess.
Ludolph. Fine wording, Duke ! but words could never yet
Forestall the fates ; have you not learnt that yet ?
ACT II., SO. I] OTHO THE GREAT 305
Let me look well : your features are the same ;
Your gait the same ; your hair of the same shade ; 40
As one I knew some passed weeks ago.
Who sung far different notes into mine ears.
I have mine own particular comments on 't ;
You have your own, perhaps.
Conrad. My gracious Prince,
All men may err. In truth I was deceived
In your great father's nature, as you were.
Had I known that of him I have since known.
And what you soon will learn, I would have tum'd
My sword to my own throat, rather than held
Its threatening edge against a good King's quiet : 50
Or with one word fever'd you, gentle Prince,
Who seem'd to me, as rugged times then went.
Indeed too much oppress'd. May I be bold
To teU the Emperor you will haste to him ?
Ludolph. Your Dukedom's privilege will grant so much.
[Exit Conrad.
He's very close to Otho, — a tight leech !
Your hand — I go. Ha ! here the thunder comes
Sullen against the wind ! If in two angry brows
My safety lies, then Sigifred, I'm safe.
Enter Otho atid Conrad.
Otho. Will you make Titan play the lackey-page 60
To chattering pigmies .'' I would have you know
That such neglect of our high Majesty
Annuls all feel of kindred. What is son, —
Or friend, — or brother, — or all ties of blood, —
When the whole kingdom, centred in ourself,
Is rudely slighted ? Who am I to wait ?
By Peter's chair ! I have upon my tongue
A word to fright the proudest spirit here ! —
Death I — and slow tortures to the hardy fool
Who dares take such large charter from oiu- smiles I 70
Conrad, we would be private. Sigifred,
Off I And none pass this way on pain of death !
[Exeunt Conrad aiid Sigifred.
Ludolph. This was but half expected, my good sire.
Yet I am grieved at it, to the fuU height.
As though my hopes of fitvour had been whole.
Otho. How you indulge yourself ! What can you hope for ?
Ludolph, Nothing, my liege ; I have to hope for nothing.
I come to greet you as a loving son.
And then depart, if I may be so free.
306 JOHN KEATS [act a, sc. i
Seeing that blood of yours in my warm veins go
Has not yet mitigated into milk.
Otho. What would you, sir ?
iMdolph. A lenient banishment.
So please you, let me unmolested pass
This Conrad's gates to the wide air again,
I want no more. A rebel wants no more.
Otho. And shall I let a rebel loose again
To muster kites and eagles 'gainst my head .'
No, obstinate boy, you shall be kept caged up.
Served with harsh food, with scum for Sunday drink.
L/udolph. Indeed !
Otho. And chains too heavy for your life : 90
I'll choose a gaoler whose swart monstrous face
Shall be a hell to look upon, and she —
Ludolph. Ha !
Otho. Shall be your fair Auranthe.
Ludolph. Amaze ! Amaze !
Otho. To-day you marry her.
Ludolphi This is a sharp jest !
Otho. No. None at all. When have I said a lie ?
Ludolph. If I sleep not, I am a waking wretch.
Otho. Not a word more. Let me embrace my child.
Ludolph. I dare not. 'Twould pollute so good a father !
O heavy crime ! — that your son's blinded eyes
Could not see all his parent's love aright, 100
As now I see it ! Be not kind to me —
Punish me not with favour.
Otho. Are you sure,
Ludolph, you have no saving plea in store ?
Ludolph. My &ther, none !
Otho, Then you astonish me.
Ludolph. No, I have no plea. Disobedience,
Rebellion, obstinacy, blasphemy,
Are all my counsellors. If they can make
My crooked deeds show good and plausible.
Then grant me loving pardon, but not else,
Good gods ! not else, in any way, my liege ! no
Otho, You are a most perplexing, noble boy.
Ludolph. You not less a perplexing noble father.
Otho. Well, you shall have free passport through the gates.
Farewell !
Ludolph. Farewell ! and by these tears believe.
And still remember, I repent in pain
All my misdeeds I
Otho. Ludolph, 1 will 1 I will !
But, Ludolph, ere you go, I would enquire
ACT II., sc. I] OTHO THE GREAT 307
If you, in all your wandering, ever met
A certain Arab haunting in these parts.
iMdolph. No, my good lord, I cannot say I did. lao
Oiho. Make not your father blind before his time ;
Nor let these arms paternal hunger more
For an embrace, to dull the appetite
Of my great love for thee, my supreme child !
Come close, and let me breathe into thine ear.
I knew you through disguise. You are the Arab !
You can't deny it. [Embracing him.
Ludolpk. Happiest of days !
Otko. We'll make it so.
Lvdolph. 'Stead of one fatted calf
Ten hecatombs shall bellow out their last.
Smote 'twixt the horns by the death-stunning mace 130
Of Mars, and all the soldiery shall feast
Nobly as Nimrod's masons, when the towers
Of Nineveh new kiss'd the parted clouds !
Otho. Large as a God speak out, where all is thine.
Ludolph. Ay, father, but the fire in my sad breast
Is quench'd with inward tears ! I must rejoice
For you, whose wings so shadow over me
In tender victory, but for myself
I still must mourn. The fair Auranthe mine !
Too great a boon ! I prythee let me ask 140
What more than I know of could so have changed
Your purpose touching her .>
Otho. At a word, this :
In no deed did you give me more offence
Than your rejection of Erminia.
To my appalling, I saw too good proof
Of your keen-eyed suspicion,— she is naught.
Ludolph. You are convinc'd ?
Otho. Ay, spite of her sweet looks.
O that my brother's daughter should so fall !
Her fame has pass'd into the grosser lips
Of soldiers in their cups.
Ludolph. 'Tis very sad. 150
Otho. No more of her. Auranthe — Ludolph, come !
This marriage be the bond of endless peace !
[Exeunt.
308 JOHN KEATS [act ii., sc.ii
Scene II. — The entrance of Gersa's Tent in the Hungarian Camp.
Enter Erminia.
Erminia. Where — where — where shall I find a messenger .-'
A trusty soul^ — a good man, in the camp ?
Shall I go myself.'' Monstrous wickedness !
O cursed Conrad ! devilish Auranthe !
Here is proof palpable as the bright sun !
O for a voice to reach the Emperor's ears !
[Shouts in the Camp,
Enter an Hungarian Captain.
Captain. Fair prisoner, you hear these joyous shouts ?
The King — aye, now our King, — but still your slave.
Young Gersa, from a short captivity
Has just retum'd. He bids me say, bright dame, lo
That even the homage of his ranged chiefs
Cures not his keen impatience to behold
Such beauty once again. What ails you, lady ?
Erminia. Say, is not that a German, yonder .'' There !
Captain. Methinks by his stout bearing he should be —
Yes — it is Albert ; a brave German knight,
And much in the Emperor's favour.
Erminia. I would fain
Inquire of friends and kinsfolk, — how they fared
In these rough times. Brave soldier, as you pass
To royal Gersa with my humble thanks, 20
Will you send yonder knight to me ?
Captain. I will, [Exit.
Erminia. Yes, he was ever known to be a man
Frank, open, generous ; Albert I may trust.
O proof ! proof! proof! Albert's an honest man ;
Not Ethelbert the monk, if he were here.
Would I hold more trustworthy. Now !
Enter Albert.
Albert. Good gods !
Lady Erminia ! are you prisoner
In this beleaguer'd camp ? or are you here
Of your own will .'' You pleased to send for me.
By Venus, 'tis a pity I knew not 3°
Your plight before, and, by her son, I swear
ACT n., sc. n] OTHO THE GREAT 309
To do you every service you can ask.
What would the fairest — ?
Erminia. Albert, will you swear ?
Albert. I have. Well?
Erminia. Albert, you have fame to lose.
If men, in court and camp, lie not outright,
You should be, from a thousand, chosen forth
To do an honest deed. Shall I confide — >
Albert. Aye, anything to me, fair creature. Do;
Dictate my task. Sweet woman, —
Erminia. Truce with that.
You understand me not ; and, in your speech, 40
I see how far the slander is abroad.
Without proof could you think me innocent ?
Albert. Lady, I should rejoice to know you so.
Erminia. If you have any pity for a maid
Suffering a daily death from evil tongues ;
Any compassion for that Emperor's niece
Who, for your bright sword and clear honesty.
Lifted you from the crowd of common men
Into the lap of honour, — save me, knight !
Albert. How i Make it clear ; if it be possible, 50
I, by the banner of Saint Maurice, swear
To right you.
Erminia. Possible ! — Easy. O my heart !
This letter 's not so soil'd but you may read it ; —
Possible ! There — that letter ! Read — read it.
[Gives him a letter.
Albert (reading).
" To the Duke Conrad. — Forget the threat you made at parting
and I will forget to send the Emperor letters and papers of yours
I have become possessed of. His life is no trifle to me ; his death
you shall find none to yourself." {Speaks to himself:) 'Tis me
— my life that's pleaded for ! (Reads.) " He, for his own
sake, will be dumb as the grave. Erminia has my shame fix'd 60
upon her, sure as a wen. We are safe. Auranthe."
A she-devil ! A dragon ! I her imp !
Fire of hell ! Auranthe — lewd demon !
Where got you this ? Where ? when ?
Erminia. I found it in the tent, among some spoils
Which, being noble, fell to Gersa's lot.
Come in, and see. [They go in and return.
Albert. Villainy ! Villainy !
Conrad's sword, his corslet and his helm.
And his letter. Caitiff, he shall feel—
Erminia. I see you are thunderstruck. Haste, haste away ! 70
310 JOHN KEATS [act il, sc. ii
Albert. O I am tortured by this vilkiny.
Erminia. You needs must be. Carry it swift to Otho ;
Tell him, moreover, I am prisoner
Here in this camp, where all the sisterhood,
Forced from their quiet cells, are parcell'd out
For slaves among these Huns. Away ! Away !
Albert. 1 am gone.
Erminia. Swift be your steed ! Within this hour
The Emperor will see it.
Albert. Ere I sleep :
That I can swear. [Hurries out.
Gersa (mitkout). Brave captains ! thanks. Enough 80
Of loyal homage now !
Enter Gersa.
Erminia. Hail, royal Hun !
Gersa. What means this, fair one ? Why in such alarm ?
Who was it hurried by me so distract .>
It seem'd you were in deep discpurse together ;
Your doctrine has not been so harsh to him
As to my poor deserts. Come, come, be plain.
I am no jealous fool to kill you both.
Or, for such trifles, rob th' adorned world
Of such a beauteous vestal.
Erminia. I grieve, my lord, 90
To hear you condescend to ribald-phrase.
Gersa. This is too much ! Hearken, my lady pure 1
Erminia. Silence ! and hear the magic of a name —
Erminia ! I am she, — the Emperor's niece !
Praised be the heavens, I now dare own myself !
Gersa. Erminia ! Indeed ! I've heard of her.
Prythee, fair lady, what chance brought you here ?
Erminia. Ask your own soldiers.
Gersa. And you dare own your name.
For loveliness you may — and for the rest
My vein is not censorious.
Erminia. Alas ! poor me ! 100
'Tis false indeed.
Gersa. Indeed you are too fair :
The swan, soft leaning on her fledgy breast,
When to the stream she launches, looks not back
With such a tender grace ; nor are her wings
So white as your soul is, if that but be
Twin picture to your face. Erminia !
To-day, for the first time, I am a king.
Yet would I give my unworn crown away
To know you spotless.
ACT II., sc. II] OTHO THE GREAT 311
Erminia. Trust me one day more.
Generously, without more certain guarantee no
Than this poor fiice you deign to praise so much ;
After that, say and do whate'er you please.
If I have any knowledge of you, sir,
I think, nay I am sure, you will grieve much
To hear my story. O be gentle to me.
For I am sick and faint with many wrongs.
Tired out, and weary- worn with contumelies.
Gersa. Poor lady !
Enter Ethelbert.
Erminia. Gentle Prince, 'tis false indeed.
Good morrow, holy father ! I have had
Your prayers, though I look'd for you in vain. 120
Ethelbert, Blessings upon you, daughter ! Sure you look
Too cheerful for these foul pernicious days.
Young man, you heard this virgin say 'twas false, —
'Tis Mse, I say. What ! can you not employ
Your temper elsewhere, 'mong these burly tents.
But you must taunt this dove, for she hath lost
The Eagle Otho to beat off assault ?
Fie ! fie ! But I will be her guard myself;
r the Emperor's name. I here demand of you
Herself, and all her sisterhood. She false ! 130
Gersa. Peace ! peace, old man ! I cannot think she is.
Ethelbert. Whom I have known from her first infancy,
Baptized her in the bosom of the Church,
Watch'd her, as anxious husbandmen the grain.
From the first shoot till the unripe mid-May,
Then to the tender ear of her June days.
Which, lifting sweet abroad its timid green.
Is blighted by the touch of calumny !
You cannot credit such a monstrous tale .'
Gersa. I cannot. Take her. Fair Erminia, 140
I follow you to Friedburg,^-is't not so .''
Erminia. Aye, so we purpose.
Ethelbert. Daughter, do you so ?
How's this ? I marvel ! Yet you look not mad.
Erminia. I have good news to tell you, Ethelbert.
Gersa. Ho ! ho, Uiere ! Guards !
Your blessing, father ! Sweet Erminia,
Believe me, I am well nigh sure —
Erminia. Farewell !
Short time will show. [Enter Chiefs.
Yes, father Ethelbert,
1 have news precious as we pass along,
JOHN KEATS [act hi,, sc. i
Ethelhert. Dear daughter, you shall guide me.
Erminia. To no ill. 150
Gersa. Command an escort to the Friedburg lines.
[Exeunt Chiefs,
Pray let me lead. Fair lady, forget not
Gersa, how he believed you innocent.
I follow you to Friedburg with all speed.
[Exeuid.
ACT III
Scene I. — The Country,
Enter Albert.
Albert.
OTHAT the earth were empty, as when Cain
Had no perplexity to hide his head !
Or that the sword of some brave enemy
Had put a sudden stop to my hot breath.
And hurl'd me down the illimitable gulf
Of times past, unremember'd ! Better so
Than thus fast-limed in a cursed snare, —
The white limbs of a wanton. This the end
Of an aspiring life ! My boyhood past
In feud with wolves and bears, when no eye saw 10
The solitary warfare, fought for love
Of honour 'mid the growling wilderness ;
My sturdier youth, maturing to the sword,
Won by the syren-trumpets, and the ring
Of shields upon the pavement, when bright-mail'd
Henry the Fowler pass'd the streets of Prague.
Was 't to this end I louted and became
The menial of Mars, and held a spear,
Sway'd by command, as com is by the wind .''
Is it for this, I now am lifted up 20
By Europe's throned Emperor, to see
My honour be my executioner, —
My love of fame, my prided honesty.
Put to the torture for confessional ? '
Then the damn'd crime of blurting to the world
A woman's secret ! — though a fiend she be,
Too tender of my ignominious life ;
But then to wrong the generous Emperor
In such a searching point, were to give up
My soul for foot-ball at hell's holiday ! 30
ACT III., sc. I] OTHO THE GREAT 313
I must confess, — and cut my throat, — to-day ?
To-morrow ? Ho ! some wine 1
Enter Sigifred,
Sigffred. A fine humour —
Albert. Who goes there ? Count Sigifred ? Ha! ha!
Sigifred. What, man, do you mistake the hollow sky
For a throng' d tavern, and these stubbed trees
For old serge hangings, — me, your humble friend.
For a poor waiter ? Why, man, how you stare !
What Gipsies have you been carousing with ?
No, no more wine ; methinks you've had enough.
Albert. You well may laugh and banter. What a fool 40^
An injury may make of a staid man !
You shall know all anon.
Sigifred. Some tavern brawl ?
Amert. 'T was with some people out of common reach ;
Revenge is difficult.
Sigifred. I am your friend ;
We meet again to-day, and can confer
Upon it. For the present I'm in haste.
Albert. Whither?
Sigifred. To fetch King Gersa to the feast.
The Emperor on this marriage is so hot.
Pray heaven it end not in apoplexy !
The very porters, as I pass'd the doors, 50
Hear his loud laugh, and answer'd in full choir.
I marvel, Albert, you delay so long
From these bright revelries ; go, show yourself.
You may be made a duke.
Albert. Ay, very like.
Pray, what day has his Highness fix'd upon ?
Sigifred. For what .''
Albert. The marriage. What else can I mean .-'
Si^fred. To-day. O, I forgot, you could not know ;
The news is scarce a minute old with me.
Albert. Married to-day ! To-day ! You did not say so ?
Si^fred. Now, while I speak to you, their comely heads 60
Are bowed before the mitre.
Albert. O ! monstrous !
Si^fred. What is this }
Albert. Nothing, Sigifred. Farewell !
We'll meet upon our subject. Farewell, Coimt ! [Exit,
Sigifred. To this clear-headed Albert ? He brain-tum'd !
Tis as portentous as a meteor. [Exit,
314 JOHN KEATS [act hi., sc. ii
Scene II. — An Apartment in the Castle.
Enter, as from the Marriage, Otho, Ludolph, Auranthe, Conrad,
Nobles, Knights, Ladies, <^c. Music.
Otho. Now, Ludolph ! Now, Auranthe ! Daughter fair !
What can I find to grace your nuptial day
More than my love, and these wide realms in fee ?
Ludolph. I have too much.
Auranthe. And I, my liege, by far.
Ludolph. Auranthe I have ! O, my bride, my love !
Not all the gaze upon us can restrain
My eyes, too long poor exiles from thy face,
From adoration, and my foolish tongue
From uttering soft responses to the love
I see in thy mute beauty beaming forth ! lo
Fair creature, bless me with a single word !
All mine !
Auranthe. Spare, spare me, my lord ; I swoon else.
Ludolph. Soft beauty ! by to-morrow 1 should die,
Wert thou not mine. \They talk apart.
1st Lady. How deep she has bewitch'd him !
1st Knight. Ask you for her recipe for love philtres.
2nd Lady. They hold the Emperor jn admiration.
Otho. If ever king was happy that am I !
What are the cities 'yond the Alps to me.
The provinces about the Danube's mouth,
The promise of feir soil beyond the Rhone ; 20
Or routing out of Hyperborean hordes.
To these fair children, stars of a new age }
Unless perchance I might rejoice to win
This little ball of earth, and chuck it them
To play with !
Auranthe. Nay, my lord, I do not know.
Ludolph. Let me not famish.
Otho {to Conrad). Good Franconia,
You heard what oath I sware, as the sun rose.
That unless Heaven would send me back my son.
My Arab, — no soft music should enrich
The cool wine, kiss'd off with a soldier's smack ; 30
Now all my empire, barter'd for one feast,
Seems poverty.
Conrad. ■ Upon the neighbour plain
The heralds have prepared a royal lists ;
Your knights, found war-proof in the bloody field,
Speed to the game,
ACT ni., sc. n] OTHO THE GREAT 315
Otho. Well, Ludolph, what say you ?
Ludolph. My lord !
Otho. A tourney ?
Conrad. Or, if 't please you best —
Ludolph. I want no more !
1st Lady. He soars !
2nd Lcdy. Past all reason.
Ludolph. Though heaven's choir
Should in a vast circumference descend
And sing for my delight, I'd stop my ears ! 40
Though bright Apollo's car stood burning here,
And he put out an arm to bid me mount,
His touch an immortality, not I !
This earth, this palace, this room, Auranthe !
Otho. This is a little painful ; just too much.
C!onrad, if he flames longer in this wise
I shall believe in wizard-woven loves
And old romances ; but I'll break the spell.
Ludolph !
Conrad. He'll be calm, anon.
Ludolph. You call'd ?
Yes, yes, yes, I offend. You must forgive me ; 50
Not being quite recover'd from the stun
Of your large bounties. A tourney, is it not ?
\A sennet heard faintly.
Conrad. The trumpets reach us.
Ethelhert (without). On your peril, sirs.
Detain us !
1st Voice (without). Let not the abbot pass.
2}id Voice (without). No
On your lives !
1st Voice (without). Holy father, you must not.
Ethelhert (without). Otho !
Otho. Who calls on Otho .?
EthelbeH (without). Ethelhert !
Otho. Lethim come in.
Enter Ethelhert leading in Erminia.
Thou cursed abbot, why
Hast brought pollution to our holy rites ?
Hast thou no fear of hangman, or the faggot ?
Ludolph. What portent — what strange prodigy is this .'' 60
Conrad. Away !
Ethelhert. You, Duke .'
Erminia. Albert has surely fail'd me !
Look at the Emperor's brow upon me bent \
Ethelhert, A sad delay !
316 JOHN KEATS [act hi., sc. n
Conrad. Away, you guilty thing !
Ethelbert. You again, Duke ? Justice, most noble Otho !
You — go to your sister there, and plot again,
A quick plot, swift as thought to save your heads ;
For lo ! the toils are spread around your den.
The world is all agape to see dragg'd forth
Two ugly monsters.
Ludolph. What means he, my lord i'
ConrtHd. I cannot guess.
Ethelbert. Best ask your lady sister, 70
Whether the riddle puzzles her beyond
The power of utterance.
Conrad. Foul barbarian, cease ;
The Princess faints !
Ludolph. Stab him ! O, sweetest wife !
[Attendants bear off Acranthe.
Erminia. Alas !
Ethelbert. Your wife .''
iMdolph. Ay, Satan ! does that yerk ye }
Ethelbert. Wife ! so soon !
Ludolph. Ay, wife ! Oh, impudence !
Thou bitter mischief ! Venomous mad priest !
How dar'st thou lift those beetle brows at me —
Me — the prince Ludolph, in this presence here,
Upon my marriage-day, and scandalize
My joys with such opprobrious surprise ? 80
Wife ! Why dost linger on that syllable,
As if it were some demon's name pronounc'd
To summon harmful lightning, and make yawn
The sleepy thunder ? Hast no sense of fear ?
No ounce of man in thy mortality ?
Tremble ! for, at my nod, the sharpen'd axe
Will make thy bold tongue quiver to the roots.
Those grey lids wink, and thou not know it more !
Ethelbert. O, poor deceived Prince ! I pity thee !
Great Otho ! I claim justice —
Ludolph. Thou shall have't ! 90
Thine arms from forth a pulpit of hot fire
Shall sprawl distracted .-' O that that duU cowl
Were some most sensitive portion of thy life.
That I might give it to my hounds to tear !
Thy girdle some fine zealous-pained nerve
To girth my saddle ! And those devil's beads
Each one a life, that I might every day
Crush one with Vulcan's hammer!
Otho. Peace, my son ;
You far outstrip my spleen in this affair.
ACT lu., SO. II] OTHO THE GREAT 317
Let us be calm, and hear the abbot's plea loo
For this intrusion.
Ludolph. I am silent, sire.
Otho. Conrad, see all depart not wanted here.
\Exeunl Knights, Ladies, 8^c.
Ludolph, be calm. Ethelbert, peace awhile.
This mystery demands an audience
Of a just judge, and that will Otho be.
Ludolph. Why has he time to breathe another word ?
Otho. Ludolph, old Ethelbert, be sure, comes not
To beard us for no cause ; he's not the man
To cry himself up an ambassador
Without credentials.
Ludolph. I'll chain up myself. no
Otho. Old abbot, stand here forth. Lady Erminia,
Sit. And now, abbot ! what have you to say .-'
Our ear is open. First we here denounce
Hard penalties against thee, if't be foimd
The cause for which you have disturb'd us here.
Making our bright hours muddy, be a thing
Of little moment.
Ethelbert. See this iimocent !
Otho ! thou father of the people caU'd,
Is her life nothing ? Her fair honour nothing .''
Her tears from matins until even-song 120
Nothing ? Her burst heart nothing ? Emperor !
Is this your gentle niece — the simplest flower
Of the world's herbal — this fair lily blanch'd
Still with the dews of piety, this meek lady
Here sitting like an angel newly-shent.
Who veils its snowy wings and grows all pale, —
Is she nothing ?
Otho. What more to the purpose, abbot ?
Ludolph. Whither is he winding .-'
Conrad. No clue yet !
Ethelbert. You have heard, my liege, and so, no doubt, all here.
Foul, poisonous, malignant whisperings ; 130
Nay open speech, rude mockery grown common,
Against the spotless nature and clear fame
Of the princess Erminia, your niece.
I have intruded here thus suddenly.
Because I hold those base weeds, with tight hand.
Which now disfigure her fair growing stem.
Waiting but for your sign to pull them up
By the dark roots, and leave her palpable.
To all men's sight, a lady innocent.
The ignominy of that whisper'd tale 140
318 JOHN KEATS [act iu., sc. n
About a midnight gallant, seen to climb
A window to her chamber neighbour'd near
I wiU from her turn off, and put the load
On the right shoulders ; on that wretch's head.
Who, by close stratagems, did save herself.
Chiefly by shifting to this lady's room
A rope-ladder for false witness.
Ludolph. Most atrocious !
Otho. Ethelbert, prqceed.
Ethelbert. With sad lips I shall :
For, in the healing of one wound, I fear
To make a greater. His young highness here 150
To-day was married.
Ludolph. Good.
Ethelbert. Would it were good !
Yet why do I delay to spread abroad
The names of those two vipers, from whose jaw
A deadly breath went forth to taint and blast
This guileless lady }
Otho. Abbot, speak their names.
Ethelbert. A minute first. It cannot be — but may
I ask, great judge, if you to-day have put
A letter by unread ?
Otho. Does 't end in this .-'
Conrad. Out with their names !
Ethelbert. Bold sinner, say you so ?
Ludolph. Out, tedious monk !
Otho. Confess, or by the wheel — 160
Ethelbert. My evidence cannot be far away ;
And, though it never come, be on my head
The crime of passing an attaint upon
The slanderers of this virgin —
Ludolph. Speak aloud !
Ethelbert. Auranthe, and her brother there !
Conrad. Amaze !
Ludolph. Throw them from the windows !
Otho, Do what you will !
Ludolph. What shall I do with them ?
Something of quick dispatch, for should she hear.
My soft Auranthe, her sweet mercy would
Prevail against my fury. Damned priest ! 170
What swift death wilt thou die ? As to the lady
I touch her not.
Ethelbert. Illustrious Otho, stay !
An ample store of misery thou hast ;
Choke not the granary of thy noble mind
With more bad bitter grain, too difficult
Acyr in., so. ii] OTHO THE GREAT 319
A cud for the repentance of a man
Grey-growing. To thee only I appeal,
Not to thy noble son, whose yeasting youth
Will clear itself, and crystal turn again.
A young man's heart, by Heaven's blessing, is i8o
A wide world, where a thousand new-bom hopes
Empurple fresh the melancholy blood :
But an old man's is narrow, tenantless
Of hopes, and stuflTd with many memories.
Which, being pleasant, ease the heavy pulse —
Painful, clog up and stagnate. Weigh this matter
Even as a miser balances his coin :
And, in the name of mercy, give command
That your knight Albert be brought here before you.
He will expound this riddle ; he will show igo
A noon-day proof of bad Auranthe's guilt.
Oiho. Let Albert straight be summon'd.
[Exit one of the Nobles,
Ludolph. Impossible !
I cannot doubt — I will not — no — to doubt
Is to be ashes ! — wither'd up to death !
Otho. My gentle Ludolph, harbour not a fear ;
You do yourself much wrong.
Ludolph. O, wretched dolt !
Now, when my foot is almost on thy neck.
Wilt thou infiuriate me .'' Proof ! "Thou fool !
Why wilt thou tease impossibility
With such a thick-skull' d persevering suit .' 200
Fanatic obstinacy ! Prodigy !
Monster of folly ! Ghost of a tum'd brain !
You puzzle me, — you haunt me, when I dream
Of you my brain will split ! Bold sorcerer !
Juggler ! May I come near you .'' On my soul
I know not whether to pity, curse, or laugh.
Enter Albert and the Nobleman.
Here, Albert, this old phantom wants a proof !
Give him his proof ! A camel's load of proofs !
Otho. Albert, I speak to you as to a man
Whose words once utter'd pass like current gold ;
And therefore fit to calmly put a close
To this brief tempest. Do you stand possess'd
Of any proof against the honourableness
Of Lady Auranthe, our new-spoused daughter }
Albert. You chill me with astonishment. How's this ?
JOHN KEATS [act in., sc. ii
My liege, what proof should I have 'gainst a &ine
Impossible of slur ? [Otho rises.
Erminia. O wickedness !
Ethelbert. Deluded monarch, 'tis a cruel he.
, Otho. Peace, rebel-priest !
Conrad. Insult beyond credence ! '
Erminia. Almost a dream !
Ludolph. We have awaked from ! 220
A foolish dream that from my brow hath wrung
A wrathful dew. O' folly ! why did I
So act the lion with this silly gnat .''
Let them depart. Lady Erminia !
I ever grieved for you, as who did not ?
But now you have, with such a brazen front.
So most maliciously, so madly, striven
To dazzle the soft moon, when tenderest clouds
Should be unloop'd around to curtain her,
. I leave you to the desert of the world 2,0
Almost with pleasure. Let them be set free
For me ! I take no personal revenge
More than against a nightmare, which a man
Forgets in the new dawn.
[Emt LuDOLPH.
Otho. Still in extremes ! No, they must not be loose.
Ethelbert. Albert, I must suspect thee of a crime
So fiendish —
Otho. Fear'st thou not my fury, monk?
Conrad, be they in your safe custody
Till we determine some fit punishment.
It is so mad a deed, I must reflect 240
And question them in private ; for perhaps.
By patient scrutiny, we may discover
Whether they merit death, or should be placed
In care of the physicians.
[Exeunt Otho and Nobles, Albert folhtrng.
Conrad. My guards, ho !
Erminia. Albert, wilt thou follow there ?
Wilt thou creep dastardly behind his back.
And shrink away from a weak woman's eye .'
Turn, thou court- Janus ! thou forget 'st thyself;
Here is the duke, waiting with open arms
Enter Guards.
To thank thee ; here congratulate each other ; 250
Wring hands ; embrace ; and swear how lucky 'twas
That I, by happy chance, hit the right man
Of all the world to trust in.
ACT IV., sc. I] OTHO THE GREAT 321
Albert, Trust ! to me !
Conrad [aside). He is the sole one in this mystery.
Ermnia. Well, I give up, and save my prayers for Heaven !
You, who could do this deed, would ne'er relent,
Though, at my words, the hollow prison-vaults
Would groan for pity.
Conrad. Manacle them both !
Ethelbert. I know it — it must be — I see it all !
Albert, thou art the minion !
Erminia. Ah ! too plain — 260
Conrad. Silence ! Gag up their mouths ! I cannot bear
More of this brawling. That the Emperor
Had placed you in some other custody !
Bring them away. [Exeunt all but Albert.
Albert. Though my name perish from the book of honour.
Almost before the recent ink is dry.
And be no more remember'd after death
Than any drummer's in the muster-roll ;
Yet shall I season high my sudden fall
With triumph o'er that evil-witted duke ! 270
He shall feel what it is to have the hand
Of a man drowning, on his hateful throat.
Enter Gersa a?id Sigifred.
Gersa. What discord is at ferment in this house ?
Sigifred. We are without conjecture ; not a soul
We met could answer any certainty.
Gersa. Young Ludolph, like a fiery arrow, shot
By us.
Sigifred. The Emperor, with cross'd arms, in thought.
Gersa. In one room music, in another sadness.
Perplexity everywhere !
Albert. A trifle more !
Follow ; your presences will much avail 280
To tune our jarred spirits. I'll explain.
[Exeunt.
ACT IV
Scene I. — Auranthe's Apartment.
AuRANTHE and Conrad discovered.
Conrad.
WELL, well, I know what ugly jeopardy
We are caged in ; you need not pester that
Into my ears. Pry thee, let me be spared
A foolish tongue, that I may bethink me
322 JOHN KEATS [act iv., sc. i
Of remedies with some deliberation.
You cannot doubt but 'tis in Albert's power
To crush or save us ?
Auranthe. No, I cannot doubt.
He has, assure yourself, by some strange means.
My secret ; which I ever hid from him.
Knowing his mawkish honesty.
Conrad. Cursed slave ! lo
Auranthe. Ay, I could almost curse him now myself.
Wretched impediment ! Evil genius !
A glue upon my wings, that cannot spread.
When they should span the provinces ! A snake,
A scorpion, sprawling on the first gold step.
Conducting to the throne high canopied.
Conrad. You would not hear my counsel, when his life
Might have been trodden out, all sure and hush'd ;
Now the dull animal forsooth must be
Intreated, managed ! When can you contrive 20
The interview he demands ?
Auranthe. As speedily
It must be done as my bribed woman can
Unseen conduct him to me ; but I fear
'Twill be impossible, while the broad day
Comes through the panes with persecuting glare.
Methinks, if 't now were night I could intrigue
With darkness, bring the stars to second me.
And settle all this trouble.
Conrad, Nonsense ! Child !
See him immediately ; why not now ?
Auranthe. Do you forget that even the senseless door-posts 30
Are on the watch and gape through all the house ?
How many whisperers there are about,
Hungry for evidence to ruin me. —
Men I have spum'd, and women I have taunted ?
Besides, the foolish prince sends, minute whiles,
His pages — so they tell me — to inquire
After my health, entreating, if I please.
To see me.
Conrad. Well, suppose this Albert here ;
What is your power with him ?
Auranthe. He should be
My echo, my taught parrot ! but I fear 40
He will be cur enough to bark at me ;
Have his own say ; read me some silly creed
'Bout shame and pity.
Conrad. What will you do then ?
Avraidh^. What \ shall do, I know not : what I would
ACT IV., sc. I] OTHO THE GREAT 323
Cannot be done ; for see, this chamber-floor
Will not jrield to the pick-axe and the spade, —
Here is no quiet depth of hollow ground.
Conrad. Sister, you have grown sensible and wise.
Seconding, ere I speak it, what is now,
I hope, resolved between us.
Auranthe. Say, what is't ? 50
Conrad. You need not be his sexton too : a man
May carry that with him shall make him die
Elsewhere, — give that to him ; pretend the while
You will to-morrow succumb to his wishes.
Be what they may, and send him from the Castle
On some fool's errand ; let his latest groan
Frighten the wolves !
Auranthe. Alas ! he must not die !
Conrad. Would you were both hearsed up in stifling lead !
Detested —
Auranthe. Conrad, hold ! I would not bear
The little thimder of your fretful tongue, 60
Tho' I alone were taken in these toils.
And you could free me ; but remember, sir.
You live alone in my security :
So keep your wits at work, for your own sake,
Not mine, and be more mannerly.
Conrad. Thou wasp !
If my domains were emptied of these folk.
And I had thee to starve —
Auranthe. O, marvellous !
But Conrad, now be gone ; the host is look'd for ;
Cringe to the Emperor, entertain the lords,
And, do ye mind, above all things, proclaim 70
My sickness, with a brother's sadden'd eye.
Condoling with Prince Ludolph. In fit time
Return to me.
Conrad. I leave you to your thoughts.
[Exit.
Auranthe (sola). Down, down, proud temper ! down, Auranthe's
pride !
Why do I anger him when I should kneel .'
Conrad I Albert ! help ! help ! What can I do .'
O wretched woman ! lost, wreck'd, swallow'd up.
Accursed, blasted ! O, thou golden Crown,
Orbing along the serene firmament
Of a wide empire, like a glowing moon ; 80
And thou, bright sceptre ! lustrous in my eyes
There — as the fabled fair Hesperian tree.
Bearing a fruit more precious ! graceful thing.
JOHN KEATS [act iv., so. i
Delicate, godlike, magic ! must I leave
Thee to melt in the visionary air,
Ere, by one grasp, this common hand is made
Imperial ? I do not know the time
When I have wept for sorrow ; but methinks
I could now sit upon the ground, and shed
Tears, tears of misery. O, the heavy day ! go
How shall I bear my life till Albert comes ?
Ludolph ! Erminia ! Proofs ! O heavy day !
Bring me some mourning weeds, that I may 'tire
Myself as fits one wailing her own death :
Cut off these curls, and brand this lily hand.
And throw these jewels from my loathing sight, —
Fetch me a missal, and a string of beads, —
A cup of bitter'd water, and a crust, —
I will confess, O holy Abbot ! — How !
What is this ? Auranthe ! thou fool, dolt, loo
Whimpering idiot ! up ! up ! and quell !
I am safe ! Coward ! why am I in fear ?
Albert ! he cannot stickle, chew the cud
In such a fine extreme, — impossible !
Who knocks ? [Goes to the Door, listens, aiid opens U.
Enter Albert.
Albert, I have been waiting for you here
With such an aching heart, such swooning throbs
On my poor brain, such cruel — cruel sorrow.
That I should claim your pity ! Art not well .''
Albert. Yes, lady, well.
Auranthe. You look not so, alas ! no
But pale, as if you brought some heavy news.
Albert. You know full well what makes me look so pale.
Auranthe. No ! Do I } Surely I am still to learn
Some horror ; all I know, this present, is
I am near hustled to a dangerous gulf,
Which you can save me from, — and therefore safe,
So trusting in thy love ; that should not make
Thee pale, my ^bert.
Albert. It doth make me freeze.
Auranthe. Why should it, love .^
Albert. You should not ask me that.
But make your own heart monitor, and save no
Me the great pain of telling. You must know.
Auranthe. Something has vext you, Albert. There are times
When simplest things put on a sombre bast ;
A melancholy mood will haunt a man.
ACT IV., sc. I] OTHO THE GREAT 325
Until most easy matters take the shape
Of unachievable tasks ; small rivulets
Then seem impassable.
Albert. Do not cheat yourself
With hope that gloss of words, or suppliant action.
Or tears, or ravings, or self-threaten'd death.
Can alter my resolve.
Aurantke. You make me tremble, 130
Not so much at your threats, as at your voice.
Untuned, and harsh, and barren of all love.
Albert. You suffocate me I Stop this devil's parley.
And listen to me ; know me once for all.
Aurantke. I thought I did. Alas ! I am deceived.
Albert. No, you are not deceived. You took me for
A man detesting all inhuman crime ;
And therefore kept from me your demon's plot
Against Erminia. Silent ? Be so still ;
For ever ! Speak no more ; but hear my words, 140
Thy fate. Your safety I have bought to-day
By blazoning a he, wWch in the dawn
I'll expiate with truth.
Aurantke. O cruel traitor !
Albert. For I would not set eyes upon thy shame ;
I would not see thee dragg'd to death by the hair.
Penanced, and taunted on a scaffolding I
To-night, upon the skirts of the blind wood
That blackens northward of these horrid towers,
I wait for you with horses. Choose your fate.
Farewell !
Aurantke. Albert, you jest ; I'm sure you must. 150
You, an ambitious Soldier ! I, a Queen,
One who could say, — Here, rule these Provinces !
Take tribute from those cities for thyself !
Empty these armouries, these treasuries.
Muster thy warlike thousands at a nod !
Go ! conquer Italy !
Albert. Auranthe, you have made
The whole world chaff to me. Your doom is fix'd.
Auranthe. Out, villain ! dastard !
Albert. Look there to the door !
Who is it i
Auranthe. Conrad, traitor !
Albert. Let him in.
Enter Conrad.
Do not affect amazement, hypocrite, 160
At seeing me in this chamber.
326 JOHN KEATS [act iv., sc. ii
Conrad. Auranthe ?
Albert. Talk not with eyes, but speak your curses out
Against me, who would sooner crush and grind
A brace of toads, than league with them t' oppress
An innocent lady, gull an Emperor,
More generous to me than autumn sun
To ripening harvests.
Auranthe. No more insult, sir !
Albert. Ay, clutch your scabbard ; but, for prudence sake.
Draw not the sword ; 'twould make an uproar, Duke,
You would not hear the end of. At night&U 170
Your lady sister, if I guess aright.
Will leave this busy castle. You had best
Take farewell too of worldly vanities.
Conrad. Vassal !
Albert. To-morrow, when the Emperor sends
For loving Conrad, see you fawn on him.
Good even !
Auranthe. You'll be seen !
Albert. See the coast clear then.
Auranthe (as he goes). Remorseless Albert ! Cruel, cruel
wretch ! [She lets him out.
Conrad. So, we must lick the dust .''
Auranthe. I follow him.
Conrad. How .'' Where .'' The plan of your escape ?
Auranthe. He waits
For me with horses by the forest-side, 180
Northward.
Conrad. Good, good ! he dies. You go, say you ?
Auranthe. Perforce. •
Conrad. Be speedy, darkness ! Till that comes,
Fiends keep you company ! \ExiL
Auranthe. And you ! and you !
And all men ! Vanish !
[Retires to an inner Apartment.
Scene II. — An Apartment in the Castle.
Enter Ludolph and Page.
Page. Still very sick, my lord ; but now I went,
And there her women, in a mournful throng,
Stood in the passage whispering ; if any
Moved 'twas with careful steps, and hush'd as death.
They bade me stop.
Ludolph. Good fellow, once again
Make soft inquiry ; prythee, be not stay'd
ACT IV., sc. II] OTHO THE GREAT 327
By any hindrance, but with gentlest force
Break through her weeping servants, till thou com'st
E'en to her chamber-door, and there, fair boy, —
If with thy mother's milk thou hast suck'd in lo
Any divine eloquence, — woo her ears
With plaints for me, more tender than the voice
Of dying Echo, echoed.
Page. Kindest master !
To know thee sad thus, will unloose my tongue
In mournful syllables. Let but my words reach
Her ears, and she shall take them coupled with
Moans from my heart, and sighs not counterfeit.
May I speed better ! [Exit Page.
Lvdolph {solus). Auranthe ! My life !
Long have I loved thee, yet till now not loved :
Remembering, as I do, hard-hearted times 20
When I had heard e'en of thy death perhaps.
And — thoughtless ! — suffer'd thee to pass alone
Into Elysium ! — now I follow thee,
A substance or a shadow, wheresoe'er
Thou leadest me, — whether thy white feet press.
With pleasant weight, the amorous-aching earth,
Or thro' the air thou pioneerest me,
A shade I Yet sadly I predestinate !
O, unbenignest Love, why wilt thou let
Darkness steal out upon the sleepy world 30
So wearily, as if Night's chariot-wheels
Were clogg'd in some thick cloud ? O, changeful Love,
Let not her steeds with drowsy-footed pace
Pass the high stars, before sweet embassage
Comes from the pillow'd beauty of that fair
Completion of all-delicate Nature's wit !
Pout her faint lips anew with rubious health ;
And, with thine infant fingers, lift the fringe
Of her sick eye-lids ; that those eyes may glow
With wooing light upon me, ere the mom 40
Peers with disrelish, grey, barren, and cold !
Enter Gersa and Courtiers.
Otho calls me his Lion, — Should I blush
To be so tamed ? so —
Gersa. Do me the courtesy.
Gentlemen, to pass on.
\st Knight. We are your servants.
[Exeunt Courtiers.
Ludolph. It seems then, sir, you have found out the man
You would confer with ; — me .''
328 JOHN KEATS [act iv., sc. ii
Gersa. If I break not
Too much upon your thoughtful mood, I will
Claim a brief while your patience.
Lvdolph. For what cause
Soe'er, I shall be honour'd.
Gersa. I not less,
Ludolph. What may it be ? No trifle can take place 50
Of such deliberate prologue, serious 'haviour.
But, be it what it may, I cannot fail
To listen with no common interest ;
For though so new your presence; is to me,
I have a soldier's friendship for your fame.
Please you explain.
Gersa. As thus : — for, pardon me,
I cannot, in plain terms, grossly assault
A noble nature ; and would feintly sketch
What your quick apprehension will fill up ;
So finely I esteem you.
Ludolph. I attend. 60
Gersa. Your generous father, most illustrious Otho,
Sits in the banquet-room among his chiefs ;
His wine is bitter, for you are not there ;
His eyes are fix'd still on the open doors.
And ev'ry passer in he frowns upon.
Seeing no Ludolph comes.
Ludolph. I do neglect.
Gersa. And for your absence may I guess the cause ?
Ludolph. Stay there ! No — guess ? More princely you must
be
Than to make guesses at me. 'Tis enough.
I'm sorry I can hear no more.
Gersa. And I 70
As grieved to force it on you so abrupt ;
Yet, one day, you must know a griefi whose sting
Will sharpen more the longer 'tis conceal'd.
Ludolph. Say it at once, sir ! Dead — dead..''-^is she dead }
Gersa. Mine is a cruel task : she is not dead.
And would, for your sake, she were innocent.
Ludolph. Hungarian ! Thou amazest me beyond
All scope of thought, convulsest my heart's blood
To deadly churning ! Gersa, you are young.
As I am ; let me observe you, face to face : 80
Not grey-brow'd like the poisonous Ethelbert,
No rheumed eyes, no furrowing of age.
No wrinkles, where all vices nestle in
Like crannied vermin, — no ! but fresh, and young.
And hopeful featured. Ha I by heaven you weep !
ACT IV., sc. ii] OTHO THE GREAT 329
Tears, human tears ! Do you repent you then
Of a curs'd torturer's office ? Why shouldst join —
Tell me, — the league of devils ? Confess — confess- —
The lie !
Gersa. Lie ! — but begone all ceremonious points
Of honour battailous ! I could not turn' go
My wrath against thee for the orbed world/
Ludolph. Your wrath, weak boy ? Tremble at mine, unles^
Retraction follow close upon the heels L
Of that late 'stounding insult ! Why has my sword
Not done already a sheer judgment on thee ? I
Despair, or eat thy words ! Why, thou wast nigh I
Whimpering away my reason ! Hark ye, sir,j
It is no secret, that £rminia,\
Erminia, sir, was hidden in your tent, — ;
0 bless'd asylum ! Comfortable home !j loo
Begone ! I pity thee; thou art a gull,t
Erminia's last new puppet |
Gersa. Furious fire !j
Thou mak'st me boil as hot as thou canst flame ! \
And in thy teeth I give thee back the lie I I
Thou liest ! Thou, Auranthe's fool ! A \littol ! I
Ludolph. Look ! look at this bright sword ;| I
There is no part of it, to the very hilt,l
But shall indulge itself about thine hekrt ij
Draw ! but remember thou must cower thy plumes,|
As yesterday the Arab made thee stoop.)
Gersa. Patience ! Not here ; I would not spill thy blood)'
Here, underneath this roof where Otho breathes,— <
Thy father, — almost mine. i
Ludolph. O faltering coward/! ,
Enter Page.
Stay, stay ; here is one I have half a word with.
Well ? What ails thee, child >
Page. My lord !
Ludolph. What wouldst say ?
Page. They are fled !
Ludolph. They! Who.''
Page. When anxiously
1 hasten'd back, your grieving messenger,
I found the stairs all dark, the lamps extinct.
And not a foot or whisper to be heard.
I thought her dead, and on the lowest step
Sat listening ; when presently came by
Two mufiBed up, — one sighing heavily,
330 JOHN KEATS [act v., sc. i
The other cursing low, whose voice I knew
For the Duke Conrad's. Close I foUow'd them
Thro' the dark ways they chose to the open air.
And, as I foUow'd, heard my lady speak.
Ludolph. Thy life answers the truth !
Page. The chamber's empty !
Ludolph. As I will be of mercy ! So, at last,
This nail is in my temples !
Gersa. Be calm in this.
Ludolph. I am.
Gersa. And Albert too has disappear'd ; 130
Ere I met you, I sought him everywhere ;
You would not hearken.
Ludolph. Which way went they, boy ?
Gersa. I'll hunt with you.
Ludolph. No, no, no. My senses are
Still whole. I have survived. My arm is strong —
My appetite sharp — for revenge ! I'll no sharer
In my feast ; my injury is all my own.
And so is my revenge, my lawful chattels !
Terrier, ferret them out ! Bum — burn the witch !
Trace me their footsteps ! Away ! [EmuU
ACT V
Scene I. — A part of the Forest,
Enter Conrad and Auranthe.
Auranthe.
GO no further ; not a step more. Thou art
A master-plague in the midst of miseries.
Go, — I fear thee ! I tremble, every limb.
Who never shook before. There's moody death
In thy resolved looks ! Yes, I could kneel
To pray thee far away ! Conrad, go ! go ! —
There ! yonder, underneath the boughs 1 see
Our horses !
Conrad. Ay, and the man.
Auranthe. Yes, he is there !
Go, go, — no blood ! no blood ! — go, gentle Conrad !
Conrad. Farewell !
Auranthe. Farewell ! For this Heaven pardon you ! «>
[Exit Auranthe.
Conrad. If he survive one hour, then may I die
ACT v., sc. Ill OTHO THE GREAT SSI
In unimagined tortures, or breathe through
A long life in the foulest sink o' the world !
He dies ! 'Tis well she do not advertise
The caitiiFof the cold steel at his back. [Exit Conk ad.
Enter Ludolph and Page.
Ludolph. Miss'd the way, boy ? Say not that on your peril !
Page. Indeed, indeed, I cannot trace them further.
Ludolph. Must I stop here .-' Here solitary die
Stifled beneath the thick oppressive shade
Of these dull boughs — ^this even of dark thickets — 20
Silent, — without revenge .' — pshaw ! bitter end, —
A bitter death — a suffocating death, —
A gnawing — silent — deadly, quiet death !
Escaped ? — fled } — vanish'd 2 melted into air ?
She's gone ! I cannot cluteh her ! no revenge !
A muffled death, ensnared m horrid silence !
Suck'd to my grave amid a dreamy calm !
O, where is that illustrious noise of war.
To smother up this sound of labouring breath.
This rustle of the trees !
[AuRANTHE shrieks at a distance.
Page. My lord, a noise ! 30
This way — hark !
Ludolph. Yes, yis ! A hope ! A music !
A glorious clamour ! How I live again ! [Excnnl.
Scene II. — Another part of the Forest.
Enter Albert {mounded).
Albert. Oh ! for enough life to support me on
To Otho's feet !
Enter Ludolph.
Ludolph. Thrice villainous, stay there !
Tell me where that detested woman is.
Or this is through thee !
Albert. My good Prince, with me
The sword has done its worst ; not without worst
Done to another, — Conrad has it home !
I see you know it all !
Ludolph. Where is his sister ?
JOHN KEATS [act v., sc. ii
Enter Auranthe.
Aurantke. Albert !
Ludolph. Ha ! There ! there ! He is the paramour ! —
There — hug him — dying ! O, thou innocence.
Shrine him and comfort him at his last gasp ; iq
Kiss down his eyelids ! Was he not thy love ?
Wilt thou forsake him at his latest hour ?
Keep fearful and aloof from his last gaze.
His most uneasy moments, when cold death
Stands with the door ajar to let him in >
Albert. O that that door with hollow slam would close
Upon me sudden ! for I cannot meet.
In all the unknown chambers of the dead.
Such horrors !
Ludolph. Auranthe ! what can he mean ?
What horrors ? Is it not a joyous time ? 20
Am I not married to a paragon
" Of personal beauty and untainted soul ? "
A blushing fair-eyed purity ? A sylph.
Whose snowy timid hand has never sinn'd
Beyond a flower pluck'd, white as itself?
Albert, you do insult my bride — your mistress —
To talk of horrors on our wedding-night !
Albert, Alas ! poor Prince, I would you knew my heart !
'Tis not so guilty —
Ludolph. Hear ! he pleads not guilty !
You are not ? or, if so, what matters it ? 30
You have escaped me, free as the dusk air,
Hid in the forest, safe from my revenge ;
I cannot catch you ! You should laugh at me.
Poor cheated Ludolph ! Make the forest hiss
With jeers at me ! Ypu tremble — faint at once.
You will come to again. O cockatrice,
I have you ! Whither wander those fair eyes
To entice the devil to your help, that he
May change you to a spider, so to crawl
Into some cranny to escape my wrath ? 40
Albert. Sometimes the counsel of a dying man
Doth operate quietly when his breath is gone :
Disjoin those hands — part — part — do not destroy
Each other — forget her ! — Our miseries
Are equal shared, and mercy is —
Ludolph. A boon
When one can compass it. Auranthe, try
Your oratory ; your breath is not so hiteh'd.
Ay, stare for help ! [Albert dies.
ACT v., sc. Ill] OTHO THE GREAT
There goes a spotted soul
Howling in vain along the hollow night !
Hear him ! He calls you — sweet Auranthe, come ! 50
Auranthe. Kill me !
Ludolph. No ! What ? Upon our marriage-night ?
The earth would shudder at so foul a deed !
A fair bride ! A sweet bride ! An innocent bride !
No ! we must revel it, as 'tis in use
In times of dehcate brilliant ceremony :
Come, let me lead you to our halls again !
Nay, linger not ; make no resistance, sweet ; —
Will you ? Ah, wretch, thou canst not, for I have
The strength of twenty lions 'gainst a lamb !
Now — one adieu for Albert ! — Come away ! 60
[Exeunt.
Scene III. — An inner Court of the Castle.
Enter Sigifred, Gonfred, and Theodore, meeting.
\sl Knight, Was ever such a night ?
Sigifred. What horrors more ?
Things unbelieved one hour, so strange they are.
The next hour stamps with credit.
Ut Knight, Your last news ?
Gonfred. After the page's story of the death
Of Albert and Duke Conrad }
Sigifred. And the return
Of Ludolph with the Princess.
Gonfred. No more, save
Prince Gersa's freeing Abbot Ethelbert,
And the sweet lady, feir Erminia,
From prison.
IH Knight. Where are they now .' Hast yet heard ?
Gonfred. With the sad Emperor they are closeted ; 10
1 saw the three pass slowly up the stairs,
The lady weeping, the old abbot cowl'd.
Sigifred. What next ?
1st Knight, I ache to think on't.
Gonfred. 'Tis with fete.
1st Knight, One while these proud towers are hush'd as death.
Gonfred, The next our poor Prince fills the arched rooms
With ghastly ravings.
St^fred. I do fear his brain.
Gonfred. I will see more. Bear you so stout a heart ?
[Exeunt into the Castle.
JOHN KEATS [act v., sc. iv
Scene IV. — A Cabinet, opening towards a Terrace.
Otho, Erminia, Ethelbert, and a Physician, discovered.
Olho. O, my poor boy ! My son ! My son ! My Ludolph !
Have ye no comfort for me, ye physicians
Of the weak body and soul ?
Ethelbert. 'Tis not in medicine.
Either of heaven or earth, to cure, unless
Fit time be chosen to administer.
Otho. A kind forbearance, holy abbot. Come,
Erminia ; here, sit by me, gentle girl ;
Give me thy hand ; hast thou forgiven me ?
Erminia. Would I were with the saints to pray for you !
Otho. Why will ye keep me from my darling child ? lo
Physician. Forgive me, but he must not see thy feice.
Otho. Is then a father's countenance a Gorgon ?
Hath it not comfort in it ? Would it not
Console my poor boy, cheer him, heal his spirits ?
Let me embrace him ; let me speak to him ;
I will ! Who hinders me ? Who 's Emperor ?
Physician. You may not. Sire ; 'twould overwhelm him quite, , ,
He is so full of grief and passionate wrath ;
Too heavy a sigh would kill him, or do worse.
He must be saved by fine contrivances ; 20
And, most especially, we must keep clear
Out of his sight a father whom he loves ;
His heart is fuU, it can contain no more.
And do its ruddy office.
Ethelbert. Sage adyice ;
We must endeavour how to ease and slacken
The tight-wound energies of his despair,
Not make them tenser.
Otho. Enough ! I hear, I hear.
Yet you were about to advise more, — I listen.
Ethelbert. This learned doctor will agree with me.
That not in the smallest point should he be thwarted, 3"
Or gainsaid by one word ; his very motions.
Nods, becks, and hints, should be obey'd with care,
Even on the moment ; so his troubled mind
May cure itself.
Physician. There are no other means.
Otho. Open the door ; let's hear if all is quiet.
Physician. Beseech you, Sire, forbear.
Erminia, Do, do.
ACT v., sc. v] OTHO THE GREAT 335
Otho. I command !
Open it straight ; — hush ! — quiet ! — my lost boy !
My miserable child !
Ludolpk {indistinctly without). Fill, fill my goblet, — here's a health !
Erminia. O, close the door !
Otho. Let, let me hear his voice ; this cannot last ; 40
And &in would I catch up his dying words.
Though my own knell they be ! This cannot last !
0 let me catch his 'voice — for lo ! I hear
A whisper in this silence that he's dead !
It is so ! Gersa ?
Filter Gersa.
Physician. Say, how fares the Prince ?
Gersa. More calm ; his features are less wild and flush'd ;
Once he complain'd of weariness.
Physician. Indeed !
'Tis good, — 'tis good ; let him but fall asleep.
That saves him.
Otho. Gersa, watch him like a child ;
Ward him from harm, — and bring me better news ! 50
Physician. Humour him to the height. I fear to go ;
For should he catch a glimpse of my dull garb.
It might afiright him, fill him with suspicion
That we beUeve him sick, which must not be.
Gersa. I will invent what soothing means I can.
[Exit Gersa.
Physician. This should cheer up your Highness ; weariness
Is a good symptom, and most &vourable ;
It gives me pleasant hopes. Please you, walk forth
Upon the terrace ; the refreshing air
Will blow one half of your sad doubts away. 60
[Exeunt.
Scene V — A Banqueting Hall, brilliantly illuminated, and set jorth
with all costly ma^aficence, with Supper-tables laden with Services oj
Gold and Silver. A door in the back scene, guarded by two Soldiers.
Lords, Ladies, Knights, Gentlemen, ^c, whispering sadly, and rang-
ing themselves ; part entering and part discovered.
Ist Knight. Grievously are we tantalised, one and all ;
Sway'd here and there, commanded to and fi-o.
As though we were the shadows of a sleep.
And link'd to a dreaming &ncy. What do we here ?
Gonjred. I am no seer ; you know we must obey
The Prince from A to Z, though it should be
JOHN KEATS [act v., sc. v
To set the place in flames. I pray, hast heard
Where the most wicked Princess is ?
1st Knight. There, sir.
In the next room ; have you remark'd those two
Stout soldiers posted at the door ?
Gonfred. For what ?
10
[They whisper.
Isi Lady. How ghast a train !
2nd Lady. Sure this should be some splendid burial.
1st Lady. What fearful whispering ! See, see, — Gersa there !
Enter Gersa.
Gersa. Put on your brightest looks ; smile if you can ;
Behave as all were happy ; keep your eyes
From the least watch upon him ; if hfe speaks
To any one, answer, collectedly.
Without surprise, his questioiis^ howe'er strange.
Do thisto the utmost, — ^though,' alas ! with me
The remedy grows hopeless ! Here he comes, — 20
Observe what I have said, — show no surprise.
Enter hvDOLPH,' Jbllowed by Sigifred aTid Page.
Ludolph. A splendid company ! rare beauties here !
I should have Orphean lips, and Plato's fancy,
Amphion's utterancCi toned with his lyre.
Or the deep key of Jove's sonorous mouth.
To give fit salutation. . Methought I heard.
As I came in, some whispers,-7-*what of that .'
'Tis natural men should whisper ; at the kiss •
Of Psyche given by Love, there was a buzz
Among the gods ! — ^and silence is as natural. 30
These draperies are fine, and, being a mortal,
I should desire no better ; yet, in truth.
There must be some superior costliness.
Some wider-domed high magnificence !
I would have, as a mortal I may not.
Hangings of heaven's clouds, purple and gold.
Slung from the spheres ; gauzes of silver mist,
Loop'd up with cords of twisted wreathed light.
And tassell'd round with weeping meteors !
These pendent lamps and chandeliers are bright 40
As earthly fires from dull dross can be cleansed ;
Yet could my eyes drink up intenser beams
Undazzled ; — this is darkness, — when I close
These lids, I see far fiercer brilliances, —
Skies full of splendid moons, and shooting stars,
ACT v., sc. V] OTHO THE GREAT 337
And spouting exhalations, diamond fires,
And panting fountains quivering with deep glows.
Yes — this is dark — is it not dark ?
Si^fred. My lord,
'Tis late ; the lights of festival are ever
Queneh'd in the mom.
Ludolph. 'Tis not to-morrow then ? 50
Sigifred. 'Tis early dawn.
Gersa. Indeed full time we slept ;
Say you so, Prince ?
Ludolph. I say I quarreU'd with you ;
We did not tilt each other, — that's a blessing, —
Good gods ! no innocent blood upon my head !
Sigifred. Retire, Gersa !
Ludolph. There should be three more here :
For two of them, they stay away perhaps.
Being gloomy -minded, haters of fiiir revels, —
They know their own thoughts best.
As for the third.
Deep blue eyes, semi-shaded in white lids,
Finish'd with lashes fine for more soft shade, 60
Completed by her twin-arch'd ebon-brows ;
White temples, of exactest elegance.
Of even mould, felicitous and smooth ;
Cheeks fashion'd tenderly on either side.
So perfect, so divine, that our poor eyes
Are dazzled with the sweet proportioning.
And wonder that 'tis so, — the magic chance !
Her nostrils, small, fragrant, fairy-delicate ;
Her lips — I swear no human bones e'er wore
So taking a disguise ; — ^you shall behold her ! 70
We'll have her presently ; ay, you shall see her.
And wonder at her, friends, she is so fair ;
She is the world's chief jewel, and, by heaven !
She's mine by right of marriage ! — she is mine !
Patience, good people, in fit time I send
A summoner, — she will obey my call.
Being a wife most mild and dutiful.
First I would hear what music is prepared
To herald and receive her ; let me hear !
Si^fred. Bid the musicians soothe him tenderly. 80
[A soft strain of Music.
Ludolph. Ye have none better ? No, I am content ;
'Tis a rich sobbing melody, with reliefs
Full and majestic ; it is well enough.
And will be sweeter, when ye see her pace
Sweepmg into this presence, glisten'd o'er
28
JOHN KEATS [act v., sc. v
With emptied caskets, and her train upheld
By ladies habited in robes of lawn,
Sprinkled with golden crescents, others bright
In silks, with spangles shower' d, and bow'd to
By Duchesses and pearled Margravines ! go
Sad ! that the fairest creature of the earth —
I pray you mind me not — 'tis sad, I say.
That the extremest beauty of the world
Should so entrench herself away from me.
Behind a barrier of engender'd guilt !
2nd Lady. Ah ! what a moan I
1st Knight. Most piteous indeed !
Ludolph. She shall be brought before this company,
And then — then —
1st Lady. He muses.
Gersa. O, Fortune ! where will this end ?
Sigifred. I guess his purpose ! Indeed he must not have
That pestilence brought in, — ^that cannot be, loo
There we must stop him.
Gersa. I am lost ! Hush, hush !
He is about to rave again.
Ludolph. A barrier of guilt ! I was the fool.
She was the cheater ! Who 's the cheater now.
And who the fool } The entrapp'd, the caged fool.
The bird-limed raven ? She shall croak to death
Secure ! Methinks I have her in my fist,
To crush her with my heel ! Wait, wait ! I marvel
My father keeps away. Good friend — ah ! Sigifred .''
Do bring him to me, — and Erminia, " no
I fain would see before I sleep — ^and Ethelbert
That he may bless me, as I know he will,
Though I have cursed him.
Sigifred. Rather suffer me
To lead you to them.
Ludolph. No, excuse me, — no !
The day is not quite done. Go, bring them hither.
[Exit SiGIFBED.
Certes, a father's smile should, like sunlight.
Slant on my sheaved harvest of ripe bliss.
Besides, I thirst to pledge my lovely bride
In a deep goblet : let me see — what wine ?
The strong Iberian juice, or mellow Greek ? "o
Or pale Calabrian ? Or the Tuscan grape ?
Or of old ^Etna's pulpy wine-presses,
Black stain'd with the fat vintage, as it were
The purple slaughter-house, where Bacchus' self
Prick'd his own swollen veins I Where is my page f
ACT v., SO. V] OTHO THE GREAT 339
Page. Here, here !
Ludolph. Be ready to obey me ; anon thou shalt
Bear a soft message for me ; for the hour
Draws near when I must make a winding up
Of bridal mysteries — a fine-spun vengeance !
Carve it on my tomb, that, when I rest beneath 130
Men shall confess, this Prince was guU'd and cheated.
But from the ashes of disgrace he rose
More than a fiery dragon, and did bum
His ignominy up in purging fires 1
Did I not send, sir, but a moment past.
For my father ?
Gersa. You did.
Ludolph. Perhaps 'twould be
Much better he came not.
Gersa. He enters now !
Enter Otho, Erminia, Ethelbert, Sigifred a?id Physician.
Ludolph. O ! thou good man, against whose sacred head
I was a mad conspirator, chiefly too
For the sake of my fair newly wedded wife, 140
Now to be punisb'd ! — do not look so sad !
Those charitable eyes will thaw my heart.
Those tears will wash away a just resolve,
A verdict ten times sworn ! Awake — awake —
Put on a judge's brow, and use a tongue
Made iron-stem by habit ! Thou shalt see
A deed to be applauded, 'scribed in gold !
Join a loud voice to mine, and so denounce
What 1 alone will execute !
Otho. Dear son.
What is it ? By your father's love, I sue 150
That it be nothing merciless !
Ludolph. To that demon >
Not so ! No ! She is in temple-stall.
Being gamish'd for the sacrifice, and I,
The Priest of Justice, will immolate her
Upon the altar of wrath ! She stings rae through ! —
Even as the worm doth feed upon the nut.
So she, a scorpion, preys upon my brain !
I feel her gnawing here ! Let her but vanish.
Then, father, I will lead your legions forth,
Compact in steeled squares and speared files, 160
And bid our trumpets speak a fell rebuke
To nations drowsed in peace !
Otho. To-morrow, son.
Be your word law ; forget to-day —
340 JOHN KEATS [act v., sc. v
Lvdolph. I will.
When I have finish'd it ! Now, — now, I'm pight.
Tight-footed for the deed !
Emtinia. Alas ! Alas !
Ludolph. What angel's voice is that ? Erminia
Ah ! gentlest creature, whose sweet innocence
Was almost murder'd ; I am penitent.
Wilt thou forgive me ? And thou holy man.
Good Ethelbert, shall I die in peace with you ? i-o
Erminia. Die, my lord ?
Ludolph. I feel it possible.
Otho, Physician ?
Physician. I fear, he is past my skill.
Otho. Not so !
Litdolph. I see it — I see it — I have been wandering !
Half mad — not right here — I forget my purpose.
Bestir — bestir — Auranthe ! Ha! ha! ha!
Youngster ! page ! go bid them drag her to me !
Obey ! This shall finish it I [Drams a dagger.
Otho. Oh, my son ! my son !
Sigijred. This must not be — stop there !
Ludolph. Am I obey'd ?
A little talk with her — no harm — haste ! haste !
[Exit Page.
Set her before me — never fear I can strike. i8o
Several voices. My lord ! My lord !
Gersa. Good Prince !
Ludolph. Why do ye trouble me ? out — out — away !
There she is I take that I and that ! no, no,
That's not well done — where is she ?
[The Doors open. Enter Page. Several Women are seen grouped
about AuHANTHE in the inner Room.
Page. Alas ! My lord, my lord ! they cannot move her !
Her arms are stiff — her fingers clench'd and cold.
Ludolph. She's dead !
[Stagers and faUs into their arms.
Ethelbert. Take away the dagger.
Gersa. Softly; so I
Otho. Thank God for that I
Sigifred. It could not harm him now.
Gersa. No ! — brief be his anguish !
Lvdolph. She's gone ! I am content. Nobles, good night I 190
We are all weary — faint — set ope the doors —
I will to bed ! To-morrow —
[Bies.
THE CURTAIN FALLS.
KING STEPHEN
A DRAMATIC FRAGMENT
ACT I
Scene I. — Field of Battle.
Alarum. Enter King Stephen, Knights, and Soldiers.
Stephen,
IF shame can on a soldier's vein-swoH'n front
Spread deeper crimson than the battle's toil.
Blush in your easing helmets ! for see, see !
Yonder my chivalry, my pride of war,
Wrench'd with an iron hand from firm array.
Are routed loose about the plashy meads.
Of honour forfeit. O that my known voice
Could reach your dastard ears, and fright you more !
Fly, cowards, fly ! Glocester is at your backs !
Throw your slack bridles o'er the flurried manes.
Ply well the rowel with faint trembling heels.
Scampering to death at last !
1st Knight. The enemy
Bears his flaunt standard close upon their rear.
2nd Knight. Sure of a bloody prey, seeing the fens
Will swamp them girth-deep.
Stephen. Over head and ears.
No matter ! 'Tis a gallant enemy ;
How like a comet he goes streaming on.
But we must plague him in the flank, — hey, friends ?
We are well breath'd, — follow !
Enter Earl Baldwin and soldiers, as defeated.
Stephen. De Redvers !
What is the monstrous bugbear that can fright
Baldwin ?
JOHN KEATS [act i., sc. ii
Baldwin. No scarecrow, but the fortunate star
Of boisterous Chester, whose fell truncheon now
Points level to the goal of victory.
This way he comes, and if you would maintain
Your person unaffronted by vile odds,
Take horse, my Lord.
Stephen. And which way spur for life }
Now I thank heaven I am in the toils.
That soldiers may bear witness how my arm
Can burst the meshes. Not the eagle more
Loves to beat up against a t3rrannous blast, 30
Than I to meet the torrent of my foes.
This is a brag, — ^be't so, — but if I fall.
Carve it upon my 'scutcheon'd sepulchre.
On, feUow soldiers ! Earl of Redvers, back !
Not twenty Earls of Chester shall brow-beat
The diadem. [Exeunt, Alarum.
Scene II. — Another part of the Field.
Trumpets sounding a Victory. Enter Glocester, Knights, and Forces
Glocester. Now may we lift our bruised vizors up
And take the flattering freshness of the air.
While the wide din of battle dies away
Into times past, yet to be echoed sure
In the silent pages of our chroniclers.
1st Knight. Will Stephen's death be mark'd there, my good
Lord,
Or that we give him lodging in yon towers ?
Glocester. Fain would I know the great usurper's fete.
Enter two Captains severally.
1st Captain. My Lord !
2nd Captain. Most noble Earl !
1st Captain. The King —
Ztid Captain. The Empress greets —
Glocester. What of the King ?
1st Captain. He sole and lone maintains 10
A hopeless bustle 'mid our swarming arms.
And with a nimble savageness attacks.
Escapes, makes fiercer onset, then anew
Eludes death, giving death to most that dare
Trespass within the circuit of his sword !
He must by this have fallen. Baldwin is taken ;
ACT I., sc. 11] KING STEPHEN 343
And for the Duke of Bretagne, like a stag
He flies, for the Welsh beagles to hunt down.
God save the Empress !
Glocester. Now our dreaded Queen :
What message from her Highness ?
2nd Captain. Royal Maud 20
From the throng' d towers of Lincoln hath look'd down.
Like Pallas from the walls of Ilion,
And seen her enemies havock'd at her feet.
She greets most noble Glocester from her heart,
Intreating him, his captains, and brave knights.
To grace a banquet. The high city gates
Are envious which shall see your triumph pass ;
The streets are full of music.
Enter 2nd Knight.
Glocester. Whence come you ?
2nd Knight. From Stephen, my good Prince — Stephen !
Stephen !
Glocester. Why do you make such echoing of his name ? 30
2nd Knight. Because I think, my lord, he is no man.
But a fierce demon, 'nointed safe from wounds.
And misbaptized with a Christian name.
Glocester. A mighty soldier ! — Does he still hold out ?
2nd Knight. He shames our victory. His valour still
Keeps elbow-room amid our eager swords.
And holds our bladed falchions all aloof.
His gleaming battle-axe, being slaughter-sick.
Smote on the morion of a Flemish knight.
Broke short in his hand ; upon the which he flung 40
The heft away with such a vengeful force
It paunch'd the Earl of Chester's horse, who then
Spleen-hearted came in full career at him.
Glocester. Did no one take him at a vantage then ?
2nd Knight. Three then with tiger leap upon him flew.
Whom, with his sword swift drawn and nimbly held,
He stung away again, and stood to breathe.
Smiling. Anon upon him rush'd once more
A throng of foes, and in this renew'd strife.
My sword met his and snapp'd off at the hilt. 50
Glocester. Come, lead me to this Mars and let us move
In silence, not insulting his sad doom
With clamorous trumpets. To the Empress bear
My salutation as befits the time.
\Exeunt Glocester and Forces,
344 JOHN KEATS [act i., sc. hi
Scene III. — The Field of Battle. Enter Stephen unarmed,
Stephen. Another sword ! And what if I could seize
One from Bellona's gleaming armoury.
Or choose the fairest of her sheaved spears !
Where are my enemies ? Here, close at hand,
Here'come the testy brood. O, for a sword !
I'm faint — a biting sword ! A noble sword !
A hedge-stake — or a ponderous stone to hurl
With brawny vengeance, like the laboiu-er Cain.
Come on ! Farewell my kingdom, and all hail
Thou superb, plumed, and helmeted renown ! k
All hail ! I would not truck this brilliant day
To rule in Pylos with a Nestor's beard —
Come on !
Enter De Kaims and Knights, Sfc.
De Kaims. Is 't madness, or a hunger after death.
That makes thee thus unarm'd throw taunts at us ?
Yield, Stephen, or my sword's point dips in
The gloomy current of a traitor's heart.
Stephen. Do it, De Kaims, I will not budge an inch.
De Kaims. Yes, of thy madness thou shalt take the
meed.
Stephen. Darest thou }
De Kaims. How, dare, against a man disarm'd }
Stephen. What weapons has the lion but himself.'' 20
Come not near me, De Kaims, for by the price
Of all the glory I have won this day.
Being a king, I will not yield alive
To any but the second man of the realm,
Robert of Glocester.
De Kaims. Thou shalt vail to me.
Stephen. Shall I, when I have sworn against it, sir .''
Thou think' st it brave to take a breathing king.
That, on a court-day bow'd to haughty Maud,
The awed presence-chamber may be bold
To whisper. There's the man who took alive 30
Stephen — me — prisoner. Certes, De Kaims,
The ambition is a noble one.
De Kaims. 'Tis true.
And, Stephen, I must compass it.
Stephen. No, no,
Do not tempt me to throttle you on the gorge.
Or with m^ gauntlet crush your hollp'>y breast.
ACT I., sc. IV] KING STEPHEN 345
Just when your knighthood is grown ripe and full
For lordship.
A Soldier., Is an honest yeoman's spear
Of no use at a need ? Take that.
Stephen. Ah, dastard !
De Kaims. What, you are vulnerable ! my prisoner !
Stephen. No, not yet. I disclaim it, and demand
Death as a sovereign right unto a king 40
Who 'sdains to yield to any but his peer.
If not in title, yet in noble deeds,
The Earl of Glocester. Stab to the hilt, De Kaims,
For I will never by mean hands be led
From this so £imous field. Do you hear ! Be quick !
[Trumpets. Enter the Earl of Chester mid
Scene IV. — A Presence Chamber. Queen Maud in a Chair
of State, the Earls q/* Glocester and Chester, Lords, At-
tendants.
Maud. Glocester, no more. I will behold that Bou-
logne :
Set him before me. Not for the poor sake
Of regal pomp and a vain-glorious hour.
As thou with wary speech, yet near enough,
Hast hinted.
Glocester. Faithful counsel have I given ;
If wary, for your Highness' benefit.
Maud. The Heavens forbid that I should not think so.
For by thy valour have I won this realm.
Which by thy wisdom I will ever keep.
To sage advisers let me ever bend
A meek attentive ear, so that they treat
Of the wide kingdom's rule and government,
Not trenching on our actions personal.
Advised, not school'd, I would be ; and henceforth
Spoken to in clear, plain, and open terms.
Not side-ways sermon'd at.
Glocester. Then, in plain terms,
Once more for the &Ilen king —
Maud. Your pardon, brother,
I would no more of that ; for, as I said,
'Tis not for worldly pomp I wish to see
The rebel, but as dooming judge to give
A sentence something worthy of his guilt.
346 JOHN KEATS [act I., sc. iv
Glocester. If't must be so, I'll bring him to your
presence. [Exit Glocester.
Maud. A meaner summoner might do as well.
My Lord of Chester, is 't true what I hear
Of Stephen of Boulogne, our prisoner.
That he, as a fit penance for his crimes.
Eats wholesome, sweet, and palatable food
Off Glocester's golden dishes — drinks pure wine.
Lodges soft .''
Chester. More than that, my gracious Queen,
Has anger'd me. The noble Earl, methinks, 30
Full soldier as he is, and without peer
In counsel, dreams too much among his books.
It may read well, but sure 'tis out of date
To play the Alexander with Darius.
Maud. Truth ! I think so. By Heavens, it shall not last !
Chester. It would amaze your Highness now to mark
How Glocester overstrains his courtesy
To that crime-loving rebel, that Boulogne —
Ma:ud. That ingrate !
Chester. For whose vast ingratitude
To our late sovereign lord, your noble sire, 40
The generous Earl condoles in his mishaps.
And with a sort of lackeying friendliness
Talks off the mighty frowning from his brow, •
Woos him to hold a duet in a smile.
Or, if it please him, play an hour at chess —
Mavd. A perjured slave !
Chester. And for his perjury,
Glocester has fit rewards — nay, I believe.
He sets his bustling household's wits at work
For flatteries to ease this Stephen's hours.
And make a heaven of his purgatory ; 50
Adorning bondage with the pleasSint gloss
Of feasts and music, and all idle shows
Of indoor pageantry ; while S3rren whispers.
Predestined for his ear, 'scape as half-check'd
From lips the courtliest and the rubiest
Of all the realm, admiring of his deeds.
Mavd. A frost upon his summer !
Chester. A queen's nod
Can make his June December. Here he comes.
*****
APPENDIX
POSTHUMOUS AND FUGITIVE POEMS (II)
ON DEATH
CAN death be gleep^ when life is but a dream.
And scenes of bUss pass as a phantom by ?
The transient pleasures as a vision seem.
And yet we think the greatest pain's to die.
How strange it is that man on earth should roam,
And lead a life of woe, but not forsake
His rugged path ; nor dare he view alone
His future doom which is but to awake.
SONNET
To Bybon
BYRON ! how sweetly sad thy melody !
Attuning still the soul to tenderness.
As if soft Pity, with unusual stress.
Had touch'd her plaintive lute, and thou, being by,
Hadgt caught the tones, nor suffer'd them to die.
O'ershadowing sorrow doth not make thee less
Delightful : thou thy griefs dost dress
With a bright halo, shining beamily.
As when a cloud the golden moon doth veU, V
Its sides are ting'd with a resplendent glow, <
Through the dark robe oft amber rays prevail.
And like fair veins in sable marble flow ;
Still warble, dying swan ! still tell the tale, \
The enchanting tale, the tale of pleasing woe,
848 JOHN KEATS
SONNET
To Chattebton
OCHATTERTON ! how very sad thy fate !
Dear chUd of sorrow — son of misery !
How soon the film of death obscur'd that eye.
Whence Genius mildly flash'd^ and high debate.
How soon that voice, majestic and elate.
Melted in dying numbers ! Oh ! how nigh
Was night to thy fair morning. Thou didst die
A half-blown flow'ret which cold blasts amate.
But this is past : thou art among the stars
Of highest Heaven : to the rolling spheres
Thou sweetly singest : nought thy hymning mars.
Above the ingrate world and human fears.
On eai-th the good man base detraction bars
From thy fair name, and waters it with tears.
ODE TO APOLLO
IN thy western halls of gold ,
When thou sittest in thy state.
Bards, that erst sublimely told
Heroic deeds, and sang of fate.
With fervpur seize their adamantine lyres.
Whose chords are solid rays, and twinkle radiant fires.
2
Here Homer with his nervous arms
Strikes the twanging harp of war,
And even the western splendour warms.
While the trumpets sound afar :
But, what creates the most intense surprise,
His soul looks out through renovated eyes.
Then, through thy Temple wide, melodious swells
The sweet majestic tone of Maro's lyre :
The soul delighted on each accent dwells, —
Enraptur'd dwells, — not daring to respire.
The while he tells of grief around a funeral pyre.
'Tis awful silence then again ;
Expectant stand the spheres ;
Breathless the laurell'd peers.
Nor move, till ends the lofty strain.
Nor move till Milton's tuneful thunders cease.
And leave once more the r^vish'd heavens in peace,
ODE TO APOLLO 349
Thou biddest Shakspeare wave his hand,
And quickly forward spring
The Passions — a terrific band —
And each vibrates the string
That with its tyrant temper best accords,
While from their Master's lips pour forth the inspiring words.
A silver trumpet Spenser blows.
And, as its martial notes to silence flee.
From a virgin chorus flows
A hymn in praise of spotless Chastity.
'Tig still ! Wild warblings from the iEolian lyre
Enchantment softly breathe, and tremblingly expire.
Next thy Tasso's ardent' numbers
Float along the pleased air.
Calling youth from idle slumbers.
Rousing them from Pleasure's lair : —
Then o'er the strings his fingers gently move.
And melt the soul to pity and to love.
8
But when TTiou joinest with the Nine,
And all the powers of song combine.
We listen here on earth :
The dying tones that fill the air.
And charm the ear of evening &ir.
From thee, great God of Bards, receive their heavenly birth.
SONNET
To a Young Lady who sent me a Lawrel Grown
FRESH morning gusts have blown away all fear
From my glad bosom, — now from gloominess
I mount for ever — not an atom less
Than the proud laurel shall contentimy bier.
No ! by "the eternal stars ! or why sit here
In the Sun's eye, and 'gainst my temples press
Apollo's very leaves, woven to bless
By thy white fingers and thy spirit clear.
Lo ! who dares say, " Do this ? " Who dares call down
My will from its high purpose ? Who say, " Stand,"
Or " Go ? " This mighty moment I would frown
On abject Caesars — not the stoutest band
Of mailed heroes should tear off my crown :
Yet would I kneel and kiss thy gentle hand !
350 JOHN KEATS
HYMN TO APOLLO
C"* OD of the golden bow,
J And of the golden lyre,
And of the golden hair.
And of the golden fire.
Charioteer
Of the patient year.
Where — where slept thine ire.
When like a blank idiot I put on thy wreath,
Thy laurel, thy glory.
The light Of thy story.
Or was I a worm — ^too low crawling, for death ?
O Delphic Apollo !
The Thunderer grasp'd and grasp'd,'
The Thunderer frown'd and frown'd ;
The eagle's feathery mane
For wrath became stifFen'd— the sound
Of breeding thunder
Went drowsily under.
Muttering to be unbound.
O why didst thou pity, and for a worm
Why touch thy soft lute
Till the thunder was mute.
Why was not I crush'd — such a pitiful germ ?
O Delphic Apollo !
The Pleiades were up.
Watching the silent air ;
The seeds and roots in the Earth
Were swelling for summer fare ;
The Ocean, its neighbour.
Was at its old labour,
' When, who — who did dare
To tie, like a madman, thy plant round his brow.
And grin and look proudly.
And blaspheme so loudly.
And live for that honour, to stoop to thee now ?
O Delphic Apollo !
ON OXFORD 351
SONNET
AS from the darkening gloom a silver dove
Upsoars, and darts into the Eastern light.
On pinions that nought moves hut pure delight.
So fled thy soul into the realms above.
Regions of peace and everlasting love ;
Where happy spirits, crown'd with circlets bright
Of starry beam, and gloriously bedight,
Taste the high joy none but the blest can prove.
There thou or joinest the immortal quire
In melodies that even Heaven fair
Fill with superior bliss, or, at desire
Of the omnipotent Father, cleavest the air
On holy message sent — ^What pleasures higher ?
Wherefore does any grief our joy impair ?
SONNET
Written in Disgust of Vulgar Superstition
THE church hells toll a melancholy round.
Calling the people to some other prayers,
Some other gloominess, more dreadful cares.
More hearkening to the sermon's horrid sound.
Surely the mind of man is closely bound
In some black spell ; seeing that each one tears
Himself from fireside joys, and Lydian airs.
And converse high of those with glory crown'd.
Still, still they toll, and I should feel a damp, —
A chill as from a tomb, did I not know
That they are dying like an outburnt lamp ;
That 'tis their sighing, wailing ere they go
Into oblivion ; — ^that fresh flowers will grow.
And many glories of immortal stamp.
ON OXFORD
A Parody
THE Grothic looks solemn.
The plain Doric column
Supports an old Bishop and Crosier ;
The mouldering arch.
Shaded o'er by a larch
Stands next door to Wilson the Hosier.
21
Vice — that is, by turns, —
O'er pale faces mourns
The black tassell'd trencher and common hat ;
The Chantry boy sings.
The Steeple-bell rings.
And as for the Chancellor — dormnat.
352 JOHN KEATS
3
There are plenty of trees.
And plenty' of ease.
And plenty of fat deer for Parsons ;
And when it is venison,
Short is the benison,—
Then each on a leg or thigh fastens.
MODERN LOVE
AND what is love ? It is a doll dress'd up
For idleness to cosset, nurse, and dandle ;
A thing of soft misnomers, so divine
That silly youth doth think to make itself
Divine by loving, and so goes on
Yawning and doting a whole summer long,
Till Miss's comb is made a pearl tiara.
And common Wellingtons turn Romeo boots ;
Then Cleopatra lives at number seven.
And Antony resides in Brunswick Square.
Fools ! if some passions high have warm'd the world.
If Queens and Soldiers have play'd deep for hearts,
It is no reason why such agonies
Should be more common than the growth of weeds.
Fools ! make me whole again that weighty pearl
The Queen of Egypt melted, and I'll say
That ye may love in spite of beaver hats.
Fragment of " The Castle Builder "
TO-NIGHT I'll have my friar— let me think
About my room, — I'll have it in the pink ;
It should he rich and sombre, and the moon.
Just in its mid-life in the midst of June,
Should look thro' four large windows and display
Clear, but for gold-fish vases in the way.
Their glassy diamonding on Turkish floor ;
The tapers keep aside, an hour and more,
To see what else the moon alone can show ;
While the night-breeze doth softly let us know
My terrace is well bower'd with oranges.
Upon the floor the dullest spirit sees
A guitar-ribband and a lady's glove
Beside a crumple-leaved tale of love ;
A tambour-frame, with Venus sleeping there,
All finish'd but some ringlets of her hair ;
A viol-bow, strings torn, cross-wTse ^pon
A glorious folio of Anacreon ;
A skull upon a mat of roses lying,
Ink'd purple with a song concerning dying ;
THE CASTLE BUILDER
An hour-glass on the turn, amid the trails
Of passion-flower ; — just in time there sails
A cloud across the moon, — ^the lights hring in !
And see what more my phantasy can win.
It is a gorgeous room, but somewhat sad ;
The draperies are so, as tho' they had
Been made for Cleopatra's winding-sheet ;
And opposite the steadfast eye doth meet
A spacious looking-glass, upon whose face,
In letters raven-sombre, you may trace 30
Old " Mene, Mene, Tekel Upharsin."
Greek busts and statuary have ever been
Held, by the finest spirits, fitter far
Than vase grotesque and Siamesian jar ;
Therefore 'tis sure a want of Attic taste
That I should rather love a Gothic waste
Of eyesight on cinque-coloured potter's clay.
Than on the marble fairness of old Greece.
My table-coverlets of Jason's fleece
And black Numidian sheep-wool should be wrought, 40
Gold, black, and heavy, from the Lama brought.
My ebon sofas should delicious be
With down from Leda's cygnet progeny.
My pictures all Salvator's, save a few
Of Titian's portraiture, and one, though new.
Of Haydon's in its fresh magnificence.
My wine — O good ! 'tis here at my desire.
And I must sit to supper with my friar. _
SONNET
To A Cat
CAT ! who hast pass'd thy grand climacteric.
How many mice and rats hast in thy days
Destroy'd ? — tiow, many tit bits stolen ? Gaze
With those bright languid segments green, and prick
Those velvet ears — but pr'ythee do not stick
Thy latent talons in me — and upraise
Thy gentle mew — and tell me all thy frays
Of fish and mice, and rats and tender chick.
Nay, look not down, nor lick thy dainty wrists —
For all the wheezy asthma, — and for all
Thy tail's tip is nick'd off— and though the fists
Of many a maid have given thee many a maul.
Still is that fur as soft as when the lists
In youth thou enter' dst on glass bottled wall.
A DRAUGHT OF SUNSHINE
HENCE Burgundy, Claret, and Port,
Away with old Hock and Madeira,
Too earthly ye are for my sport ;
There's a beverage brighter and clearer.
23
S54 JOHN KEATS
Instead of a pitiful rummer,
My wine overbrims a whole summer ;
My bowl is the sky.
And I drink at my eye,
Till I feel in the brain
A Delphian pain — lo
Then foflow, my Caius ! then follow :
On the green of the hill
We will drink our iill
Of golden sunshine.
Till our brains intertwine
With the glory and grace of Apollo !
God of the Meridian,
And of the East and West,
To thee my soul is flown.
And my body is earthward press'd. — 20
It is an awful mission,
A terrible division ;
And leaves a gulph austere
To be fill'd with worldly fear.
Aye, when the soul is fled
To high above our head.
Affrighted do we gaze
After its airy maze.
As doth a mother wild.
When her young infant child 30
Is in an eagle's claws —
And is not this the cause
Of madness ? — God of Song,
Thou bearest me along
Through sights I scarce can bear :
O let me, let me share
With the hot lyre and thee.
The staid Philosophy.
Temper my lonely hours.
And let me see thy bowers 40
More unalarm'd !
EXTRACTS FROM AN OPERA
O! WERE I one of the Olympian twelve.
Their godships should pass this into a law, —
That when a man doth set himself in toil
After some beauty veiled far away,
Each step he took should make lus lady's hand
More soft, more white, and her fair cheek more foir ;
And for each briar-berry he might eat,
A kiss should bud upon the tree of love.
And pulp and ripen richer every hour,
To melt away upon tlip traveller's lips.
FOLLY'S SONG 355
FOLLY'S SONG
WHEN wedding fiddles are a^playing.
Huzza for foUy O f
And when maidens go a-Maying,
Huzza, &c.
When a milk-pail is upset.
Huzza, &e.
And the clothes left in the wet.
Huzza, &c.
When the barrel's set abroach,
Huzza, &c.
When Kate Eyebrow keeps a coach.
Huzza, &c.
When the pig is over-roasted.
Huzza, &c.
And the cheese is over-toasted.
Huzza, &c.
When Sir Snap is with his lawyer.
Huzza, &c.
And Miss Chip has kiss'd the sawyer.
Huzza, &c.
OH, I am frighten'd with most hateful thoughts !
Perhaps her voice is not a nightingale's.
Perhaps her teeth are not the fairest pearl ;
Her eye-lashes may be^ for aught I know.
Not longer than the May-fly's small fan-horns ;
There may not be one dimple on her hand ;
And freckles many ; ah ! a careless nurse.
In haste to teach the little thing to walk.
May have crumpt up a pair of Dian's legs.
And warpt the ivory of a Juno's neck.
SONG
{Written on a hkmk page in Beav/mont and Fletcher)
SPIRIT here that reigaest !
Spirit here that painest !
Spirit here that burnest !
Spirit here that moumest !
Spirit, I bow
My forehead low,
Enshaded with thy pinions.
Spirit, I look
All passion-struck
Into thy pale dominions.
366 JOHN KEATS
2
Spirit here that laughest !
Spirit here that quaffest !
Spirit here that dancest !
>foble soul that prancest !
Spirit, with thee
I join in the glee
A-nudging the elbow of Momus.
Spirit, I flush
With a Bacchanal blush
Just fresh from the Banquet of Comus.
Here all the Sunvmer
{In a letter to Haydon)
HERE all the summer could I stay,
For there's a Bishop's Teign,
And King's Teign,
And Coomb at the clear Teign's head ;
Where, close by the stream.
You may have your cream.
All spread upon barley bread.
There's Arch Brook,
And there's Larch Brook,-
Both turning many a mill ;
And cooling the drouth
Of the salmon's mouth,
And fattening his silver gill.
There's a wild wood,
• A mild hood.
To the sheep on the lea o' the down,
Where the golden furze.
With its green, thin spurs,
Doth catch at the maiden's gown.
There's Newton Marsh,
With its spear-grass harsh, —
A pleasant summer level ;
Where the maidens sweet
Of the Market street.
Do meet in the dark to revel.
ACROSTIC 357
5
There's the Barton rich
With dyke and ditch
And hedge for the thrush to live in.
And the hollow tree
For the huzzing bee
And a bank for the wasp to hive in.
6
And O, and O
The daisies blow
And the primroses are waken'd.
And violets white
Sit in silver plightj
And the green bud's as long as the spike end.
Then who would go
Into dark Soho,
And chatter with dack'd hair'd critics.
When he can stay
For the new-mown hay,
And startle the dappled Prickets ?
Over the Hill and over the Dale
OVER the Hill and over the Dale,
And over the Bourne to Dawlish,
Where ginger-bread wives have a scanty sale.
And ginger-bread nuts are smallish.
ACROSTIC
Georgicma Aiiguda Keats
GIVE me your patience Sister while I frame
Exact in Capitals your golden name
Or sue the fair Apollo and he will
Rouse from his heavy slumber and instil
Great love in me for thee and Poesy.
Imagine not that greatest mastery
And kingdom over all the Realms of verse
Nears more to Heaven in aught than when we nurse
And surety give to love and Brotherhood.
Anthropophagi in Othello's mood,
Ulysses stormed, and his enchanted belt
Glow with the Muse, but they are never felt
Unbosom'd so and so eternal made.
Such tender incense in their Laurel shade
To all the regent sisters of the Nine,
As this poor offering to you sister mine.
S58 JOHN KEATS
Kind sister ! aye, this third name sayS you are ;
Enchanted has it heen the Lord knows where.
And may it taste to you like good old wine.
Take you to real happiness and give
Sons, daughters and a home like honied hive.
Lmet written m the Highlands after a Visit to Bwmis Cowniry
THERE is a charm in footing slow across a silent plain.
Where patriot battle has been fought, where glory had the gain ;
There is a pleasure on the heath where Druids old have been.
Where mantles grey have rustled by and swept the nettles green ;
There is a joy in every spot made known by times of old.
New to the feet, although each tale a hundred times be told ;
There is a deeper joy than all, more solemn in the heart.
More parching to the tongue than all, of more divine a smart.
When weary steps forget themselves upon a pleasant turf.
Upon hot sand, or flinty road, or sea^shore iron scurf, lo
Toward the castle or the cot, where long ago was horn
One who was great through mortal days, and died of fame unshorn.
Light heather-bells may tremble then, but they are far away ;
Wood-lark may sing from sandy fern, — ^the Sun may hear his lay ;
Runnels may kiss the grass on shelves and shallows clear.
But their low voices are not heard, though come on travels drear ;
Blood-red the Sun may set behind black mountain peaks ;
Blue tides may sluice and drench their time in caves and weedy creeks ;
£/agles may seem to sleep wing-wide upon the air ;
Ring-doves may fly convuls'd across to some high-cedar'd lair ; 2o
But the forgotten eye is still fast lidded to the ground.
As Palmer's, that with weariness, mid-desert shrine hath found.
At such a time the soul's a child, in chUdhood is the brain ;
Forgotten is the worldly heart—alone, it beats in vain. —
Aye, if a madman could have leave to pass a healthful day
To tell his forehead's swoon and faint when first began decay.
He might make tremble many a one whose spirit had gone forth
To find a Bard's low cradle-place about the silent North !
Scanty the hour and few the steps beyond the bourn of care.
Beyond the sweet and bitter world, — beyond it unaware ! 30
Scanty the hour and few the steps,because a longer stay
Would bar return, and make a man forget his mortal way :
O horrible ! to lose the sight of well remember'd face.
Of Brother's eyes, of Sister's brow — constant to every place ;
Filling the air, as on we move, with portraiture intense ;
More warm than those heroic tints that pain a painter's sense.
When shapes of old come striding by, and visages of old.
Locks shining black, hair scanty grey, and passions manifold.
No, no, that horror cannot be, for at the cable's length
Man feels the gentle anchor pull and gladdens in its strength :— 4°
One hour, half-idiot, he stands by mossy waterfall,
But in the very next he reads his soul's memorial : —
He reads it on the mountain's height, where chance he may sit down
AN EXTEMPORE 359
Upon rough marble diadem — that hill's eternal crown.
Yet be his anchor e'er so fast, room is there for a prayer
That man may never lose his mind on mountains black and bare ;
That he may stray league after league some great birth-place to find
And keep his vision clear from speck, his inward sight uublind.
SPENSERIAN STANZA
Written at the close of Canto II., Book V., of The Faerie Queene
V
' N after-time, a sage of mickle lore
Yclep'd Typographus, the Giant took.
And did refit his limbs as heretofore.
And made him read in many a learned book.
And into many a lively legend look ;
Thereby in goodly themes so training him.
That all his brutishness he quite forsook.
When, meeting ArtegaU and Talus grim.
The one he struck stone-blind, the other's eyes wox dim.
AN EXTEMPORE
WHEN they were come into the Faery's Court
They rang — no one at home — all gone to sport
And dance and kiss and love as faeries do
For Faeries be as humans lovers true —
Amid the woods they were so lone and wild
Where even the Robin feels himself exil'd
And where the very brooks as if afraid
Hurry along to some less magic shade.
" No one at home " ! the fretful princess cry'd
"And all for nothing such a dreary ride lo
And all for nothing my new diamond cross
No one to see my Persian feathers toss
No one to see my Ape, my Dwarf, my Fool
Or how -I pace my Otaheitan mule.
Ape, Dwarf and Fool why stand you gaping there ?
Burst the door open, quick — or 1 declare
I'll switch you soundly and in pieces tear."
The Dwarf began to tremble and the Ape
Star'd at the Fool, the Fool was all agape
The Princess grasp'd her switch but just in time 20
The dwarf with piteous face began to rhyme.
" O mighty Princess did you ne'er hear tell
What your poor servants know but too too well
Know you the three great crimes in faery land
The first alas ! poor Dwarf I understand
I made a whipstock of a faery's wand
The next is snoring in their company
The next the last the direst of the three
Is making free when they are not at home.
I was a Prince — a baby prince — my doom 30
360 JOHN KEATS
You see, I made a whipstock of a wand
My top has henceforth slept in faery land.
He was a Prince the Fool, a grown up Prince
But he has never been a King's son since
He fell a snoring at a faery Ball —
Your poor Ape was a prince and he poor thing
Picklock'd a faery's boudoir — now no king
But ape — so pray your highness stay awhile
'Tis sooth indeed we know it to our sorrow —
Persist and you may be an ape tomorrow " — 40
While the Dwarf spake the Princess all for spite
Peal'd the brown hazel twig to lilly white
Clench'd her small teeth, and held her lips apart
Try'd to look unconcern'd with beating heart.
They saw her highness had made up her mind
And quaver'd like the reeds before the wind
And they had had it, but O happy chance
The Ape for very fear began to dance
And grin'd as all his ugliness did ache —
She staid her vixen fingers for his sake 50
He was so very ugly : then she took
Her pocket mirror and began to look
First at herself and then at him and then
She smil'd at her own beauteous face again.
Yet for all this — for all her pretty face
She took it in her head to see the place.
Women gain little from experience
Either in Lovers, husbands or expense.
The more the beauty the more fortune too
Beauty before the wide world never knew. 60
So each fair reasons — tho' it oft miscarries.
She thought her pretty face would please the faeries.
" My darling Ape I wont whip you today
Give me the Picldock sirrah and go play."
They all three wept — but counsel was as vain
As crying cup biddy to drops of rain.
Yet lingeringly did the sad Ape forth draw
The Picklock from the Pocket in his Jaw.
The Princess took it and dismounting straight
Trip'd in blue silver'd slippers to the gate 7°
And touch'd the wards, the Door full courteously
Opened — she enter'd with her servants three.
Again it clos'd and there was nothing seen
But the Mule grasing on the herbage green.
£nd of Canto xii.
Canto the xiii.
The Mule no sooner saw himself alone
Than he prick'd up his Ears — and said " well done
At least unhappy Prince I may be free —
No more a Princess shall side saddle me
O King of OthaietS— tho' a Mule
' Aye every inch a King ' — ^tho ' Fortune's fool ' *°
Well done — for by what Mr Dwarfy said
SPENSERIAN STANZAS 361
I would not give a sixpence for her head ".
Even as he spake he trotted in high glee
To the knotty side of an old Pollard tree
And rubbed his sides against the mossed bark
Till his Girths burst and left him naked stark
Except his Bridle — how get rid of that
Buckled and tied with many a twist and plait.
At last it struck him to pretend to sleep
And then the thievish Monkies down would creep go
And filch the unpleasant trammels quite away.
No sooner thought of than adown he lay
Sham'd a good snore — the Monkey-men descended
And whom they thought to injure they befriended.
They hung his Bridle on a topmost bough
And oflF he went run, trot, or anyhow —
SPENSERIAN STANZAS ON CHARLES ARMITAGE BROWN
1
HE is to weet a melancholy carle :
Thin in the waist, with bushy head of hair.
As hath the seeded thistle when in parle
It holds the Zephyr, ere it sendeth fair
Its light balloons into the summer air ;
Therto his beard had not begun to bloom.
No brush had touch'd his chin or razor sheer ;
No care had touch'd his cheek with mortal doom.
But new he was and bright as scarf from Persian loom.
Ne cared he for wine, or half-and-half
Ne cared he for fish or flesh or fowl.
And sauces held he worthless as the chaff ;
He 'sdeigned the swine-head at the wassail-bowl ;
Ne with lewd ribbalds sat he cheek by jowl ;
Ne with sly Lemans in the scorner's chair ;
But after water-brooks this Pilgrim's soul
Panted, and all his food was woodland air
Though he would oft-times feast on gilliflowers rare.
The slang of cities in no wise he knew.
Tipping the wink to him was heathen Greek ;
He sipp'd no olden Tom or ruin blue.
Or nantz or cherry-brandy drank full meek
By many a damsel hoarse and rouge of cheek ;
Nor did he know each aged watchman's beat.
Nor in obscured purlieus would he seek
For curled Jewesses, with ankles neat.
Who as they walk abroad make tinkling with their feet.
362 JOHN KEATS
A PARTY OF LOVERS
PENSI VG they sit, and roll their languid eyes.
Nibble their toast and cool their tea with sighs ;
Or else forget the purpose of the night,
Forget their tea, forget their appetite.
See, with cross'd arms they sit — Ah ! happy crew.
The fire is going out and no one rings
For coals, and therefore no coals Betty brings.
A fly is in the milk-pot. Must he die
Circled by a humane society ?
No, no ; there, Mr. Werter takes his spoon,
Inserts it, dips the handle, and lo ! soon
The little straggler, sav'd from perils dark.
Across the teaboard draws a long wet mark.
Romeo ! Arise, take snuffers by the handle.
There's a large cauliflower in each candle.
A winding sheet — ah, me ! I must away
To No. 7, just beyond the circus gay.
Alas, my friend, your coat sits very well ;
Where may your Tailor live } I may not tell.
0 pardon me. I'm absent now and then.
Where rmght my Tailor live ? I say again
1 cannot tell, let me no more be teazed ;
He lives in Wapping, might live where he pleased.
I
THE CAP AND BELLS
OR, THE JEALOUSIES
A Faery Tale. Unfinished
I
N midmost Ind, beside Hydaspes cool,
There stood, or hover'd, tremulous in the air,
A faery city, 'neath the potent rule
Of Emperor Elfinan ; famed ev'rywhere
For love of mortal women, maidens fair.
Whose lips were solid, whose soft hands were made
Of a fit mould and beauty, ripe and rare.
To pamper his slight wooing, warm yet staid :
He iov'd girls smooth as shades, but hated a mere shade.
II
This was a crime forbidden by the law ;
And all the priesthood of his city wept,
For ruin and dismay they well foresaw
If impious prince no bound or limit kept.
And faery Zendervester overstept ;
They wept, he sinn'd, and still he would sin on.
They dreamt of sin, and he sinn'd while they slept ;
In vain the pulpit thunder'd at the throne.
Caricature was vain, and vain the tart lampoon.
Ill
Which seeing, his high court of parliament
Laid a remonstrance at his Highness' feet,
Praying his royal senses to content
Themselves with what in faery land was sweet.
Befitting best that shade with shade should meet :
Whereat, to calm their fears, he promised soon
From mortal tempters all to make retreat, —
Aye, even on the first of the new moon
An immaterial wife to espouse as heaven's boon.
IV
Meantime he sent a fluttering embassy
To Pigmio, of Imaus sovereign.
To half beg, and half demand, respectfully,
The hand of his fair daughter Bellanaine ;
An audience had, and speeching done, they gain
Their point, and bring the weeping bride away ;
Whom, with but one attendant, safely lain
Upon their wings, they bore in bright array.
While little harps were touch'd by many a lyric fey.
364 JOHN KEATS
V
As in old pictures tender cherubim
A child's soul thro' the sapphired canvas bear.
So, thro' a real heaven, on they swim
With the sweet princess on her plumaged lair.
Speed g^iving to the winds her lustrous hair ;
And so she journey'd, sleeping or awake.
Save when, for healthful exercise and air.
She chose to promener A I'aile or take
A pigeon's somerset, for sport or change's sake.
VI
" Dear Princess, do not whisper me so loud,"
Quoth Corallina, nurse and confidant,
"Do not you see there, lurking in a cloud.
Close at your back, that sly old Crafticant ?
He hears a whisper plainer than a rant :
Dry up your tears, and do not look so blue ;
He's Elfinan's great state-spy militant.
His running, lying, ilying footman too, —
Dear mistress, let him have no handle against you !
VII
" Show him a mouse's tail, and he will guess,
With metaphysic swiftness, at the mouse ;
Show him a garden, and with speed no less
He'll surmise sagely of a dwelling-house.
And plot, in the same minute, how to chouse
The owner out of it ; show him a " — " Peace !
Peace ! nor contrive thy mistress' ire to rouse ! "
Retum'd the Princess, " my tongue shall not cease
Till from this hated match I get a free release.
VIII
" Ah, beauteous mortal ! " " Hush ! " quoth Coralline,
" Really you must not talk of him, indeed."
" You hush ! " replied the mistress, with a shine
Of anger in her eyes, enough to breed
In stouter hearts than nurse's fear and dread :
'Twas not the glance itself made Nursey flinch.
But of its threat she took the utmost heed ;
Not liking in her heart an hour-long pinch.
Or a sharp needle run into her back an inch.
IX
So she was silenced, and fair Bellauaine,
Writhing her little body with ennui.
Continued to lament and to complain.
That Fate, cross-purposing, should let her be
Ravish'd away far from her dear countree ;
THE CAP AND BELLS 365
That all her feelings should he set at nought,
In trumping up this match so hastily.
With lowland blood ; and lowland blood she thought
Poison, as every stanch true-born Imaian ought.
X
Sorely she grieved, and wetted three or four
White Provence rose-leaves with her feery tears,
But not for this cause ; — alas ! she had more
Bad reasons for her sorrow, as appears
In the famed memoirs of a thousand years.
Written by Crafticant, and published
By Parpaglion and Co., (those sly compeers
Who raked up eVry feet against the dead,)
In Scarab Street, Panthea, at the Jubal's Head.
XI
Where, after a long hypercritic howl
Against the vicious manners of the age.
He goes on to expose, with heart and soul.
What vice in this or that year was the rage.
Backbiting all the world in ev'ry page ;
With special strictures on the horrid crime,
(Section'd and subsectiou'd with learning sage,)
Of faeries stooping on their wings sublime
To kiss a mortal's lips, when such were in their prime.
XII
Turn to the copious index, you will find
Somewhere in the column, headed letter B.,
The name of Bellanaine, if you 're not blind ;
Then pray refer to the text, and you will see
An ai-ticle made up of calumny
Against this highland princess, rating her
For giving way, so over feshionably.
To this new-fengled vice, which seems a burr
Stuck in his moral throat, no coughing e'er could stir.
XIII
There he says plainly that she loved a man !
That she around him flutter'd, flirted, toy'd.
Before her marriage with great Elfinan ;
That after marriage too, she never joy'd
In husband's company, but still employ'd
Her wits to 'scape away to Angle-land ;
Where liv'd the youth, who worried and annoy'd
Her tender heart, and its warm ardours fann'd
To such a dreadful blaze her side would scorch her hand.
366 JOHN KEATS
XIV
But let us leave this idle tittle-tattle
To waiting-maids, and bed-room iioteries.
Nor till fit time against her fame wage battle.
Poor Elfinan is very ill at ease ;
Let us resume his subject if yon please :
For it may comfort and console him much
To rhwne and syllable his miseries ;
Poor Elfinan ! whose cruel fate was such,
He sat and cursed a bride he knew he could not touch.
XV
Soon as (according to his promises)
The bridal embassy had taken wing.
And vanish'd, bird-like, o'er the suburb trees.
The Emperor, empierced with the sharp sting
Of love, retired, vex'd and murmuring
Like any drone shut from the fair bee-queen.
Into his cabinet, and there did fling
His limbs upon a sofa, full of spleen.
And damn'd his House of Commons, in complete chagrin.
XVI
" I '11 trounce some of the members," cried the Prince,
" I '11 put a mark against some rebel names,
I '11 make the Opposition-benches wince,
I '11 show them very soon, to all their shames.
What 'tis to smother up a Prince's flames.
That ministers should join in it, I own.
Surprises me ! — ^they too at these high games !
Am I an Emperor ? Do I wear a crown ?
Imperial Elfinan, go hang thyself or drown !
XVII
" I '11 trounce 'em ! — there's the square-cut chancellor.
His son shall never touch that bishopric ;
And for the nephew of old Palfior,
I'll show him that his speeches miide me sick,
And give the colonelcy to Phalaric ;
The tiptoe marquis, moral and gallant.
Shall lodge in shabby taverns upon tick ;
And for the Speaker's second cousin's aunt.
She shan't be maid of honour, — by heaven that she shan't !
XVIII
" I'll shirk the Duke of A. ; I'll cut his brother
I'll give no garter to his eldest son ;
I won't speak to his sister or his mother.
The Viscount B. shall live at cut-and-run ;
But how in the world can I contrive to stun
THE CAP AND BELLS 367
That fellow's voices which plagues me worse than any.
That stubborn fool, that impudent state-dun.
Who sets down ev'ry sovereign as a zany, —
That vulgar commoner. Esquire Biancopany ?
XIX
" Monstrous affair ! Pshaw ! pah ! what ugly minx
Will they fetch from Imaus for my bride ?
Alas ! my wearied heart within me sinks.
To think that I must be so near allied
To a cold dullard fay, — ah, woe betide !
Ah, fairest of all human loveliness !
Sweet Bertha ! what crime can it be to glide
About the fragrant plaitings of thy dress.
Or kiss thine eyes, or count thy locks, tress after tress ? "
XX
So said, one minute's while his eyes remain'd
Half lidded, piteous, languid, innocent ;
But, in a wink, their splendour they regain'd.
Sparkling revenge with amorous fury blent.
Love thwarted in bad temper oft has vent :
He rose, he stampt his foot, he rang the bell.
And order' d some death-warrants to be sent
For signature : — somewhere the tempest fell,
As many a poor fellow does not live to tell.
XXI
" At the same time, Eban," — (this was his page,
A fay of colour, slave from top to toe.
Sent as a present, while yet under age.
From the Viceroy of Zanguebar, — wise, slow
His speech, his only words were " yes " and "no,"'
But swift of look and foot and wing was he,) —
" At the same time, Eban, this instant go
To Hum the soothsayer, whose name I see
Among the fresh arrivals in our empery.
XXII
" Bring Hum to me ! But stay — here, take my ring.
The pledge of favour, that he not suspect
Any foul play, or awkward murdering,
Tho' I have bowstrung many of his sect ;
Throw in a hint, that if he should neglect
One hour the next shall see him in my grasp.
And the next after that shall see him neck'd.
Or swallow'd by my hunger-starved asp, —
Aijd ntention ('tis as well) the torture of the wasp,''
368 JOHN KEATS
XXIII
These orders given, the Prince, in half a pet.
Let o'er the silk his propping elbow slide,
Caught up his little legs, and, in a fret.
Fell on the sofa on his royal side.
The slave retreated backwards, humble-eyed,
And with a «lave-like silence closed the door.
And to old Hum thro' street and alley hied ;
He " knew the city," as we say, of yore.
And for short cuts and turns, was nobody knew more.
XXIV
It was the time when wholesale dealers close
Their shutters with a moody sense of wealth,
But retail dealers, diligent, let loose
The gas (objected to on score of health),
Convey'd in little solder'd pipes by stealth.
And make it flare in many a brilliant form.
That all the powers of darkness it repell'th.
Which to the oil-trade doth great scaith and harm.
And supersedeth quite the use of the glow-worm.
XXV
Eban, untempted by the pastrycooks,
(Of pastry he got store within the palace,)
With hasty steps, wrapp'd cloak, and solemn looks.
Incognito upon his errand sallies.
His smelling-bottle ready for the allies ;
He pass'd the hurdygurdies with disdain.
Vowing he'd have them sent on board the galleys ;
Just as he made his vow it 'gan to rain.
Therefore he call'd a coach, and bade it drive amain.
XXVI
" I '11 pull the string," said he, and further said,
" Polluted jarvey ! Ah, thou filthy hack !
Whose springs of life are all dried up and dead.
Whose linsey-woolsey lining hangs all slack.
Whose rug is straw, whose wholeness is a crack ;
And evermore thy steps go clatter-clitter ;
Whose glass once up can never be got back.
Who proVst, with jolting arguments and bitter,
That 'tis of modem use to travel in a litter.
XXVII
" Thou inconvenience ! thou hungry crop
For all corn ! thou snail-creeper to and fro.
Who while thou goest ever seem'st to stop
And fiddle-faddle standest while you go ;
r the morning, freighted with a weight of woe.
THE CAP AND BELLS 86»
Unto some lazar-house thou joumeyest^
And in the evening tak'st a double row
Of dowdies, for some dance or party drest.
Besides the goods meanwhile thou movest east and west.
XXVIII
" By thy ungallant bearing and sad mien,
An inch appears the utmost thou couldst budge ;
Yet at the slightest nod, or hint, or sign.
Round to the curb-stone patient dost thou trudge,
School'd in a beckon, learned in a nudge,
A dull-eyed Argus watching for a fare ;
Quiet and plodding, thou dost bear no grudge
To whisking tilburies or phaetons rare,
Curricles, or mail-coaches, swift beyond compare."
XXIX
Philosophizing thus, he puU'd the check
And bade the coachman wheel to such a street.
Who, turning much his body, more his neck,
Louted full low, and hoarsely did him greet :
" Certes, monsieur were best take to his feet.
Seeing his servant can no further drive
For press of coaches, that to-night here meet.
Many as bees about a straw-capp'd hive.
When first for April honey into faint flowers they dive
XXX
Ebau then paid his fare, and tiptoe went
To Hum's hotel ; and, as he on did pass
With head inclined, each dusky lineament
Show'd in the pearl-paved street, as in a glass.
His purple vest, that ever peeping was
Rich from the fluttering crimson of his cloak.
His silvery trowsers, and his silken sash.
Tied in a bumish'd knot, their semblance took
Upon the mirror'd walls, wherever he might look.
XXXI
He smiled at self, and, smiling, show'd his teeth.
And seeing his white teeth, he smiled the more ;
Lifted his eye-brows, spurn'd the path beneath,
Show'd teeth again, and smiled as heretofore.
Until he knock'd at the magician's door ;
Where, till the porter answer' d, might be seen.
In the clear panel more he could adore, —
His turban wreath'd of gold, and white, and green,
Mustachios, ear-ring, nose-ring, and his sabre keen.
84
570 JOHN KEATS
XXXII
" Does not your master give a rout to-night ? "
Quoth the dark page. " Ohj no ! " return'd the Swim, ,
" Next door but one to us, upon the right.
The Magaam des Modes now open is
Against the Emperor's wedding ; — and, sir, this
My master finds a monstrous horrid bore ;
As he retired, an hour ago I wis,
With his best beard and brimstone, to explore
And cast a quiet figure in his second floor.
XXXIII
" Gad ! he 's obliged to stick to business !
For chalk, I hear, stands at a pretty price ;
And as for aqua vitae — there 's a mess ! .
The denies swpientioe of mice.
Our barber tells me too, are on the rise, —
Tinder 's a lighter article, — ^nitre pure
Goes off like lightning, — grains of Paradise
At an enormous figure ! — stars not sure 1 —
Zodiac will not move without a slight douceur !
XXXIV
" Venus won't stir a peg without a fee.
And master is too partial, erdre nous,
To " — " Hush — hush ! " cried £ban, " sure that is he
Coming downstairs, — by St. Bartholomew !
As backwards as he can, — is 't something new i*
Or is 't his custom, in the name of fun } "
" He always comes down backward, with one shoe " —
Return'd the porter — " off, and one shoe on.
Like, saving shoe for sock or stocking, my man John ! "
XXXV
It was indeed the great Magician,
Feeling, with careful toe, for every stair.
And retrograding careful as he can.
Backwards and downwards from his own two pair :
"Salpietro ! " exclaim'd Hum, "is the dog there?
He 's always in my way upon the mat ! "
" He 's in the kitchen, or the Lord knows where," —
Replied the Swiss, — " the nasty, whelping brat ! "
" Don't beat him ! " return'd Hum, and on the floor came pat.
XXXVI
Then facing right about, he saw the page.
And said : " Don't tell me what you want, Eban ;
The Emperor is now in a huge' rage, —
'Tis nine to one he'll give you the rattan !
Let us away ! " Away together ran
THE CAP AND BELLS 371
The plain-dress'd sage and spangled blackamoor.
Nor rested till they stood to cool, and &n.
And breathe themselves at th' Emperor's chamber door.
When Eban thought he heard a soft imperial snore.
XXXVII
" I thought you guess' d, foretold, or prophesied,
That's Majesty was in a raving fit ? "
" He dreams, ' said Hum, " or I have ever lied.
That he is tearing you, sir, bit by bit."
" He 's not asleep, and you have little wit,"
Replied the page ; " that little bu^ng noise,
Whate'er your palmistry may make of it.
Comes from a plaything of the Emperor's choice.
From a Man-Tiger-Oigan, prettiest of his toys."
xxxvni
Eban then usher'd in the learned Seer :
Elfinan's back was tum'd, but, ne'ertheless,
Both, prostrate on the carpet, ear by ear.
Crept silently, and waited in distress.
Knowing the Emperor's moody bitterness ;
Eban especially, who on the floor 'gan
Tremble and quake to death, — he feared less
A dose of senna-tea or nightmare Giorgon
Than the Emperor when he play'd on his Man-llger-Organ.
xxxix
They kiss'd nine times the carpet's velvet face
Of glossy silk, soft, smooth, and meadow-green.
Where the close eye in deep rich fur might trace
A silver tissue, scantly to be seen.
As daisies lurk'd in June grass, buds in green ;
Sudden the music ceased, sudden the hand
Of majesty, by dint of passion keen.
Doubled into a common fist, went grand.
And knock'd down three cut glasses and his best ink-stand.
XL
Then turning round, he saw those trembling two :
" Eban," said he, " as slaves should taste the fruits
Of diligence, I shall remember you
To-morrow, or the next day, as time suits.
In a finger conversation wili my mutes, —
Begone I — for you, Chaldean ! here remain ;
Fear not, quake not, and as good wine recruits
A conjurer's spirits, what cup will you drain ?
Sherry in silver, hock in gold, or glass'd champagne ? '
372 JOHN KEATS
XLI
" Commander of the Faithful ! " answer'd Hum,
" In preference to these, I'll merely taste
A thimble-full of old Jamaica rum."
" A simple boon ! " said Elfinan ; " thou mayst
Have Nantz, with which my morning-coffee 's laced." '
" I'll have a glass of Nantz, then," — said the seer, —
" Made racy — (sure my boldness is misplaced !) —
With the third part— (yet that is drinking dear !) —
Of the least drop of creme de dtren, crystal clear."
XLII
" I pledge you. Hum ! and pledge my dearest love,
My Bertha ! " " Bertha ! Bertha ! " cried the sage,
" I know a many Berthas ! " " Mine 's above
All Berthas ! " sighed the Emperor. " 1 engage,"
Said Hum, " in duty, and in vassalage.
To mention all the Berthas in the earth ; —
There's Bertha Watson, — and Miss Bertha Page, —
This famed for languid eyes, and that for mirth, —
There 's Bertha Blount of York, — and Bertha Knox of Perth."
XUII
" You seem to know ' — " I do know," answer'd Hum,
" Your Majesty 's in love with some fine girl
Named Bertha ; but her surname will not come.
Without a little conjuring." "'Tis Pearl,
'Tis Bertha Pearl ! What makes my brains so whirl .''
And she is softer, fairer than her name ! "
"Where does she live.''" ask'd Hum. "Her fair locks curl
So brightly, they put all our fays to shame ! —
Live!" — O ! at Canterbury, with her old granddame."
XLIV
" Good ! good ! " cried Hum, " I've known her from a child !
She is a changeling of my management ;
She was born at midnight in an Indian wild ;
Her mother's screams with the striped tiger's blent.
While the torch-bearing slaves a halloo sent
Into the jungles ; and her palanquin.
Rested amid the desert's dreariment.
Shook with her agony, till fair were seen
The little Bertha's eyes ope on the stars serene."
XLV
" I can't say," said the monarch ; "that may be.
Just as it happen'd, true or else a bam !
Drink up your brandy, and sit down by me.
Feel, feel my pulse— now much in love I am !
And if your science is not all a sham
• " Mr. Nisby is of opinion that laced coffee is bad for the \ieaA."— Spectator.
THE CAP AxND BELLS 373
Tell me some means to get the lady here."
" Upon my hononr ! " said the son of Cham,^
" She is my dainty changeling, near and dear.
Although her story sounds at first a little queer."
XLVI
" Convey her to me. Hum, or by my crown.
My sceptre, and my cross-surmounted globe,
I'll knock you" — "Does your majesty mean — doimi ?
No, no, you never could my feedings probe
To such a depth ! " The Emperor took his robe.
And wept upon its purple palatine,
Wbile Hum continued, shamming half a sob, —
" In Canterbury doth your lady shine ?
But let me cool your brandy with a little wine."
XLVII
Whereat a narrow Flemish glass he took.
That since belong'd to Admiral De Witt.
Admired it with a connoisseuring look.
And with the ripest claret crowned it ;
And, ere the lively bead could burst and flit.
He turned it quickly, nimbly upside down.
His mouth being held conveniently fit
To catch the treasure : " Best in all the town ! "
He said, smack'd his moist lips, and gave a pleasant frown.
XLVIII
" Ah ! good my Prince, weep not ! " And then again
He fill'd a bumper. " Great Sire, do not weep !
Your pulse is shocking, but Pll ease your pain."
" Feteh me that ottoman, and prithee keep
Your voice low," said the Emperor ; " and steep
Some lady's-fingers nice in Candy wine ;
And prithee. Hum, behind the screen do peep
For the rose-water vase, magician mine !
And sponge my forehead, — so my love doth make me pine.
XLIX
" Ah, cursed Bellanaine ! " " Don't think of her,"
Rejoin'd the Mago, " but on Bertha muse ;
For, by my choicest best barometer.
Yon shall not throttled be in marriage noose ;
I 've said it. Sire ; you only have to choose —
Bertha or Bellanaine." So saying, he drew
From the leil pocket of his threadbare hose
A sampler, hoarded slyly, good as new.
Holding it by his thumb and finger full in view.
' Cham is said to have been the inventor of magic. Lucy learnt this from Bayle's
pictionary, and had copied a lopg Latin note from that work.
374 JOHN KEATS
L
" Sire, this is Bertha Pearl's neat handy-work ;
Her name, see here. Midsummer, nmety-one,"
Elfinan snatch'd it with a sudden jerk,
And wept as if he never would have done.
Honouring with royal tears the poor homespun ;
Whereon were hroider'd tigers with black eyes.
And long-tail'd pheasants, and a rising sun.
Plenty of posies, great stags, butterflies
Bigger than stags, — a moon, — with other mysteries.
LI
The monarch handled o'er and o'er again
These day-school hieroglyphics with a sigh ;
Somewhat in sadness, but pleas'd in the main.
Till this oracular couplet met his eye
Astounded : Cwpid I, do thee defy !
It was too much. He shrunk back in his chair.
Grew pale as death, and fainted— very nigh.
" Pho ! nonsense ! " exclaim'd Hum, " now don't despair ;
She does not mean it really. Cheer up, hearty — there !
LII
" And listen to my words. You say you won't.
On any terms, marry Miss BeUanaine ;
It goes against your conscience — good ! Well, don't.
You say you love a mortal. I would fain
Persuade your honour's highness to refrain
From peccadilloes. But, sire, as I say,
What good would that do } And, to be more plain.
You would do me a mischief some odd day.
Cut off my ears and hands, or head too, by my fay !
LIII
" Besides, manners forbid that I should pass any
Vile strictures on the conduct of a prince
Who should indulge his genius, if he has any.
Not, like a subject, foolish matters mince.
Now I think on 't, perhaps I could convince
Your Majesty there is no crime at all
In loving pretty little Bertha, since
She 's very delicate, — not over tall, —
A fairy's hand, and in the waist why — very small." -
LIV
" Ring the repeater, gentle Hum ! " " 'Tis five,"
Said gentle Hum ; " the nights draw in apace ;
The little birds, I hear, are all alive ;
I see the dawning touch'd upon your face ;
Shall 1 put out the candles, please your Grace } "
THE CAP AND BELLS 875
" Do put them out, and, without more ado.
Tell me how I may that sweet girl embrace, —
Howyou can bring her to me." "That 's for you.
Great Emperor ! to adventure, like a lover true."
LV
" I fetch her ? "• — " Yes, an 't like your Majesty ;
And as she would be frighten'd wide awake
To travel such a distance through the sky.
Use of some soft manoeuvre you must make,
For your convenience and her dear nerves sake ;
Nice way would be to bring her in a swoon.
Anon, I'll tell what course were best to take ;
You must away this morning." " Hum ! so soon ? "
"Sire, you must be in Kent by twelve o'clock at noon.''
LVI
At this great Cs^ar started on his feet.
Lifted his wings, and stood attentive-wise.
" Those wings to Canterbury you must beat.
If you hold Bertha as a worthy prize.
Look in the Almanack — Moore never lies —
April the twenty-fourth, — this coming day.
Now breathing its new bloom upon the sides.
Will end in St. Mark's Eve ; — you must away.
For on that eve alone can you the maid convey."
LVII
Then the magician solemnly 'gan frown.
So that his frost-white eyebrows, beetling low,
Shaded his deep green eyes, and wrinkles brown
Plaited upon his fiimace-scorched brow :
Forth from his hood that hung his neck below.
He lifted a bright casket of pure gold,
Touch'd a spring-lock, and there in wool or snow.
Charm 'd into ever freezing, lay an old
And legend-leaved book, mysterious to behold.
LVIII
" Take this same book, — it will not bite yon, sire ;
There, put it underneath your royal arm ;
Though it 's a pretty weight it will not tire.
But rather on your journey keep you warm :
This is the magic, this the potent charm.
That shall drive Bertha to a fainting iit !
When the time comes don't feel the least alarm.
But lift her from the ground, and swiftly flit
Back to your palace, where I wait for guerdon fit."
376 JOHN KEATS
LIX
" What shall I do with that same hook ? " " Why, merely
Lay it on Bertha's table, close beside
Her work-box, and 'twill help your purpose dearly ;
I say no more." " Or good or ill betide.
Through the wide air to Kent this morn I glide ! "
Exclaim'd the Emperor. " When I return.
Ask what you will, — I'll give you my new bride !
And take some more wine, Hum ; — O heavens ! 1 burn
To be upon the wing ! Now, now, that minx I spurn ! "
LX
'f Leave her to me," rejoin'd the magian :
" But how shall I account, illustrious fay !
For thine imperial absence ? Pho ! I can
Say you are very sick, and bar the way
To your so loving courtiers for one day ;
If either of their two archbishops' graces
Should talk of extreme unction, I shall say
You do not like cold pig with Latin phrases.
Which never should be used but in alarming cases."
LXI
" Open the window. Hum ; I 'm ready now ! "
" Zooks ! " exclaim'd Hum, as up the sash he drew,
" Behold, your Majesty, upon the brow
Of yonder hill, what crowds of people ! " " Whew !
The monster's always after something new,"
Return'd his Highness, " they are piping hot
To see my pigsney Ballanaine. Hum ! do
Tighten my belt a little, — so, so, — not
Too tight, — the book ! — my wand ! — so, nothing is forgot."
LXII
" Wounds ! how they shout ! " said Hum, " and there, — see, see !
Th' ambassador 's return'd from Pigmio !
The morning's very fine, — uncommonly !
See, past the skirts of yon white cloud they go.
Tinging it with soft crimsons ! Now below
The sable-pointed heads of firs and pines
They dip, move on, and with them moves a glow
Along the forest side ! Now amber lines
Reach the hill top, and now throughout the valley shines."
LXIII
" Why, Hum, you 're getting quite poetical !
Those now8 you managed in a special style."
" If ever you have leisure. Sire, you shall
See scraps of mine will make it worth your while,
Tit-bits for PhoBbus,! — yes, you well may smile.
THE CAP AND BELLS 377
Hark ! hark ! the hells ! " "A little further yet.
Good Hum, and let me view this mighty coil."
Then the great Emperor full graceful set
His elhow for a prop, and snuff'd his mignonnette.
LXIV
The morn is full of holiday ; loud bells
With rival clamours ring from every spire ;
Cunningly-station'd music dies and swells
In echoing places ; when the winds respire.
Light flags stream out like gauzy tongues of fire ;
A metropolitan murmur, lifeiid, warm.
Comes from the northern suburhs ; rich attire
Freckles with red and gold the moving swarm ;
While here and there clear trumpets blow a keen alarm.
LXV
And now the fairy escort was seen clear.
Like the old pageant of Aurora's train.
Above a pearl-built minster, hovering near ;
First wily Crafticant, the chamberlam.
Balanced upon his grey-grown pinions twain.
His slender wand officially reveal'd ;
Then black gnomes scattering sixpences like rain ;
Then pages three and three ; and next, slave-held.
The Imaian 'scutcheon bright, — one mouse in argent field.
LXVI
Gentlemen pensioners next ; and after them,
A troop of winged Janizaries flew ;
Then slaves, as presents bearing many a g«m ;
Then twelve physicians fluttering two and two ;
And next a chaplain in a cassock new ;
Then Lords in waiting ; then (what head not reels
For pleasure .'') — the feir Princess in frill view.
Borne upon wings, — and very pleased she feels
To have such splendour dance attendance at her heels.
Lxvn
For there was more magnificence behind :
She waved her handkerchief. " Ah, very grand ! "
Cried Elfinan, and closed the window-blind :
"And, Hum, we must not shilly-shally stand, —
Adieu ! adieu ! Fm off for Angle-land !
I say, old Hocus, have you such a thing
About yon, — feel your pockets, I command, —
I want, this instant, an invisible ring, —
Thank you, old mummy ! — now securely I take wing,"
378 JOHN KEATS
LXVfll
Then Elfinan swift vaulted from the floor,
And lighted graceful on the window-sill ;
Under one arm the magic book he bore.
The other he could wave about at will ;
Pale was his face, he still look'd very ill :
He bow'd at Bellanaine, and said — " Poor Bell !
Farewell ! farewell ! and if for ever ! still
For ever fare thee well ! " — and then he fell
A laughing ! — snapp'd his fingers ! — shame it is to tell !
LXIX
" By'r Lady ! he is gone ! " cries Hum, " and I —
(I own it) — have made too free with his wine ;
Old Crafticant will smoke me. By-the-bye !
This room is full of jewels as a mine.
Dear valuable creatures, how ye shine !
Sometime to-day I must contrive a minute.
If Mercury propitiously incline.
To examine his scrutoire, and see what 's in it.
For of superfluous diamonds I as well may thin it.
LXX
" The Emperor's horrid bad ; yes, that 's my cue ! "
Some histories say that this was Hum's last speech ;
That, being fuddled, he went reeling through
The corridor, and scarce upright could reach
The stair-head ; that being glutted as a leech,
And used, as we ourselves have just now said.
To manage stairs reversely, like a peach
Too ripe, he fell, being puzzled in his head
With liquor and the staircase : verdict — fcnmd stone dead.
LXXI
This as a falsehood Crafticanto treats ;
And as his style is of strange elegance.
Gentle and tender, full of soft conceits,
(Much like our Boswell's), we will take a glance
At his sweet prose, and, if we can, make dance
His woven periods into careless rhyme ;
O, little feery Pegasus ! rear — prance —
Trot round the quarto — ordinary time !
March, little Pegasus, with pawing hoof sublime !
LXXII
Well, let us see, — tenth book and chapter nine, —
Thus Crafticant pursues his diary : —
" 'Twas twelve o clock at night, the weather fine,
Latitude thirty-six ; our scouts descry
A flight of starlings making rapidly
THE CAP AND BELLS 379
Tow'rds Thibet. Mem. : — birds fly in the night ;
From twelve to half-past — wings not fit to fly
For a thick fog — the Princess sulky quite ;
Call'd for an extra shawl, and gave her nurse a bite.
LXXIII
" Five minutes before one — brought down a moth
With my new double-barrel — stew'd the thighs
And made a very tolerable broth —
Princess turn'd dainty, to our great surprise,
Alter'd her mind, and thought it very nice :
Seeing her pleasant, tried her with a pun,
She frown'd ; a monstrous owl across us flies
About this time, — a sad old figure of fun ;
Bad omen — this new match can't be a happy one.
LXXIV
" From two to half-past, dusky way we made.
Above the plains of Gobi, — desert, bleak ;
Beheld afar ofl^, in the hooded shade
Of darkness, a great mountain (strange to speak).
Spitting, from forth its sulphur-bakeu peak,
A fan-shaped burst of blood-red, arrowy fire,
Turban'd with smoke, which stUl away did reek.
Solid and black from that eternal pyre,
Upon the laden winds that scantly could respire.
LXXV
" Just upon three o'clock a falling star
Created an alarm among our troop,
Kill'd a man-cook, a ps^e, and broke a jar,
A tureen, and three dishes, at one swoop.
Then passing by the Princess, singed her hoop :
Could not conceive what Coralline was at.
She clapp'd her hands three times and cried out ' Whoop ! '
Some strange Imaian custom. A large bat
Came sudden 'fore my iace, and brush'd against my hat.
LXXVI
" Five minutes thirteen seconds after three.
Far in the west a mighty fire broke out.
Conjectured, on the instant, it might be,
The city of Balk — 'twas Balk beyond all doubt :
A griffin, wheeling here and there about.
Kept reconnoitring us — doubled our guard —
Lighted our torches, and kept up a shout.
Till he sheer'd oflr — ^the Princess very scared —
And many on their marrowbones for death prepared,
380 JOHN KEATS
LXXVII
" At half-past three arose the cheerful moon —
Bivouack'd for four minutes on a cloud —
Where from the earth we heard a lively tune
Of tamhourines and pipes, serene and loud,
While on a flowery lawn a brilliant crowd
Cinque-parted danced, some half asleep reposed
Beneath the green-fan'd cedars, some did shroud
In silken tents, and 'mid light fragrance dozed.
Or on the open turf their soothed eyelids closed.
LXXVIII
" Dropp'd my gold watch, and kill'd a kettle-drum —
It went for apoplexy — foolish folks !—
Left it to pay the piper — a good sum —
(I've got a conscience, maugre people's jokes ;)
To scrape a little favour 'gan to coax
Her Highness' pug-dog — got a sharp rebu£F —
She wish'd a game at whist — made three revokes —
Turn'd from myself, her partner, in a huff ;
His Majesty will know her temper time enough.
LXXIX
" She cried for chess — I pla/d a game with her —
Castled her King with such a vixen look.
It bodes ill to his Majesty — (refer
To the second chapter of my fortieth book.
And see what hoity-toity airs she took).
At half-past four the morn essay'd to beam —
Saluted, as we pass'd, an early rook —
The Princess fell asleep, and, in her dream,
Talk'd of one Master Hubert, deep in her esteem.
LXXX
"About this time, — making delightful way, —
Shed a quill-feather from my larboard wing —
Wish'd, trusted, hoped 'twas no sign of decay —
Thank Heaven, I'm hearty yet ! — 'twas no such thing :
At five the golden light began to spring.
With fiery shudder through the bloomed east ;
At six we heard Panthea's churches ring —
The city all his unhived swarms had cast.
To watch our grand approach, and hail us as we pass'd.
LXXXI
" As flowers turn their faces to the sun.
So on our flight with hungry eyes they gaze.
And, as we shaped our course, this, that way run,
With mad-cap pleasure, or hand-olasp'd amaze ;
Sweet in the air a mild-toned music plays,
THE CAP AND BELLS 381
And progresses through its own labyrinth ;
Buds gather'd from the green spring's middle-days.
They scatter' d, — daisy, primrose, hyacinth, —
Or round white columns wreath'd from capital to plinth.
LXXXII
" Onward we floated o'er the panting streets.
That seem'd throughout with upheld faces paved ;
Look where we will, our bird's-eye vision meets
Legions of holiday ; bright standards waved.
And fluttering ensigns emulously craved
Our minute's glance ; a busy thunderous roar.
From square to square, among the buildings raved.
As when the sea, at flow, gluts up once more
The craggy hollowness of a wild reefed shore.
LXXXIII
" And ' Bellanaine for ever ! ' shouted they ;
While that fair Princess, from her winged chair,
Bow'd low with high demeanour, and, to pay
Their new-blown loyalty with guerdon fair.
Still emptied, at meet distance, here and there,
A plenty horn of jewels. And here I
(Who wish to give the devil her due) declare
Against that ugly piece of calumny.
Which calls them Highland pebble-stones, not worth a fly.
LXXXIV
" Still ' Bellanaine ! ' they shouted, while we glide
'Slant to a light Ionic portico.
The city's delicacy, and the pride
Of our Imperial Basilic ; a row
Of lords and ladies, on each hand, make show
Submissive of knee-bent obeisance,
All down the steps ; and as we enter'd, lo !
The strangest sight — the most unlook'd-for chance —
All things tum'd topsy-turvy in a devil's dance.
LXXXV
" 'Stead of his anxious Majesty and court
At the open doors, with wide saluting eyes,
Gongies and scrape-graces of every sort,
And all the smooth routine of gallantries.
Was seen, to our immoderate surprise,
A motley crowd thick gather'd in the hall.
Lords, scullions, deputy-scullions, with wild cries
Stunning the vestibule from wall to wall.
Where the Chief Justice on his knees and hands doth crawl.
382 JOHN KEATS
LXXXVI
" Counts of the palace, and the state purveyor
Of moth's-down, to make soft the royal heds,
The Common Council and my fool Lord Mayor
Marching a-row, each other slipshod treads ;
Fowder'd hag-wigs and ruffy-tu£^ heads
Of cinder wenches meet and soil each other ;
Toe crush'd with heel ill-natured fighting breeds^
Frill-rumpling elbows brew up many a bother,
And fists in the short ribs keep up the yell and pother.
LXXXVII
"A Poet, mounted on the Court-Clown's back.
Rode to the Princess swift with spurring heels.
And close into her face, with rhyming clack.
Began a Prothalamion ; — she reels,
She falls, she faints ! while laughter peals
Over her woman's weakness 'Where,' cried I,
' Where is his Majesty ? ' No person feels
Inclined to answer ; wherefore instantly
I plunged into the crowd to find him or to die.
Lxxxvm
" Jostling my way I gain'd the stairs, and ran
To the first landing, where, incredible !
I met, far gone in liquor, that old man.
That vile impostor Hum, "
So far so well, —
For we have proved the Mago never fell
Down stairs on Crafticanto's evidence ;
And therefore duly shall proceed to tell.
Plain in our own original mood and tense.
The sequel of this day, though labour 'tis immense
No more was written.
ADDENDA
POEMS FOUND IN THE WOODHOUSE TRANSCRIPT OF
THE FALL OF HYPERION AND OTHER POEMS
FILL FOR ME A BRIMMING BOWL
FILL for me a brimming bowl
And let me in it drown my soul :
But put therein some drug, designed
To banish Women from my mind :
For I want not the stream inspiring
That iills the mind with— fond desiring.
But I want as deep a draught
As ere frorti Lethe's wave was quaff'd ;
From my despairing heart to charm
The Image of the fairest form
That e'er my reveling eyes beheld
That e'er ray wandering fancy spell'd.
In vain ! away I cannot chace
The melting softness of that face
The beaminess of those bright eyes
That breast — earth's only Paradise.
My sight will never more be blest ;
For all I see has lost its zest :
Nor with delight can I explore
The Classic page, or Muse's lore
Had she but known how beat my heart.
And with one smile reliev'd its smart
I should have felt a sweet relief
I should have felt "the joy of grief,"
Yet as the Tuscan mid the snow
Of Lapland thinlcs on sweet Arno,
Even so for ever shall she be
The Halo of my Memory.
Aug., 1814
384 JOHN KEATS
SONG
TuNB — Julia to the Wood- Robin
STAY, ruby-breasted Warbler, stay.
And let me see thy sparkling eye :
O brush not yet the pearl-strung spray.
Nor bow thy pretty head to fly.
Stay, while I tell thee, fluttering thing.
That thou of love an emblem art ;
Yes — patient plume thy little wing.
While I my thought to thee impart.
When summer nights the dews bestow.
And summer suns enrich the day.
Thy notes the blossoms charm to blow.
Each opes delighted at thy lay.
So when in youth the Eye's dark glance
Speaks pleasure from its circle bright,
The Tones of love our joys enhance.
And make superior each delight.
And when bleak storms resistless rove.
And every rural bliss destroy.
Nought comforts then the leafless grove
But thy sweet note — its only joy.
Even so the words of love beguile
When pleasure's tree no flower bears.
And draw a soft endearing smile
Amid the gloom of grief and tears.
ON PEACE
O PEACE ! and dost thou with thy presence bless
The dwellings of this war-surrounded Isle ;
Soothing with placid brow our late distress.
Making the triple kingdom brightly smile .''
Joyful I hail thy presence ; and I hail
The sweet companions that await on thee ;
Complete my joy — let not my first wish fail,
Let the sweet mountain nymph thy &vourite be.
With England's happiness proclaim Europa's Liberty.
O Europe ! let not sceptred tyrants see
That thou must shelter in thy former state ;
Keep thy chains burst, and boldly say thou art free ;
Give thy kings law — leave not uncurbed the (great .')
So with the honours past thou'lt win thy happier fate I
ADDENDA 385
TO EMMA
1
OCOME my dear Emma ! the rose is full blown,
The riches of Flora are lavishly strown,
The air is all softness, and crystal the streams.
The West is resplendently clothed in beams.
O come ! let us haste to the freshening shades.
The quaintly carv'd seats, and the opening glades ;
Where the fairies are chanting their evening hymns.
And in the last sun-beam the sylph lightly swims.
And when thou art weary I'll find thee a bed.
Of mosses and flowers to pillow thy head :
There, beauteous, Emma I'll sit at thy feet.
While my story of love I enraptur'd repeat.
So fondly I'll breathe, and so softly I'll sigh.
Thou wilt think that some amorous Zephyr is nigh :
Yet no — as I breathe I will press thy fair knee.
And then thou wilt know that the sigh comes from me.
5
Ah ! why dearest girl should we lose all these blisses .''
That moi"tal'8 a fool who such happiness misses :
So smile acquiescence, and give me thy hand.
With love-looking eyes, and with voice sweetly bland.
25
NOTES
[The following principal editions of the Works of Keats are thus referred to in the
Notes :—
H 1848. Life, Letters and Literary Remains of John Keats, edited by Richard
Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton). 2 vols. 1848.
WTA. The Poetical Works of John Keats, edited by William T. Arnold. 1883.
HBF. The Complete Works of John Keats, edited by H. Buxton Forman. 1900.
Mr. Sidney Colvin's Life of Keats (English Men of Letters Series, Macmillan, 1887)
is referred to as EML. References to the Letters of Keats are made under their dates,
that they may be traced either in the edition of Mr. Forman, above mentioned, or in
that of Mr. Colvin (Macmillan, 1891).]
THE POEMS OF 1817
Keats'g first collection of poems appeared in March, 1817, and was
favourably reviewed by Leigh Hunt in the Examiner of 1st June and
6th and 13th July. All his friends seem to have been anxious for him
to bring out the volume, and Shelley alone advised him not to publish at
present, though when Keats had decided to do so he helped to find him
a publisher and introduced him to the Olliers. The volume attracted
little attention. As Keats remarked in the rejected preface to Bndymion
"it was read by some dozen of my friends who lik'd it ; and some dozen
whom I was unacquainted with, who did not" ; and when on 29th April,
George Keats, evidently thinking that the publishers were not pressing
it properly upon the public, wrote to inquire about its sale, he received a
heated reply : "We regret that your brother ever requested us to publish
his book, or that our opinion of its talent should have led us to acquiesce
in undertaking it. We are, however, obliged to you for relieving us of
the unpleasant necessity of declining any further connection with it,
which we must have done, as we think the curiosity is satisfied, and the
sale has dropped." They added with bitterness that one of their customers
had described it, a few days before, as " no better than a take in " (Letter
of the Olliers to George Keats quoted in EML, p. 66).
The motto with its characteristic phrase " delight with liberty " is to
be found in Spenser's Muiopotmos, 209, 210.
Dedication. — Charles Cowden Clarke in his Recollections of Keats
refers to this sonnet as an example of Keats's facility in composition.
388 JOHN KEATS
noting' that it was written extempore " amid the buzz of a mixed conver-
sation " upon the request from the printer that " if a dedication to the
book was intended, it must be sent forthwith ". It is essentially character-
istic in tone and diction of the volume it serves to introduce.
After the Dedication stood a note in the first edition to the effect that
" The Short Pieces in the middle of the Book, as well as some of the
Sonnets, were written at an earlier period than the rest of the Poems ".
It is difficult to understand what principle guided Keats in their selection,
for several of them, as Hunt noticed, are of liUle value, and poems quite
as good, written also before 1817, were omitted.
I Stood Tip-tob . . . : — shows the iniluence of Hunt at its height both
in subject, treatment (v. Introduction) and versification. The doubl»
rhymea are about one in four and a half, and there is constant use of
enjambement. The poem was originally called Endymion, and is referred
to: under that title in a letter to Clarke of December, 1816, where Keats
speaks of it as almost finished. But the earlier part of the poem at least
reads more like a summer rhapsody than a mere winter's reininiseence (on
the date cf. p. 668, note). Lord Houghton states that it was suggested to
Keats by a delightful summer's day, as he stood beside the gate that leads
from the battery on Hampstead' Heath into a field by Caen Wood. The
characteristic motto of the poem is taken from Hunt's Story of Rimini,
iii. 68.
48. Ye ardent marigolds ! : — " The introduction of the short line may
have been caught either from Spenser's nuptial Odes or Milton's Lycidas"
(ColVin). The latter is much more probable. Spenser's use of the short
line is at once more frequent and more regular than Milton's or Keats's.
Moreover, in the poems of this date the influence of Milton's early poems
is as marked as that of Spenser.
62. many harps which he has lately, strung : — Keats, who has just decided
to devote his life to art, is at the time full of enthusiasm for the immediate
future of English poetry, Cf. Sleep and Poetry, 220-230, and Sonnet XIV.,
9-12.
61. Linger awhile, etc. H supplies this variant : —
Linger awhile among some bending planks
That lean against a streamlet's daisied banks.
And watch intently Nature's gentle doings ;
That will be found as soft as ringdoves' cooings.
The inward ear will hear her and be blest.
And tingle with a joy too light for rest
The whole passage (61-80) is, says Clarke, ''a recollection of our having
frequently loitered over the rail of a footbridge that spanned a little brook
in the last field upon entering Edmonton ".
71. A natural sermon o'er their pebbly beds : — A crude reminiscence of
As You Like It, ii. 1. 17.
I STOOD TIP-TOE— NOTES 389
87- Sometimes goldfinches, etc. : — Woodhouse compares this passage
with the Chaucerian poem of The Plowre and the Leafe, stanza 88 : —
Therein a goldfinch leaping pretile
Fro bough to bough, and as him list he eet
Here and there of buds and floures sweet.
116. Coming into the blue, etc. : — H supplies this variant : —
Floating through space with ever^Jiving eye
The crowned queen of ocean and the sky.
125-242. For what has made the sage or poet write
But the fair paradise of Nature's light ? etc. : —
This whole passage, crude and formless as it is, is an attempt of Keats
to express the ideas floating through his mind on what might be called
the metaphysics of poetry. — How can we explain the hold which poetry
has upon the human mind and the manner in which it affects us ? Man,
Keats would imply, is himself a part of Nature, only to be distinguished
from Nature in his self-consciousness, and in his definite recognition of
that beauty which is implicit in Nature, whilst poetry is the expression
of his sense of kinj^ship ; rhythm, an essential constituent of all poetry,
being itself the unconscious reproduction of the rhythm or order in
Nature herself. It is on this relationship with Nature that the universal
appeal of poetry ultimately rests, whilst the similar effect produced upon
us by certain aspects of Nature and certain types or forms of poetry is
not mere arbitrary cbincidence, but is due to the fact that each is a
different manifestation of the same idea (cf. 11. 128-32). The true poet,
therefore, is instinctively guided by Nature to the only adequate form
in which to clothe his conception, as much as he is inspired by Nature
with the conception which he desires to clothe. On this his success
as an artist is based, just as true taste in readers of poetry is based
upon an intuitive perception of this essential propriety. A similar atti-
tude with regard to the fundamental basis of poetry and the poetic
instinct in man is to be found in Coleridge's Essays on the Fine Arts,
and in Shelley's Defence of Poetry, and these works form, pei'haps, the best
commentary upon Keats's lines. It will be sufficient for our purpose to
quote Shelley. " Man," says Shelley, " is an instrument over which a
series of external and internal impressions are driven like the alternations
of an ever-changing wind over an iBolian lyre, which move it by their
motion to ever-changing melody. . . . To be a poet is to apprehend the
true and the beautiful, in a word, the good, which exists in the relation
subsisting first between existence and perception, and secondly between
perception and expression. . . . Sounds as well as thoughts have relation
between each other and towards that which they represent, and a per-
ception of the order of their relations has always been found connected
with a perception of the order of the relations of thought. . . . Hence
poetic harmony." Shelley shows that poetry is essentially natural
rather than artificial by an appeal to the instincts of the child and of the
390 JOHN KEATS
savage {i,e., the child in his relation with the development of the human
race), and seems to suggest that the poet of civilisation can only satisfy the
artistic impulse within him by an attempt to regain by conscious artistic
effort something of the poetic instinct of the child, in his spontaneous
expression of his relations with the Nature around him ; to become as a little
child being, of course, a very different thing from remaining as one.
From the same fundamental conception of poetry springs Keats's
interpretation of the significance of Greek legend, to which he devotee
the remainder of his poem (c/. also Endymion, ii. 828-54). These myths
are not mere fancy. The poet is instinctively impelled to give voice to
his feelings of kinship with Nature and his aspirations after a completer
• union. But, as man, he has a finite intellect which can only fully re-
alise human relationships, and a language, dependent on that intellect,
which is primarily adapted to their expression. As an inevitable result
his emotions with regard to Nature take human shape, and Nature, ac-
commodating herself to the finite capacities of human intellect and human
language, consents to the incarnation of her spirit in forms capable of
human apprehension ; whilst language, itself essentially metaphorical,
]__„ aids substantially in the process of incarnation. It is interesting to
observe that Hunt, reviewing the 1817 volume' in the Examiner, speaks
of this poem as " ending with an allusion to the story of Endymion, and
to the origin of other lovely tales of mythology, on the ground suggested
by Wordsworth in a beautiful passage of his Excursion ". Hunt is alluding
to bk. iv. 717-62, 846-87— passages which, doubtless, had a deep and
permanent influence upon Keats, in that they fortified him in a belief
which was essentially characteristic of his whole attitude to poetry.
129, 130. hawthorn glade :—Cf. iVIilton, V Allegro, 67, 68 :—
And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the Hawthorn in the dale.
141. The legend of Psyche, first known to Keats, perhaps, in Lempri^re
and the illustrations of Spence's Polymetis, was familiar to him also in Mrs.
Tighe (To Some Ladies, 20, note). Cf. also the exquisite allusion in
Spenser, Faerie Queene, iii. 6. 60. Keats reverted to the theme in his Ode
to Psyche {q.v.).
153. Fawns, 1817 : altered by most editors to " Fauns " ; but it is a
characteristic reminiscence of the spelling of Milton and Fletcher, whom
the passage itself suggests.
. 167. The story of Syrinx, a nymph of Arcadia, who fled from Pan to
the river Ladon and was there changed into a reed from which Pan made
his flute, is told at length in Ovid, Met., i., whence probably Keats took
the story. It is constantly referred to in Elizabethan poetry, e.g., in
Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess ; where we also find the famous lines on
Endymion, and two delicate references to Narcissus : —
Narcissus, he
That wept himself away, in memory
Of his own he&uty.— Faithful Shepherdess, Act I.
SPECIMEN OF AN INDUCTION, ETC.— NOTES 391
And in Act IV. :—
That swan who now is made a flow'r
For whose dear sake Eccho weeps many a show'r.
The story of Narcissus was also known to Keats in Ovidj Met., iii., where
it is told in full. Woodhousej in his manuscript notes to the poem, refers
to p. 60 of Sandys's Ovid — an extremely interesting reference, as it proves
' beyond a doubt that the edition of Sandys in the use of Keats and his friends
was the folio with full commentaries, in which the tale of Narcissus duly
appears on p. 50. This is important, as in the notes to Bndymion much
illustrative matter has been drawn from Sandys's commentaries with which,
before I read Woodhouse's note, I was convinced upon internal evidence
that Keats was familiar. For Narcissus cf. also Spenser, Faerie Queene,
iii. 6. 45. On Bndymion, v. Introduction to that poem. The whole passage
suggesting the source of these legends should be compared with Bndymion,
iii. 829-63.
233. Other's H, HBF ; others' 1817.
Specimen of an Induction and Calidobe have been described as an
attempt " to embody the spirit of Spenser in the metre of Rimini " (Colvin).
But there is a good deal of the spirit of Rimini, too, especially in the
treatment of women (e.g., Calidore, 145-61) ; for after all the elaborate
preparation for a "tale of chivalry" and a description of the "ambitious
heat of the aspiring boy," Calidore succeeds in doing nothing but help
two ladies to descend from their palfreys. It is worth noticing that Hunt
("thy lov'd Libertas") is to intercede with Spenser for Keats, and it is
only as Hunt's follower that he dares to call on Spenser for inspiration
{Spec, of Induction, 56-66). Sir Calidore, the Knight of Courtesy (Faerie
Queene, vi.), was a favourite hero of Keats's. Cf. Woman ! when I behold
thee, 12. The spelling of "ballanoing " (30), and the use of " banneral " (38),
are the only signs of Spenserian vocabulary, though one should add that
Woodhouse for the phrase " her own pure self " (17) compares the Faerie
Queene, "her sad self with careful hand constraining". The rest is
Huntian.
Induction. 6. Archimago: — The wizard of Faerie Queene, ii. Cf. Ep.
to Clarke, 37.
46. steed : — HBF, following transcript and a corrected copy belonging
to Keats ; knight, 1817.
61, 62. my heart with pleasure dance : — An obvious reminiscence of
Wordsworth's poem, "I wandered lonely as a cloud".
CAiiinoBE. 93. a dimpled hand. Fair as some wonder, etc. : — Woodhouse
compares Romeo and Juliet, iii. 3. 36 :—
they may seize
On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand.
392 JOHN KEATS
To Some Ladies : — This and the following poem are wjitten jn imitaijf^
of Tom Moore^ for whose work the young Kea,tB had a passing affection.
It is worth noting .that Jdoore had a great attraction for Hunt, and was
one of the poets who fared best at the Feast of the Poets, Hunt's earlier
criticism of contemporary jpoetry. Mr. Foreman {AthmcBym, J,6th April,
1904) has identified the ladies with the Misses Mathew, after ex^ifiination
of a MS. of the poem headed " To the Misses M.," and this view is corro-
borated by a note, in Woodhouse's copy x>f the 1817 volume, to ,the second
poem : — "These lines appear ,to be addressed to the friend to whom the
author addressed one of the JElpisttLes in this vflluiQe. The fj:ieud seut
some lines in reply which have an allusion to several passiiges in these
verses." Notice in this second poem the characteristic introduction of
allusions to Spenser, Tasso and A Midsmtmer-Nig^f s Dream.
6. rove : — iThe MS., says Ml'. iForman, reads " muse," thus supplying
the necessary rhyme to " bedews ".
20. The blessings of Tighe : — Mrs. Tighe, authoress of Psyche or The
Legend of Love, a poem in six cantos in the Spenserian stanza. It begins
in simple narrative, though not untouched in places with characteristic
eighteenth-century phraseology, but .deyelops into a weak allegory, fuU
of idle personification, devoid of reality or imaginative richness.
To : —Written in February, 1816, and addressed jt"? Georgiana
Augusta Wylie, who afterwards became the wife of George Ke^. Keats
wrote the poem for his brother to sead as a valentine. It is one of the
happiest of his earfy works (despite the rhyme in lines 37, 38), and far
more Spenserian in spirit than his other early love verses. Read (Keats
and Spenser Dissertation) points out that lines 39 and 40 are a reminiscence
of the Shepherd's Calendar for. April : —
Wants not a fourth grace, to make the daunce even ?
Let that roume to my Lady he geven ;
She shail be a grace
To fyll the fourth place
And reign with the rest in heaven.
He also suggests that lines 25-34 and 41-60 are a recollection of Faerie
Queeipe, ii. 32. 63-67. The picture of the little loves (29, 30) recalls the
angels in the Bpithalamium, 232, 233, which continually
forget their service and about hpr fly
Ofte peeping in her face, that seemes more fayre
The more on it they stare.
It was the Bpithalamium which first kindled Keats's enthusiasm fpr
Spenser, and Clarke in his Recollections of the poet refers to this particular
passage with the comment : " Hqw often, in after times, have I hpard him
quote these lines ! ". It is more than likply th^t the " peeping and
staring" which is so offensive a characteristic of the early Keatsian lover
has no less spiritual and delicate an origin than this, though as a rule
TO HOPE, ETC.— NOTES 398
Keats travesties it into a sickly aentimemtality. So in Calidore (145-50),
and Woman 1 when I behold thee.
58. Se/rvant of. Woodhouse compares the Faerie Qmene : —
This trusty sword the servant of his might.
Mr. Colvin (EML, p. 225) quotes from Woodhouse MS. the following as
the original form of the poem : —
Hadst thoH lived in days of old,
Oh what wanders had teen told
Of thy lively dimpled face,
And ,thy fooitsteps full /of grace.
Of thy hair's luxurious darkling,
Of thine eyes' expressive sparkling.
And thy voice's swelling rapture,
Taking hearts a ready capture.
Oh ! if thou hadst breathed then.
Thou hadst made the Muses ten.
Then followed lines 37 to 68 as in text, with 'this quotation in con-
clusion : —
Ah me ! whither shall I flee .''
Thou hast metamor|iho8ed me.
Do not let me sigh and pine,
Prythee hp.my Valentine.
To I^opE : — is chiwly interesting as an example of the eighteenth--ci9Q-
tury,style of composit,i^p which Keats was to denounce in Sleep and Poetry.
Notice " Disappointment, parent of Despair," " that fiend Despondence,"
"Meijjless fiiir," etc.
Imitation op Spenbeb : — " On the authority of Mr. Brown I have stated
this to be the earliest known composition of Keats, and to have been
written during his residence at Edmonton " (Houghton). As Mr. Colvin
poi;it^ put, there is little in it that takes us back farther than the eighteenth-
century Spei)?erians, and the use of the word romantic (24) suggests coun-
terfeit romance, as much as CoUins's use Pf eastern suggests that his Persian
Eclogues are pseudo-oriental. The reference to Dido is interesting as one
of the very few cases in which Keats drew upon Vergil, probably the only
classical writer he had studied in the original.
14. the swan his neck of arched snow, And oar'd himself, etc. Wood-
house aptly compares Paradise Lost, vii., 438-40 :—
the swan with arched neck
Between her white wings mantling proudly, rowes
Her state with Oarie feet.
Woman! Wu^it I Behold Thee, etc- : — This series pf Cjarly ^oniiets h^s
all the characteristics already noticed in Keats's youthful love poems, wheier
in a perfectly genuine and chivalrous emotion is often travestied by the
894 JOHN KEATS
bad taste of its expression. Palgrave {Golden Treasury Keats, notes) com-
pares with their dominant sentiment a passag^e in a letter to Bailey, written
on 23rd January, 1818 : "One saying of yours I shall never forget — you
may not recollect it — it being perhaps said when you were looking on the
surface and seeming of Humanity alone, without a thought of the past or
the future, or the deeps of good and evil . . . merely you said, ' Why
should woman suffer?' Ay, why should she? 'By heavens, I'd coin my
very soul and drop my blood for Drachmas.' These things are, and he,
who feels how incompetent the most skyey Knight-errantry is to heal
' this bruised fairness, is like a sensitive leaf on the hot hand of thought."
EPISTLES
/
These Epistles are important as the first example of Keats's employ-
ment of the heroic couplet. It is noticeable that the first, written before
the appearance of the Story of Rimini, has all the characteristics of Keats's
early versification, many of which are associated with the influence of
Leigh Hunt. But, as has been pointed out in the Introduction, Keats
already knew Hunt's principles and had already studied for himself those
authors who illustrated both the advantages and the dangers of the laxity
which he favoured — Chapman's Odyssey^ and, probably, Browne and
Fletcher.
The familiar Epistle is a form of composition which presents obvious
difficulties ; and the unwary writer is likely to fall either into an elabora-
tion of poetic ornament in which it loses its character as an Epistle, or
into a triviality and baldness of phrase in which it loses its right to be re-
garded as a literary composition. It was thus a particularly dangerous
form of composition for Keats at this period, for its intimacy of treatment
seemed to him to justify all his worst faults, whUst he had as yet no com-
mand over its peculiar excellences of polish, neatness and elegance by
means of which alone it can be written with any measure of success.
The motto is taken from Browne's Britannia's Pastorals (ii. 3. 748-60),
which Keats read with some care. It does not follow from this, however,
though it is probable, that he had read Browne at the time of writing the
Epistle to Mathew.
I. To Georqe Felton Matbew : — George Felton Mathew was a friend
with whom Keats in his early London days used to read poetry. He has
left an interesting record of Keats at this period. "He enjoyed good
health and a fine flow of animal spirits — was fond of company and could
amuse himself admirably with the frivolities of life — and had great con-
>In Chapman's Odyssey, read by Keats early in 1815, we find continual enjambe-
ment and double rhymes, and a use of language at times bold and at times descending
to a familiarity which borders upon the vulgar. The difficulties of rapid translation
naturally encouraged in Chapman a looseness of phrase to which he was always prone
(v. Appendix C.)
EPISTLES— NOTES 395
fidence in himself. . . . He was of the sceptical and republican school — an
advocate for the innovations which were makings progress in his time — a
fault-finder with everything established " (Houghton MSS. quoted by Colvin,
EML, p. 20). At the same time it is Mathew who tells us that Keats
" delighted in leading you through the mazes of elaborate description, but
was less conscious of the sublime and the pathetic". The Epistle is
interesting as suggesting the poets read by the two friends at the period —
Beaumont and Fletcher (5-10), Milton's early poems (18, L' Allegro), Pope,
Essay on Man (24, rapt seraph), Chatterton (66), Shakespeare (67), A
Midsummer-Night's Dream (26-29), Burns (71), Spenser (76, Faerie Queene,
i. S. 4) ; lines 65-70 shew Keats to be already the pupil of the Examiner.
U. To MT Brother Georoe : — written from Margate where Keats was
enjoying his first visit to the sea {cf. 11. 123-38). Notice the association of
Leigh Hunt with Spenser, 24. {cf. Induction, 61).
54. poetic lore : — Cf. Sonnet To My Brothers, 6, 7.
81. Lays have I left, etc. Woodhouse compares Spenser, Colin Clout's
come home againe, 642, etc. : —
And long while after I am dead and rotten :
Amongst the shepherds daughters dancing round,
My layes made of her shall not be forgotten
But sung by them with flowry gyrlands crowned.
JII. To Charles Cowden Clarke: — This Epistle is particularly valuable
as addressed to the friend who had first interested Keats in poetry
(v. Introduction), and as Hunt remarked in the Examiner "is equally
honourable to both parties, to the young writer who can be so grateful
towards his teacher and to the teacher who had the sense to perceive his
genius and the qualities to call forth his affection ".
16-18. shatter' d boat . . . intent : — Recalls both in phi-ase and cadence,
though with an essential difference of feeling, Cowper's famous lines On
the Receipt of my Mother's Picture : —
But me scarce hoping to attain that rest . . .
SaUs rent, seams opening wide and compass-tossed.
The chief poets referred to are, as before, Spenser, Milton, Shakespeare
{A Midsummer-Night's Dream).
33-37. Mulla : — The stream that ran not far from Kilcolman, Spenser's
first home ; cf. Faerie Queene, iv. 11. 41 : —
Mulla mine whose waves I whilom taught to weepe.
Cf. also Faerie Queene, vii. 6. 40, Colin Clout's come home againe, 62, 63,
Bpithalamium, 58, 59. Line 34 seems a reminiscence of Epithalamium, 176,
" Her brest like to a bowl of cream uncrudded ". Una and Belphcebe are
the heroines, and Archimago the magician of the first two books of the
Faerie Queene.
44. Libertas : — With this reference to Leigh Hunt cf. Epistle to George
Keats, 24, etc.
396 JOHN KEATS
87. Already Keats stows that he has understood the secret of Spenser's
melodjr, and that he appreciates with a fine poetic instinct t^ essential
qualities of the different forms of poetry. It is significant of his early
taste that he had not yet learnt to appreciate the majestic side of Milton.
The patriotism of lines 69-73, with its stock examples {cf. Episile to Mathew,
67, Sonnet XVI., SUep and Poetry, 386), shows that Clarke was chiefly
instrumental in preparing Keats, in this as in other ways, for his disciple-
ship to Leigh Hunt.
63. Atlas : — A favourite allusion in Elizabethan poetry. Cf. e.g., "ease
strong Atlas of his load," Browne, Brit. Pastorals, ii. 1. 742 ; Beaumont
and Fletcher, Philaster, i. 1, " ease me of a load would bow strong Atlas ".
82. Misspent ;— Mispent 1817.
94. Cloudlets .—Cloudlet's 1817-
110. Clarke was a good piano-player and was the first to stimulate
Keats's love for music. For the poet's susceptibility to music, cf. Endy-
mion, ii. 364-72 and St. Agnes' Eve, xxix. 9, a line, as Keats told Clarke
on reading him the manuscript of the poem "that came into my head
when I remembered how I used to listen in bed to your music at school".
The word " music " was used vaguely at this time in the sense of " musical
instrument".
SONNETS
I. To MY Brother Geobge : — Obviously from lines 5-8 written from
Margate, and thus contemporary with the Epistle to George Keats. Cf.
especially 124-38 with their record of the manner in which the sea im-
pressed his imagination. Woodhouse notes that the laurel' d peers (3) are
the " poets in Heaven " and compares with the Ode to Apollo : —
'Tis awful silence then again ;
Expectant stand the spheres ;
Breathless the laurell'd peers.
' II. To . . . : — The person to whom this sonnet is addressed is unknown.
111. Written on the day that Mr. Leigh Hunt left Prison : — For circum-
stances of composition, etc., vide Introduction, p. xxiv. The Hunts were
liberated from prison on 2iid Februa;r7;i 1815, and Clarke records hov,
returning from a visit to Hunt to cppg^atulate him on his release, he met
Keats who gave him the sonnet. ''This I felt to be the first proof I had
received of his having committed himself in verse ; and how clearly do I
recollect the conscious look and hesitation with which he offered it ! "
6. Minion ofgrandfur .•-■-The editor of the Morning Post, who had pub-
lished the laudatory article describing the Prince Regent as "the glory of
his People and Exciter of Desire " — " Adonis in loveliness " and more in
the same stritin. Hunt had burlesqued the article in the Bxamimr. The
inclusion of this sonnet together with No. XIV. was largely responsible
SONNETS— NOTES 397
for the asBociation of Keats's poetry and politics witii Hunt in the mind of
the Tory reviewers.
IV, How many bards gild the lapses of time! — A sonnet particularly
interesting, not only in its expression of the influence that Keaits f«lt to
be exercised over him by the beauties of his predecessors, which often
adorned his own work, but also in its suggestion, by the comparison with
nature, of the essential character of that influence. Hunt, revieswing the
volume in the Examiner, criticised the first line for its metrical irregular'
ity, sayipg that " by no comtrivance of any sort can we prevent this fi?om
jumping out of the heroic measure into mere rhythmicality ". Mr, Robert
Bridges, on the other hand, regards " the inversion of the third and fourth
stresses as very musical and suitable to the exclamatory form of the sent-
ence" {Keats, p. Ixxxix,). The fine 13th line (explained, perhaps un-
necessarily, by Woodhouse, " which distance prevents from being distinctly
recognised ") was well praised by Horace Smith, who remarked when Cfafke
first showed the poem to him and Leigh Hunt, " What a well'condensed
expression' for one so young ! "
V, The " Friend " i&Chairles WeHs (1799 ,'-1879), ^schoolfellow of Keits's
younger brother Tom. He was a- member of the literary circle in which
the most prominent figures were Huat, Hazlitt and Reynolds, and was on
intimate terms with Hazlitt, A little later Keats was estranged from hirii
by anger at a vulgar practieal< joke which he played upon Tom. In 1822
he wrote Stories after Nature, " the nearest approach to an Italian novel-
ette that our literature can show," in 1823 his drama Joseph and his
Brethren was published. This sonnet Hlhstrates the chief reading which
influenced Keats at the period : " What time the sky-lark " suggests
" what time the grayfly " {Lycidas), line- 4 suggests the Faerie Queene, and
in 8 we have A Midsummer-Night's Dream.
VI. To G. A. W. :—Georgiana Augusta Wylie. Cf. Hadst thou liv'd m
days of old', p. 16 and notes.
VII. O Solitude ! if I must with thee dwell : — ^First published' in the
Bmminer, 5th May, 1816, said by Ckrkci to be Keats's first pnblished
poem. It was shortly after this that Cbrke took Keats's MSS. to Hunt
and so brought about their friendship.
8. Startles the wild &ee, etc. : — C/w Wordsworth, MisCelUmeous Sonnets',
i. li:—
bees that soar for bloom
High as the highest Peak of Furliess fella.
Will murmur by the hour in foxgloveibells.
9, 10. But though I'll gladly, etc. :—
Ah! fain would I frequent such scenes with thee
But . . . -^Examiner, 5th May, 1816.
398 JOHN KEATS
VIII. To MY Brothers : — ^This sonnet, like the last, is not without a
sug^gestion of Wordsworth. Cf. the series of sonnets beginning / am not
one who much or oft delights, etc. The scene in both is the same ; cf. the
references to the fire, and the contrast expressed in Wordsworth and
suggested in Keats between the delights of the ordinary world and those
of the meditative poetic life. The use of the word voluble, applied by
Wordsworth to his own eloquence on poetic themes, and by Keats to the
themes themselves, is itself significant. Keats uses the word again in
St. Agnes' Eve with an exquisite suggestiveness — "and to her heart, her
heart 'was voluble ". He draws upon lines 25, 26, of these same poems
by Wordsworth in the Ode on a Grecian Urn {cf. note).
, 6. While, for rhymes, I search : — A line which suggests the origin of
-fmuch of the weakness of Keats's early poetry, that the sense is often led
' by the rhyme.
IX. Keen, fitful gusts are whisp'ring here and there: — For date and
circumstances of composition vide Appendix B, p. 568. Notice the sub-
jects of conversation with Hunt and the tone of the whole sonnet.
X. To one who has hem long in city pent : — Mr. Buxton Forman speaks
of a transcript by George Keats, subscribed, " written in the fields, June
1816". He calls attention to the obvious debt to Paradise Lost (ix. 446),
also noticed by Woodhouse : —
As one who long in populous city pent.
6. Heart's H, HBF ; hearts 1817.
XI. On first looking into Chapman's Homer: — This sonnet stands out
from the 1817 volume as the one poem which may rank in conception and
execution with Keats's later work. Its date is therefore very important,
particularly as it involves the date from which the seventeenth-century
poets began to exert an influence over his style. Mr. Buxton Forman,
quoting from Tom Keats's copy-book, gives 1816, but it is almost certainly
the spring of the previous year. The " symposium " at which Keats and
Clarke made the acquaintance of Chapman was preceded by an invitation
from Keats at 8 Dean Street to Clarke who had lodgings in Clerkenwell ;
and Keats left Dean Street in the summer of 1815. " It was," says Clarke,
" in the teeming wonderment of this his first introduction, that, when I came
down to break&st the next morning, I found on my table a letter with no
other enclosure than this famous sonnet On first loohif^ into Chapman's
Homer, We had parted at dayspring, yet he contrived that I should receive
the poem from a distance of, may he, two miles by ten o'clock.'' Clarke
adds that the happy alteration of line 7 was due to the poet's conviction
that the first reading was " bald and too simply wondering ". The magnifi-
cent simile with which the poem closes was a reminiscence of Robertson's
History of America, one of the books, Clarke tells us, in the school library
at Enfield. As Tennyson pointed out to Palgrave {Golden Treasury o/
SONNETS— NOTES 399
Songs and Lyrics, notes), " History requires here Balboa," of whom the
incident is told by Robertson. Keats either consciously or unconsciously
transferred the story to Cortez, whose portrait by Titian had much im-
pressed him. " His ' eagle eyes,' " says Hunt {Imagination v. Fancy, last
page) "are from lif@^ as may be seen by Titian's portrait of him."
Chapman's Homer exercised a considerable influence on the style and
matter of Keats's subsequent poetry (c/. notes, pp. 394, 409, 420, 499, SIB).
It is interesting to notice that on 14th July, 1818, when Keats was
meditating upon the subject of Hyperion (pf. notes and Introduction, p. zlvi),
Haydon writes to him asking him to return his copy of Chapman's Horner^
In August, 1820, he received another letter to the same purpose. An
intermittent study of Chapman seems therefore to have lasted the whole
of Keats's literary life. The sonnet was iirst published in the Examiner
for 1st December, 1816.
7. Yet did I . . . serene: — Originally written "Yet could I never
tell what men could mean".
XII. On leaving some friends at an early hour: — Written, says Clarke,
shortly after Sonnet IX., i.e., Autumn, 1816.
XIII., XIV. Addressed to Haydon : — Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-
1846), the friend of Hunt, Wordsworth, Reynolds, Keats and other
literary men of the time, was an historical painter, who exhibited his first
picture at the Royal Academy in 1806. He would have been elected an
R.A. in 1810 had he not previously quarrelled with the authorities as to
the hanging of one of his works. From this time beg^n his war with the
Academy carried on in the Examiner of 1812 and never really abandoned
during his whole life. He was a man of boundless ambition and pas-
sionate confidence in his own abilities. "Nothing," he wrote, "can
exceed my enthusiasm, my devotion, my fiiry of work ; solitary, high-
minded, trusting in God and glorying in my country's honour." He
had a firm belief in the educative value to a nation of historical painting,
and spent his life in filling huge canvases which no one would buy,
harassed with debt, but never doubting the greatness of his own genius.
Finally he found himself unequal to the battle of life, and committed
suicide. His chief paintings were on the subject of "Dentatns," "The
Judgment of Solomon," " The Entry of Christ into Jerusalem " (interest-
ing because it contains portraits of both Wordsworth and Keats), " The
Raising of Lazarus," "'The Crucifixion," and "Napoleon at St. Helena".
His work was much admired by some of his contemporaries. Wordsworth
wrote a sonnet in his praise, Reynolds compared him with Raphael, Keats
(Castle Builder, 44-48) mentions him in the same breath with Salvator and
Titian; and their admiration finds an echo among some of the most
enlightened critics of the time. But in spite of this it must be admitted
that his work lacks both delicacy of treatment and real sympathy with
his subjects. His eWef e]^m t» the recollection of posterity lies in his
400' JOHN KEATS
immediate recognition of the supreme vaAue of the Elgin Marbles.
Taken b^ Wilkie to see them soon after their arrival in England,, he
Btudied'tiiem id detail for' three months, called attention to their essential
qualities, which no one eke seems to have realised, and pressed- their
claims upon students of art with skich energy and success that he^ prevailed
upon the nation to purchase them. In. his lectures on' art, which he
.d^Rvered^ at/ int^ival^ during hislifb; he took the Elgin. Marbles as his
text, and^iti pairticul^ set himself to controvert by their means the teach-
inig' of Reynolds in his DisccMyses on th^ GrrWnd StyU in Painting. ''Rey-
nolds' says that 'it is better tO' diversify on particulars from^ the broad
and general ideaof thiagsthanvalinly attempt to ascend from particulars
to this great general idea '. Now it is. really the reverse, you must first
ascertain the' particulsu's' before you can discover thfr essentials. . . .
The combination of Nature with idea was the glorjr and the greatness of
Phidias anid the Grfeeks'Of that time. . . ." He further illustrated his
point by showing how the sculpture of Phidias exhibits' the most accurate
knowledge of anatomy, and yet is eminently an example of a true " Grand
^\^W ^tcl^BAfSoifi Lectures on Pavnting mid'BeSign, 1844).
Haydon was introduced to I^ats by' Hunt in Nbvember, 1816, and-
this sonnet was probably the outcome of their first meeting. Keats
ventured to send it to Haydon prefaced' with the word* : " My Dear Sir,—
Last evening wrought me up, aiid t cannot forbear sending you tlt0
following," and signed, "'4'ours unfeigiie'dly, John Keats." He r6ce(ived'
an immediate reply, evidently in Haydo'n's usual grandiloquent vein, fbr
on the same afternoon (20th November, iSlS), he'' penned another lettfer
to Itaydpn : " itly Dear Sirj^Vour lette* Bite filled me with a prbud'
pleasure, and shall be kept by me as a stimiiliis' tb exertion — I' bef^h''to
fix my eye upon one horizon. My feelings' entirely &11 in with yours in
reg^ard to the ellipsis and I glory in it. Hie idea of your sending' it to
Wordsworth put me out of breath — you know with what Reverence I
would send my Well-wishes tb him. YoUrs sincerely, John Keats."
Af^er this the friendship ripened rapidlj^ and Haydon gained' a pro-
found infl^uence over the young poet. His impassioned devotion to art^
none the less .sincere because' of the absUrd bombast in which he expressed
it, presented a striking couti'ast with the easy and somewh'at superiiifiid
enthusiasm of Hunt, and appealed' strongly to Keats in the ardbur of bis
poetic novitiate. Haydon, on the other hand, recognised the genius of
Keats, aiid set himself definitely to wean him from undue subservience ttf
Hunt. There can be no doubt' that he stimulated Keats in the highest
degree, and gave him valuable advice as to the dbi^elbpmeiit of his powers.
It was chiefly due to him that Keats retired to the cOuntrJ^ f6r carefbl
study, and turned especially to Shakespeare, and' it was Haydbn, as we
should expect, who interpreted to him the Elgin Marbles '(fettfe SotiMts,
pp. 274, S!76, and note), Keats responded by confiding in Haydon botft' his
own poetic, aspirations and the diMcultie^ of ' tennplerament with' which Ue'
had to struggle, ^e following passage fVom a letter of Haydon's written
SONNETS— NOTES 401
to Keats in May, 1817, illuatrates the relations in which they stood at the
time. "Do not give way to any forebodings. They are nothing more
than the over-eager anxieties of a great spirit stretched beyond its strength,
and then relapsing for a time to languid inefficiency. Every man of great
views is thus tormented, but begin again where you left off without hesi-
tation or fear. Trust in God with all your might, my dear Keats. Frosii
my soul I declare to you that I never applied for help, or for consolation;^
or for strength, but I found it. I always rose up from my knees with a
refreshed fury, an iron-clenched firmness, a crystal piety of feeling that
sent me streaming on with a repulsive power against the troubles of life.
... I love you like my own brother: Beware, for God's sake, of the
delusions and sophistications that are ripping up the talent and morality
of our friend («.<., of course. Hunt). He will go out of the world the
victim of his own weakness and the dupe of his own self-delusions, with
the contempt of his enemies and the sorrow of his friends, and the cause
he undertook to support injured by his own neglect of character. . . .
God bless you, my dear Keats ! Do not despair, collect incident, study
character, read Shakespeare, and trust in Providence and you will do,
you must."
About a year later we find Keats lending Haydon money which he
could ill afford to lose, and he remained his friend all his life, though his
admiration for him became less marked when he realised that absorbing
egoism which was no less patent in him than his fervent religion, his
devotion to art, and his passionate patriotism. But Haydon, unfortun-
ately, could never really understand the more complex and more delicately
moulded character of his friend, and later, when Keats was more inde-
pendent of his influence, he completely misjudged him. Revelling in his
own defiant Christianity, he liked to persuade himself that those who did
not share his proud egoistical religious feeling were on the road to
inevitable self-destruction ; and just as his predictions with regard to
Hunt, in the letter quoted above, were completely belied by the facts, so
the statements in his Autobiography as to the self-indulgence and dissipa-
tion of Keats's last years are contradicted by friends whose knowledge of
Keats, their especial opportunities of judging, and their general character
for veracity are alike superior to Haydon's {vide £ML, pp. 193-232).
Yet the popular estimate of Keats's character, and with it the opinion
as to the prevailing tenor of his poetry, is still chiefly based upon the
mistakes of Shelley as to Keats's attitude to criticism {vidt notes to
Endymion, pp. 413, 414) and the libels of Qaydon upon his private life.
XIII. 11. What when a, etc.: — Woodhouse punctuates his copy
what, when a" and adds a note "i.e., what happens when a, etc.".
12. Native sty: — The idea probably suggested by the followers <rf~
Comus's troop who their
native home forget
To roll in pleasure in a sensual sty,
26
402 JOHN KEATS
XIV. The great spirits are Wordsworth, Hunt and Haydon. Wood-
house adds a note on Hunt that " he is iatroduced here to much better
company than his merits entitle him to keep ", He points out also the
parallel to line 10 of Lyados, 171) " Flames in the forehead of the morning
sky," though perhaps a closer parallel is to be found in Tro. 6* Cress.
ii. 2. 205. Keats's confidence as to the future, lines 9, 10, was regarded by
the critics as a piece of personid conceit. Line 13, which originally con-
cluded ''in some distant Mart?" was curtailed upon the advice of Haydon.
XV. On the Grasshopper and Cricket :-^Of the composition of this sonnet
Clarke gives an interesting account in his Recollections of Keats : "Some
observations having been made upon the character, habits and pleasant
associations with that reverend denieen of tiie hearth, the cheer^I little
grasshbpper of the fireside — Hunt proposed to Keats the challenge of
writing then, there, and to tiuie, a sonnet 'on the Grasshopper and
Cricket '. No one was present but myself, and they accordingly set to.
... I cannot say how long the trial lasted. . . . The time however wag
short, fbr such a performance, and Keats won as to time. But the event
of the after scrutiny was one of many such occurrences which have riveted
the memory of Leigh Hunt in my affectionate regard and admiration for
unaffected generosity and perfectly unpretentious encouragement. His
sincere look of pleasure at the first line — ' The poetry of earth is never
dead'. ' Such a prosperous opening ! ' he said, and when he came to
the tenth and eleventh lines : —
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a slknce —
' Ah ! that's perfect ! Bravo Keats ! ' And then he went on in a dilatation
upon the dumbness of Nature during the season's suspension and torpidity.
With all the kind and gratifying things that were said to him, Keats
protested to me, as we were afterwards walking home, that he preferred
Hunt's treatment of the subject to his own."
XVL To KosKiuSKO • — Kosciusko (? — 1817) a Polish patriot, who served
in the Polish army, fought for America in the War of Independence, and
then for the freedom of his own country against Russia. At Dubjenka
(1792) with only 4,000 men, he kept 16,000 Russians at bay for five days.
On the submission of Poland to Catherine of Russia, he resigned his com-
mand and left the country; but in 1794 he headed another national
movement, resisting against tremendous odds the combined Prussian and
Russian armies. In October of that year, however, he was defeated,
w6unded and taken prisoner. On his release he lived in London and
afterwar4s at Paris. In 1807, Napoleon, who was meditating an invasion
of Poland, begged him to resume his command, but he saw through the
designs of Napoleon and declined to re-enter public life. He died in
1817, the great hero of the English Liberals and all lovers of liberty.
The best presetftation of his character in English literature is to be
SLEEP AND POETRY— NOTES 40S
found in the Imaginary Conversations of Landor, who had an intense
admiration for him.
Hunt printed this sonnet in the Examiner of 16th February, 1817.
7. Change ; changed 1817, which makes no sense. H altered " and "
to " are ". The reading of the text is supported by an alteration in Wood-
house's copy of the volume, made, presumably, after consultation with
Keats. Mr. Forman has suggested the emendation independently.
XVII. Happy is England : — The romance of the forest (1. 4) was always
deeply felt by Keats. Cf. Hyperion, i. 72-74 and note.
7. Alp .•■^ThiB use of "Alp" in the singular is probably due to
Milton's many a fiery Alp (Paradise Lost, ii. 620).
SLEEP AND POETRY
"It was in the library of Hunt's cottage, where an extempore bed
had been made up for Keats on the sofa, that he composed the framework
and many lines of this poem, the last sixty or seventy being an inventory
of the art-garniture of the room " (Clarke, quoted by H). The poem cannot
have been finished (as S. C. in Diet. Nat. Biog.) during the summer of 1816,
as Keats was not a frequent inmate of the cottage till October at the
earliest {vide note, p. 568), and, moreover, the beautiful libes on the sea-
weed {vide 376-80) could hardly have been written before Keats's stay at
Margate.
On the general character and importance of the poem vide Introduction,
p. xxxix. It is indeed Keats's first ambitious composition and is at once the
expression of his own poetic aspirations and a declaration of war against
the poetic ideals of the eighteenth century. Naturally, then, it was
approved by the literary coterie to which he belonged. Haydou's criticism
of it is characteristic. . . . "It is a flash of lightning that will rouse
men from their occupations, and keep them trembling for the crash of
thunder that will follow." Hunt praised it at length in the Examiner
(June and July, 1817), as " a striking specimen of the restlessness of the
young poetical appetite. Obtaining its food by the very desire of it, and
gl&ncing for fit subjects of creation ' from earth to heaven ' ". Nor, he adds,
"do we like it the less for an impatient, and as may be thought by some,
irreverent assault upon the late French school of criticism and monotony,
which has held poetry chained long enough to render it somewhat in-
dignant when it has got free." But it was this passage (U. 181-206) on
the poetry of the eighteenth century and its debt to French criticism that
roused, as would be expected, the greatest indignation among hostile
critics. Byron acknowledges this to be true of himself. In a reply to
an attack upon himself in Blackwood's Magazine (August, 1819) he quotes
lines 193-206 of Sleep and Poetry, " from the volume of a young person
learning to write poetry, and beginning by teaching the art". He adds :
"The writer of this is a tadpole of the Lakes, a young disciple of the
404 JOHN KEATS
six or seven new schools, in which he has learnt to write such lines and
such sentiments as the ahove. He says, ' easy was the task of imitating
Pope,' or it may be of equalling him, I presume. I recommend him to
try before he is so positive on the subject, and then compare what he
will have then written and what he has now written with the humblest
and earliest compositions of Pope, produced in years still more youthful
than those of Mr. Keats when he invented his new Essay in Criticism
entitled. Sleep and Poetry (an ominous title)." In a manuscript note on
this passage, dated November, 1821, Byron admits that " my indignation
at Mr. Keats's depreciation of Pope has hardly permitted me to do justice
to his own genius which malgrg all the fantastic fopperies of his style was
undoubtedly of great promise. His fragment of Hyperion seems actually
inspired by the Titans, and is as sublime as .^chylus. He is a loss to our
literature, and the more so as he himself before his death is said to hare
been persuaded that he had not taken the right line and was reforming
his style in the mQce classical models of the language." A passage on
Keats in the famous controversy between Byron and Bowles (Byron Letters,
ed. Frothero, vi. 588, 589), was suppressed on account of Keats's death.
" A Mr. John Ketch has written lines against him (Pope) of which it were
better to be the subject than the author." He quotes lines 319-27 and
asks, " Now what does this mean ? " then lines 331, 332 and asks, " Where
did these 'formp of elegance' learn to ride — 'with stooping shoulders'}
Again : —
' yet I must not forget
Sleep, quiet with his poppy coronet :
For what there may be worthy in these rhymes
I partly owe to him,' etc.
This obligation is likely to be mutual. It may appear harsh to accumu-
late passages of this kind from the work of a young man at the outset
of his career. But, if he will set out with assailing the Poet whom of all
others a young aspirant ought to respect and honour and study — if he
will hold forth in such lines his notions on poetry, and endeavour to
recommend them by terming such men as Pope, Swift, Addison, Congreve,
Young, Gay, Goldsmith, Johnson, etc., etc., a School of dolts, he must
abide by the consequences of his unfortunate distortion of intellect. But
like Milboume, he is ' the fairest of critics ' by enabling us to compare
his own compositions with those of Pope at the same age, and on a similar
subject, viz.. Poetry. As Mr. Keats does not want imagination or industry,
let those who have led him astray look to what they have done. Surely
they must feel no little remorse in having so perverted the taste and
feelings of this young man, and will bei satisfied with one such victim to
their Moloch of Absurdity."
Byron was perhaps justly annoyed at the wholesale denunciation of
Pope from the mouth of one who had much to learn from the most finished
artist of the preceding age, but he fails to recognise that Keats is not
SLEEP AND POETRY— NOTES 405
prompted by mere youthful conceit at his own powers, — for the young
poet's aspirations are couched in terms of humility and expressed with a
consciousness of his own immaturity, — but rather by his instinctive per-
ception of the significance of the change which had come over the whole
face of literature since the Lyrical Ballads of 1798. Byron never under-
stood the spirit of the literature of his own time as fully as the young
Keats shows himself to have done, nor did he realise, in his idolatry for
Pope, to what extent he was himself forwarding the movement.
The versification and much of the style of the poem are equally
characteristic of Keats's immaturity. It is written with all the laxity
advocated by Hunt and supposed to give an air of ease and grace to the
verse. Its 404 lines are divided into eighteen paragraphs and in no less
than eight cases the pause occurs either in the middle of the line, or
between the two rhyming lines. The sense is continued beyond the
couplet at the least 111 times {i.e., more than 1 in 2) and there are as
many as thirty double rhymes («.«., 1 in 3J). The weakness of versifica-
tion together with other faults of style, e.g., the continual use of abstracts
for concretes, the awkward defectiveness of lines 274, 367, the unfortunate
nonce-word boundly (209), the misuse of doubtless (230), the cockney
vulgarity of " the very pleasant rout " (322) and of the pronunciation of
perhaps as a monosyllable (324), tend to mar tlie effect of a work which
is in many places highly poetic in feeling and felicitous in expression.
The motto of the poem is taken from the pseudo-Chaucerian The
Flowre and the Leafe (11. 17-21), in Keats's day universally attributed to
Chaucer. The poem was a favourite with Keats. Cf. his sonnet to
Clarke upon it {vide p. 274).
1-40. These first two paragraphs serve as an explanation of the title
Skep and Poetry, and develop the contrast between the experiences of the
unawakened and of the awakened mind.
66. about the playing Of nymphs in woods, and fountains. Cf. Comus,
118:—
By dimpled Brook and Fountain brim
The Wood-Nymphes deckt with Daisies trim.
Their merry walks and pastimes keep.
But Keats's whole passage savours rather of Leigh Hunt.
71-73. imaginings will hover Round my fireside, etc. : — For the idea,
with its obvious debt to Wordsworth, cf. Sonnet VIII. To My Brothers, and
note. In the Woodhouse copy of the volume is quoted, against the three
previous lines, Wordsworth's poem To the Daisy, lines 70-72 : —
A happy, genial influence.
Coming one knows not how nor whence
Nor whither going.
To the Daisy first appeared in the 1807 volumes with which Keats was
especially familiar.
74. Meander; meander I8I7,
406 JOHN KEATS
85-162. Stop and consider ! etc. : — In these lines Keats sketches the
progress of poetry in his own mind. Mr. Robert Bridges (Introd. to
Muses Library, Keats, xxxv.) draws a just parallel between the stages of
development through which Keats conceives that he must pass, and those
described in Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey, comparing them at the same
time with the famous letter to Reynolds written by Keats more than a year
afterwards : —
" I compare human life to a large mansion of many apartments, two
of which I can only describe, the doors of the rest being as yet shut upon
me — :the first we step into we call the infant or thoughtless Chamber, in
which we remain as long as we do not thiak — we remain there a long
while, and notwithstanding the doors of the second Chamber remain wide
open, showing a bright appearance, we care not to hasten to it ; but are
at length imperceptibly impelled by the awakening of the thinking prin-
ciple within us^ — we no sooner get into the second Chamber, which I shall
call the Chamber of Maiden-Thought, than we become intoxicated with the
light and the atmosphere, we see nothing but pleasant wonders, and think
of delaying there for ever in delight. However among the effects this
breathing is father of is that tremendous one of sharpening one's vision
into the heart and nature of Man — of conviudug one's nerves that the
world is full of Misery, and Heart-break, Pain, Sickness and Oppression —
whereby this Chamber of Maiden-Thought becomes gradually darkened,
and at the same time, on all sides of it, many doors are set open-~but all
dark-^all leading to dark passages — we see not the balance of good and evil
— we are in a mist — we are now in that state — we feel the ' burden of the
mystery '. To this point was Wordsworth ccnne as far as I can conceive,
when he wrote Tintern >4&&^,.and it seems to me that his genius is ex-
plorative of those dark passages. Now if we live, and go on thinking,
we too shall explore them. He is a genius and superior to us, in so far as
he can, more than we, make discoveries and shed a light in them " (Letter
to Reynolds, 3rd May, 1818).
Wordsworth's
The coarser pleasures of my boyish days
And their glad animal movements
Mr. Bridges compares with Keats's "infant or thoughtless Chamber,"
or as Keats puts it in the poem : —
A pigeon tumbling in clear summer air ;
A laughing school-boy, without grief or care,
Riding the springy branches of an elm.
Wordsworth's second stage, the second Chamber as Keats calls it in
the letter, is illustrated by the lines : —
The sounding cataract
Haunted me like a passion ; the tall rock.
The mountain and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and their forms, were then to me
SLEEP AND POEXaY— NOTES 4.07
An appetite ; a feeling and a love,
That had no need of a remoter charm,
By thought supplied.
' Upon this stage Keats dwells in lioes 96-121, and tiie startling differ-
ence between the two conceptions gives us in part the reason why Keats
found it more difficult both to understand and to attain the final stage.
What in Wordsworth is a " deep but inexplicable passion " to Keats is
chiefly an ecstasy, and whilst Wordsworth's spirit runs its whole course
in relation with the pure forms of Nature, Keats is in a measure with-
drawn from "the fair paradise of Nature's light," which he himself
recognises as his inspiration, by his love of luxuriating in trivial fancies
in no way connected with his essential poetic development. From the
influence of these, which we are obliged to associate with Leigh Hunt,
he was not completely disengaged even at the time that he was vouch-
safed this vision of the progress of poetry in his own soul.
The final stage of which Wordsworth tells us : —
I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts ; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused.
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns.
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man :
A motion and a i^pirit that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought.
And rolls through all things,
is illustrated by lines 122-66 of SUep emd Poetry. Keats's picture, seeing
that it is not, as with Wordsworth, an Oxpression of conscious realisation,
but rather a piece of prophetic insight into his future development, is of
necessity blurred and indistinct — less distinct, indeed, than his treatment
of the same theme in the letter to Reynolds, written when he had already
gained a fuller self-consciousness ; but it is by no means less impassioned
or less deeply felt than Wordsworth's. It is obvious that Keats is here
(122-62) striving to express two ideas essentially related the one to the
other ; (1) that a full communion with Nature and an understanding of
her mysterious beauty is only possible after a sympathetic study of human
nature to which indeed it inevitably leads, the one in a manner reacting
upon the other, and (2) that after a contemplation of the ideal as revealed
by Nature the sordid realities of life are felt all the more keenly, and
would be intolerable, were it not for the sustaining power of the im-
agination which keeps alive the ideal within the poet's heart and saves
him Arom despair. Shelley gives beautiful expression to the same thought
in Aionais where he recounts the necessary qualities in a true mourner
for the dead poet : —
408 JOHN KEATS
Clasp with thy parting soul the pendulous Earth .
As from a centre, dart thy spirit's light
Beyond all worlds, until its spacious might
Satiate the void circumference ; then shrink
Even to a point within one day and night :
And keep thy heart light, lest it make thee sink
When hope has kindled hope, and lured thee to the brink.
171-180. Chaucer and the Elizabethans.
181. schism; seism 1817.
181-206. The poets of the eighteenth century (vide introductory re-
marks on the poem). Notice the debt to Wordsworth's famous sonnet
The world is too much with us. Not only is line 191 a reminiscence of
Wordsworth's : —
The sea that bares her bosom to the moon
It moves us not.
But the spirit of both passages is intensely similar. It is noticeable
however that Wordsworth, the pioneer of the new literary movement,
gives his words a far more universal significance and contrasts the im-
aginative temper with the trivial worldliness always with us, whUst Keats
contrasts the imaginative qualities of two succeeding ages as illustrative
of their general character, having Wordsworth himself to look to as
evidence of the imaginative life of his own time.
198. the . . . wands of Jacob's wit : — Cf. Genesis, xxx. 37-42. Keats
suggests by this passage that the verses of the eighteenth century are the
result of a mere clever trick by which they are made to tally with certain
preconceived artificial rules.
Boikau (1636-1711), whose Art of Poetry sums up the ideals aimed at
by Pope and the poetry of the eighteenth century. Keats, of coarse,
exaggerates its influence though he can hardly be said to overstate the
admiration in which it was held. Dryden translated Boileau's Art of
Poetry and says in his Discowrse Concerning the Original and Progress of
Satire, "If I could only cross the seas, I might find in France a living
Horace and a Juvenal in the person of the admirable Boileau " ; Pope
in his Essay on Criticism, 714, asserts that "Boileau still in right of
Horace sways " ; ind Warton speaks of his work as " the best Art of
Poetry extant," adding that " he who has digested it cannot be said to
be ignorant of any important rule of poetry ".
217-19. Keats is here thinking of Chatterton. Woodhouse also sug-
gests Kirke White.
220-29. The joys of the present ; 225, 226 Wordsworth ; 226-228 Leigh
Hunt.
234, etc. clubs . . . Poets 1817 ; cubs . . . Poets' H ; cubs . . . Poets
HBF.
These lines seem to have given some difficulty to editors of Keats, who
SLEEP AND POETRY— NOTES 409
have in turn altered the text (even Mr. Forman not recording the change
he has introduced) to make it fit in with their conception. But it is a
reminiscence of the Odyssey, bk. iz., where Homer tells of the escape
of Odysseus from Polyphemus, and the passage, though awkward, needs
no emendation. The poets, says Keats, are giants like Polyphemus and
his brethren, of superhuman power, but like the eyeless Polyphemus
without ability to direct their energies fitly, so that with their clubs (the
themes they write upon and the manner in which they deal with them)
they only succeed in disturbing the grand sea (of poetry .'' or life ?) It is
true that rocks and not clubs were hurled by the Cyclops into the sea
after his escaped euemy, but the club is mentioned in Homer as his natural
weapon. Keats is only writing from his recollection of the story.
Keats is here thinking chiefly of Byron, and the contrast which his
stormy poetry affords with the serenity of Wordsworth or the cheerful
chirping of Hunt. Woodhouse thought that there was also a reference to
the Christabel of Coleridge, though it is difficult to understand why.- In
his youth Keats shared the almost universal passion for Byron's poetry and
one of his earliest compositions is a very weak sonnet in his praise (vide
p. 347). But as he matured, his genius developed in a very different direc-
tion, and the work of Byron became more and more distasteful to him.
Whilst recognising Byron's literary supremacy (Letter to George Keats,
Deci-Jan., 1818-19) he came to regard his work as lacking in the greatest
imaginative qualities. " A man's life of any worth," he writes (Letter to
George Keats, Feb. 1819), " is a continual allegory and very few eyes can see
the Mystery of his Life — a life like the scriptures, figurative — which such
people can no more make out than they can the Hebrew Bible. Lord
Byron cuts a figure but he is not figurative — Shakespeare led a life of
Allegory ; his works are the comments on it." And again in September
of the same year, after bis brother had been instituting a comparison
between himself and Byron — "There is this great difference between us.
He describes what he sees : I describe what I imagine. Mine is the harder
task." And what Byron saw seemed to Keats less and less worth seeing.
In the Cap and Bells, a social satire in some measure imitative of the style
of Don Juan, he does not scruple to burlesque Byron's most passionate
lyric Fare thee well — and Lord Houghton, on the authority of Severn, tells
how Keats, reading, in the Bay of Biscay, the description of the storm in
Don Juan, cast the book on the floor in a transport of indignation.
" How horrible an example of human nature," he cried, " is this man, who
has no pleasure left him but to gloat over and jeer at the most awful incid-
ents of life ! Oh ! this is a paltry originality, which consists in making
solemn things gay and gay things solemn, and yet it will fascinate
thousands, by the very diabolical outrage of their sympathies. Byron's
perverted education makes him assume to feel, and try to impart to others,
those depraved sensations which the want of any education excites in
many."
410 JOHN KEATS
237. 'Tis might half slumb'ring on its own right arm :— Against this
Use, ' BO eharacterisHc of Keats's power of presenting in his poetry the
e£Fect8 of sculpture, Woodhouse has written "Elgin Marbles".
262. M tmderest birds, etc. : — With this passage Woodhouse again
compwes those lines from The Flowre and the Leafe which he had quoted
to illustrate / stood tip-toe, 87.
303. my Dedalian wings : — The well-known story of Daedalus and
Icarus is told at length in the Metamorphoses of Ovid, hk. viii. Daedalus,
wearied by a long exile in Crete, made wings of feathers and wax. His
son Icarus put them on, and neglecting his father's warning soared too
near the sun so that the wax melted and he was drowned.
In Endymion, iv. 442 Keats compares his hero to him who died
For soaring too audacious in the sun.
Where that same treacherous wax began to run.
It is interesting to notice that in the same passage {Met. viii.) Ovid
tells the story of Bacchus and Ariadne of which Keats make use in line 335.
385. the sw^t bound Of Bacchus from his chariot, etc. : — This aUueion
to the story of Bacchus and Ariadne is no doubt in part suggested also by
the picture' of Titian, now in the National Gallery, which Keats made
use of in his great " Ode to Sorrow " {Endymion, iv. 193-2S0).
355-95. The description of "the art-garniture of Hunt's study" where
a bed was made up for Keats. It is thoroughly characteristic of Honf s
taste. Notice especially the introduction of Alfred and Kosciusko, and if.
Sonnet XVI., p. 38 and note. The exquisite lines on the sea, 376-80,
stand out oddly in their context.
377. smoothness ; smoothiness 1817.
ENDYMION
Endymion was definitely begun early in May 1817. In a letter to
Reynolds, written from Carisbrook on l7th April, Keats says, "I shril
forthwith begin my Endymion," and to Haydon he writes from Margate
on 10th May, "I read and write about eight hours a day. There is an
old saying ' well begun is half done ' — 'tis a bad one. I would use instead,
' Not begun at all till half done ' ; so according to that I have not begun
my Poem, consequently {d. priori) can say nothing about it. Thank
Crod ! I do begin arduously where I leave off, notwithstanding occasional
depression ; and I hope for the support of a High Power while I climb this
little eminence, and especially in the years of more momentous Labour.
I remember your saying that you had notions of a good genius presiding
over you. I have of late had the same thought, for things which I do half
at Random are afterwards confirmed by my judgment in a dozen features
of Propriety. Is it too daring to imagine Shakespeare this Presider.'"
Keats must have worked steadily at the poem both at Margate and on
his return to London, for we find him in Book III. when he is on a visit
ENDYMION— NOTES 411
to Bailey at Oxford in September ; " I have been wrifting very hard lately,"
he tells his sister, " even till an utter incapacity came on, and I feel it now
about my head. ... I shall stop here till I have finished the third Book
of my Story which I hope will be finished in at most three Weeks from to-
day" (10th Sept, 1817)- On 21st September he is "getting on famous
with my third book — have finished 800 lines and hope to finish it next
week" \to Reynolds). On 28th September he tells Haydon "within the
last three weeks I have written 1,000 lines — which are the third Book of
my Poem ". He adds " My ideas with respect to it I assure you are very
low — and I would write the subject thoroughly again but I am tired of it
and think the time would be better spent in writing a new Romance which
I have in my eye for next summer — Rome was not built in a Day — and all
the good I expect from my employment this summer is the fruit of experi-
ence which I hope to gather in my next poem ".
The Fourth Book was finished at Burford Bridge in November. During
the early part of 1818 Keats was busy making coiTections and copying out
the poem for the press. There was some idea, apparently, of publishing
it in quarto form, if Haydon would draw a picture for the frontispiece,
and Haydon went so far as to promise to " make with all his might, a
finished chalk of my head, to be engraved in the first style and put at the
head of my Poem, saying at the same time he had never done i^e thing
for any human being, and that it must have considerable effect as he will
put his name to it" (Letter to George and Thos. Keats, 23rd Jan., 1818).
But Haydon did not keep his word, and the poem appeared in the following
April without the portrait, and in octavo form. It was published by Messrs.
Taylor and Hessey, witii both of whom Keats was in friendly correspond-
ence.
In style and versification EndynUon has all the characteristics of the
1817 volume, and exhibits, in an exaggerated form, the joint influence
of Leigh Hunt and the seventeenth-century Spemserians upon a genius
delicate and exuberant but at the same time untrained and ill-bred. The \
versification is still almost wholly independent of the sentence structure \
and over weighted with double endings, there is the same laxity in the
use of language, and even more noticeable than before is the manner in j
which lines of exquisite beauty and penetrating observation are interspersed
in passages of which both sentiment and expression are commonplace. No
one was readier to point this out than Hunt himself, whose practice, if
not his theory, was in a great measure responsible for it. But the rapid
progress which Keats was making in his art is nowhere more evident than
in a study of Endymion itself. As the poem proceeds, the eccentricities
of style and versification become markedly less exaggerated, and a com-
parison of the earlier draft and its rejected passages with the printed
version of the poem shows Keats to be fast emancipating himself from his
worst offences against good taste. But even as he wrote Keats realised
how much still called for alteration or rejection, and it was this feeling
/
412 JOHN KEATS
which prompted his desire to publish Endymion as soon as possible and
leave all thoughts of it behind him.
The ambitious and elaborate scheme on which Endymion is composed
shows the influence of Haydon's lofty and pretentious artistic ideals, and
Keats's correspondence affords ample evidence that Haydon's influence,
paramount with him at this time, was largely instrumental in opening his
eyes to Leigh Hunfs obvious limitations as an artist. As early as thel
I beginning of 1817 Hunt had attempted to dissuade him from engaging
{ upon a long poem ; he repeated his advice throughout the year, talcing
credit to himself that Endymion did not consist of 7000 lines instead of
;4000 {Letter to Bailey, 8th Oct., 1817), and never approved of it as a
Whole. But Keats thought differently. "A long poem," he writes,
J "is a test of invention, wUch I take to be the Polar star of Poetry, as
fFancy is the Sails — and Imagination the rudder. Did our great Poets
ever write short pieces? I mean in the Shape of Tales. This same in-
vention seems indeed of late years to have been forgotten as a poetical
excellence" {ibid.). It was naturally, therefore, galling to Keats (though
! in certain respects none the less true), that after all he should have the
"reputation of Hunt's eleve" {ibid.). It was upon this ground that the
violent attacks of the Quarterly Review (Sept., 1818) and Blackwood! s
Magazine (Aug.) were made upon him. The article in Blackwood "On
the Cockney School of Poetry" (probably a joint production of the edi-
. torial staff to which Maginn,i Wilson and Lockhart all contributed), had
no pretensions to be regarded as literary criticism, but dealt almost
entirely in vulgar banter upon the occupations of Keats's early life. The
Quarterly Reviewer (now admitted to have been Croker) treated Keats as
; the " simple neophyte" of Leigh Hunt. He burlesqued the preface in
which Keats apologises for the immaturity of the poem, confessed that
he had only read the first book, and selected a large number of passages^
for ridicule. Two anonymous champions, however, appeared, who under
the initials JS and RB addressed letters to the Morning Chronicle of
3rd and 8th October, pointing out the gross injustice and uncritical
venom of the Quarterly article. JS admits that there are many passages
indicating haste and carelessness, and that a real friend of the author
; would have dissuaded him frpm immediate publication, but asserts "that
1 beauties of the highest order may be found in almost every page ". RB
supports his letter by the quotation of such beauties, and concludes by
'; asking whether the " Critic who could pass all this unnoticed, and con-
demn the whole poem as ' consisting of the most incongruous ideas in thej
imost uncouth language ' is very implicitly to be relied on ". The just
and discriminating criticism of Jeffrey in the Edinburgh Review did not
appear till August, 1820, when he took the poem with the 1820 volume,
iMaginn often signed himself Ralph Tuckett Scott (RTS.). Hence perhaps the
rumour, firmly believed by Hunt, Keats and others, that Sir Walter Scott had written
the article,
ENDYMION— NOTES 418
and Keats thus refers to its silence in his letter to George Keats, Septem-
ber, 1819, " The Edinburgh Review are afraid to touch upon my poem.
They don't know what to make of it : they do not like to condemn it, and
they will not praise it for fear. They are as shy of it as I should be of
wearing a Quaker's hat The fact is they have not real taste. They
dare not compromise their judgment on so puzzling a question. If on my
next publication they should praise me, and so lug in Endymion, I will
address them in a manner they will not at all relish. The cowardliness
of the Edinburgh is worse than the abuse of the Quarterly." But in the
meantime Keats's friends had done their best for the poem. Bailey had
written a sympathetic review for the Oxford Herald in June, and Reynolds
in the Alfred, The West of England Journal and General Advertiser, com-
bined an attack upon the critical methods of the Quarterly with a fine ap-
preciation of the best qualities in Keats's genius. This was republished,
with a short introduction by Leigh Hunt, in the Examiner of 11th October.
f Shelley recognised at once the genius of the poem, though its faults
were of a kind particularly distasteful to him. He told Oilier that in
spite of its long-winded rambling " it was' full of some of the highelat
and finest gleams of poetry " and in particular the Hymn to Pan in the
first Book " afforded the surest promise of ultimate excellence ". On his
second reading of the poem he was convinced with a new " sense of the
treasures of poetry it contains, though treasures poured forth with
indistinct profusion " (Dowden, Life of Shelley, ii. 408). On 14th May,
1820, thinking again of Endymion, he wrote to Oilier in words of the
finest criticism : " Keats, I hope, is going to show himself a great poet :
like the sun, to burst through the clouds, which, though dyed^ in the
finest colours of the air, obscured his rising". This is, perhaps, the
place to show how far from the truth is the common conception of Keats's
attitude to his Reviewers, which owes its vogue to Byron's Letters and Don
Juan, and to Shelley's Adonais.. Keats's letter to Hessey, one of his
publishers, dated 9th October, IBlSy expresses the actual effect of criticism
upon him at this period, and what is far more valuable, his own criticisms
upon himself: —
, "I cannot but feel indebted to those Gentlemen who have taken my
part — as for the rest, I begin to get a little acquainted with my own
strength and weakness. Praise or blame has but a momentary effect on
the man whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic on
his own Works. My own domestic criticism has given me pain without
comparison beyond what Blackwood or the Quarterly could possibly inflict
— and also when I feel I am right, no external praise can give me such
a glow as my own solitary reperception and ratification of what is fine.
JS is perfectly right in regard to the slip-shod Endymion. That it is so
is no fault of mine. No ! though it may sound a little paradoxicaL It
is as good as I had power to make it — by myself. Had I been nervous
about its being a perfect piece, and with that view asked advice, and
414 JOHN KEATS
trembled over every page, it would not have been written ; for it is not
in my nature to fumble — I will write independently. I have written
independently without Judgfnmt and I may write independently and with
Judgmmt hereafter. The genius of Poetry must work out its own salva-
tion in a man. It cannot be matured by law and precept, but by sensa-
tion and watchfulness in itself. That which is creative must create
itself. In Bndymion I leaped headlong into the sea, and thereby have
become better acquainted with the Soundings, the quicksands, and the
rocks, than if I had stayed upon the green shore, and piped a silly pipe
and took tea and comfortable advice, I was never afraid of failure ; for
I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest." ^
There is no reason to believe that as long as Keats retained his health
and with his health his poetic vitality, i.e., till the autumn of 1819, his
general attitude to criticism was at variance with his expression in this
letter. At the same time there can be no doubt that after his health had
given way, and when other troubles were pressing hard upon him^ he
would complain bitterly to his friends of the injustice with which his
poetry had been received^ and his statement to Brown in June, 1820,
with reg^d to the 1820 volume: "This shall be my last trial: not
succeeding, I shall try what I can do in the apothecary line," is probably
characteristic of his feeling at this period. Moreover his indignant repudi-
ation of the Advertisement to Lamia, etc. {vide introduction to Hyptrimf}
p. 487), whilst undoubtedly true to fact of the time to which it refers,
suggests by its tone an extreme sensitiveness which had grown upon him
during his illness. It was doubtless from expressions which escaped him
during the last months of his life and were repeated and somewhat mis-
interpreted by those who heard them, that the fiction arose as to- his
habitual attitude to criticism and its fatal effect upon him ; a fiction
turned to so different an account by Byron and by Shelley. For even of his
last days at Rome^ Severn writes : " Certainly the BlacihWoocPs attack was
one of the least of his miseries" {Life and Letters {^Joseph Severn, p. 66).
The story of Endymion had for some time been a favourite of Keats's,
and he had already made use of it in I stood tip-toe {q.v., 11. 181-98)> His
intense passion for th^ beauty of the moon and his delight in the legends
of ancient mythology could here naturally coalesce, and in his Elizabethan
reading he would find plenty of references to the story which could not
fail to arrest his attention. From the Bndimion of Lyly onwards, there is
hardly a poet who does not allude to the tale. The words of Portia, e.g.,
in Merchant of Venice, v. 1. 109 : —
Peace ho ! the moon sleeps with Endymion
And would not be awaked,
occur in a scene which from its blending of the magic of nature and of
classical legend would be peculiarly dear to Keats ; and the love poems
of Drummond harp continually upon the same graceful theme. Cf. especi'
ally Poems, pt. i., Sonnet VIII. :—
ENDYMION— NOTES 415
While Cynthia, in purest cypress clad.
The Latmian shepherd in a trance descries.
And whiles looks pale from height of all the skies.
Whiles dyes her beauties in a bashful red.
Or Sonnet X. : —
Fair Moon, who with thy cold and silver shine
Makes sweet the horror of the drbadAil night,
Delighting the weak eye with smiles divine,
Which Phoebus dazzles with his too much light ;
Bright Queen of the first Heaven, if in thy shrine,
By turning oft, and Heaven's eternal night.
Thou hast not yet that once sweet fire of thine,
Endymion, forgot, and lover's plight. . . .
C/. also Sonnet XXXVlTand Sextain U.
Mr. Colvin in an elaborate treatment of the source of the story (EML,
pp. 92-99) suggests as Keats's two most direct sources Fletcher's Faithful
Shepherdess, a poem Keats is known to have studied, and Drayton's Man
M the Moon. The passage in the Faithful Shepherdess, Act I., tells
How the pale Phoebe, hunting in a grove.
First saw the boy Endyniion, from whose eyes
She took eternal fire that never dies ;
,« ' How she convey'd him softly in a sleep,
'< His temples bound with poppy, to a steep
Head of old Latmus, where she stoops each night.
Gilding the mountain with her bi'other's light.
To kiss her sweetest.
Cf. also The Masque in Beaumont and Fletcher's Maid's Tragedy, i. 1.
Drayton's Man in the Moon gives the story thus ' : —
She that gently lends us light.
Shall be our subject, and her love alone.
Borne to a shepherd, wise Endymion,
Sometime on Latmus that his flock did keep,
Rapted that was in admiration deep
Of her perfections that, he us'd to lie.
All the long night contemplating the sky.
At her high beauties : often of his store.
As to the god he only did adore.
And sacrific'd : she perfect in his love.
For the high gods enthronized above
' It may be worth noticing that this passage suggests the concern of the gods at the
absence of Cynthia from heaven, of which Keats makes some capital in rather question-
able taste {cf. ji. 782-96). Drayton's style and vocabulary, too, have certain qualities
in common with Endymion, e.g., such phrases as " dampy mist in fashion of a ring,"
" saily wings," the words " enl&onized and " rapted," and the spelling " Eolus ".
Certain critics have attempted to trace in Endymion the influence of Chamberlayne's
Phannnida, but I share with Mr. Colvin an inability to see any resemblance sufficient
to justify the assumption.
416 JOHN KEATS
From their clear mansions plainly do behold
AU that frail man doth in this grosser mould :
For whom bright Cynthia gliding from her sphere.
Used oft times to recreate her there :
That oft her want unto the world was strange.
Fearing that Heaven the wonted course would change,
And Phoebus, her oft missing did inquire.
If that elsewhere she borrowed other fire :
But let them do to cross her what they could,
Down into Latmus every month she would.
So that in Heaven about it there was odds.
And as a question troubled all the gods.
Whether without their general consent.
She might depart ; but nath'less to prevent
Her lawless course, they labour'd all in vain.
Nor could their laws her liberty restrain.
Mr. Colvin calls attention to the fact that Drayton begins his poem,
as does Keats, with a festival of Pan, and that in a later passage he " gives
hints for the wanderings on which Keats sends his hero (for which antiquity
affords no warrant) through earth, sea and air " (£ML, p. 94). But the hints
are vague, and I think that he owed his plan of the poem to another work.
In Sandys's Ovid, where Keats found not only a version />f the main story,
but also many of the episodes with which he embellishes and at times
overloads it, was an introductory poem, which to Sandys expressed "the
minde of the frontispiece and the argumente of this worke ". It reads into
Ovid a high moral purpose of which Ovid was quite innocent, and the
commentary which Sandys adds to each book of the Metamorphoses in-
terprets the poem throughout in the same spirit. There can be little
doubt that the strong appeal which Ovid made to Keats was due, in part
at least, to this allegorising vein which was entirely in accord with Keats's
own temper at the time, and seemed at once to interpret and to justify his
own attitude to Greek legend. With the subject of Endymion in bis mind,
and as yet no definite scheme on which to treat it, he opened his Sandys and
read on the second page the following lines, some of which at least have a
distinct relation with the development of Endymion : —
FiBE, AiBE, Earth, Water, all the Opposites
That strove in Chaos, powrefuU Love unites ;
And from their discord drew this Harmonie,
Which smiles in Natwe : who, with ravisht eye.
Affects his own made Beauties. But our Will,
Desire, and Powres Irascible, the skill
Of Pallas orders ; who the Minde attires
With all Heroick Virtues : This aspires
To Fame and Glorie ; by her noble Guide
Eternized, and well-nigh Deified.
ENDYMION— NOTES 417
But who forsake that faire Intelligence,
To follow Passion and voluptuous Sence ;
That shun the Path and Toyles of Hebcules ;
Such, charm'd by Cibce's luxurie, and ease.
Themselves deforme : 'twizt whom, so great an ods ;
That these are held for Beasts, and those for Gods.
There are many ideas here which have their parallel in the adventures
of Endymion and the progress of his soul towards its ideal ; and it is
difficult to believe that Keats was not largely indebted to it.
The motto, chosen by Keats from Shakespeare's seventeenth sonnet,
occurred to him quite by chance. Writing to Reynolds, 22nd November,
1817, he is discussing Shakespeare's poems, in which, at the time, he was
much engrossed. Then he says, "He (i.e., Shakespeare) overwhelms a
genuine Lover of poesy with all manner of abuse, talking about —
'a poet's rage
And stretched metre of an antique song '.
Which, by-the-by, will be a capital motto for my poem, won't it.' "
The original Dedication and Preface to Endymion ran as follows : —
INSCRIBED,
WITH XVSKY rUBLIHO OF FBIDK AND BEORET
• AHD WITH "a bowed MIND,"
ID THE HEHOBT OF
THE MOST EHOLISH OF POETS EXCEPT SHAKSPEABE,
THOMAS CHATTERTON
PREFACE
" In a great nation, the work of an individual is of so little importance ;
his pleadings and excuses are so uninteresting ; his ' way of life ' such a
nothing, that a Preface seems a sort of impertinent bow to strangers who
care nothing about it.
" A Preface, however, should be down in so many words ; and such a
one that by an eye-glance over the "type the Reader may catch an idea of
an Author's modesty, and non-opinion of himself — which I sincerely hope
may be seen in the few lines I have to write, notwithstanding many pro-
verbs of many ages old which men find a great pleasure in receiving as
" About a twelvemonth since, I published a little book of verses ; it
was read by some dozen of my friends who lik'd it; and some dozen
whom I was unacquainted with, who did not.
" Now, when a dozen human beings are at words with another dozen,
it becomes a matter of anxiety to side with one's friends — more especially
when excited thereto by a great Love of Poetry. I fought under disad-
vantages. Before I began I had no inward feel of being able to finish ;
27
418 JOHN KEATS
and as I proceeded my steps were all uncertaiQ. So this Poem must rather
be considered as an endeavour than a thing accomplished ; a poor prologue
to what^ if I live, I humbly hope to do. In duty to the Public I should
have kept it back for a year or two, knowing it to be so faulty ; but I
really cannot do so, — by repetition my favourite passages sound vapid in
my ears, and I would rather redeem myself with a new Poem should this
one be found of any interest.
" I have to apologise to the lovers of simplicity for touching the spell
of loneliness that hung about Endymion ; if any of my lines plead for me
with such people I shall be proud.
" It has been too much the fashion of late to consider men bigoted and
addicted to every word that may chance to escape their lips ; now I here
declare that I have not any particular affection for any particular phrase,
word, or letter in the whole affair. I have written to please myself, and
in hopes to please others, and for a love of fame ; if I neither please my-
self, nor others, nor get fame, of what consequence is Phraseology?
"1 would fain escape the bickerings that all Works not ezactiiy in
chime bring upon their begetters — but this is not fair to expect, there
must be conversation of some sort and to object shows a man's consequence.
In case of a London drizzle or a Scotch mist, the following quotation from
Marston may perhaps stead me as an umbrella for an hour or so: 'let it
be the curtesy of my peruser rather to pity my self-hindering labours than
to malice me ' .^
" One word more — for we cannot help seeing our own affairs in every
point of view — should any one call my dedication to Chatterton affected I
answer as foUoweth : ' Were I dead. Sir, I should like a book dedicated to
me'."
" TEIQimOUTH,
ISthMwrch, 1818."
This was rejected because of the criticisms of Reynolds, and as Lord
Houghton remarks, " many as were the intellectual obligations the poet
owed to his friend, the suppression of this &ulty composition was perhaps
the greatest". Keats replied to Reynolds as follows : —
" TEiaHHOUIH,
9th April, 1818.
" Mt Dear ReynoIiDs,
" Since you all agree that the thing is bad, it must be so —
though I am not aware there is anything like Hunt in it (and if there is,
it is my natural way, and I have something in common with Hunt). Look
it over again, and examine into the motives, the seeds, from which any one
sentence sprung.
1 The quotation is from Marston's Preface to T/u Fawn, addressed " to the Equal
Reader ". There is some evidence, in Keats's vocabulary that he had been reading
Marston and certainly the " undersong of disrespect to the public," of which he speais
in the letter to Reynolds {ittfi-a) would receive in Marston ample encouragement.
ENDYMION— NOTES 419
" I have not the ,Blightegt feel of humility tovrards the public, or to
anything in existence but the Eternal Being, the Principle of Beauty,
and the Memory of great Men. When I am writing for myself, for the
mere sake of the moment's enjoyment, perhaps nature has its course with
me ; but a Preface is written to the public — a thing I cannot help looking
upon as an enemy, and which I cannot address without feelings of hostility.
If I write a Pre&ce in a supple or subdued style, it will not be in character
with me as a public speaker.
"1 would be subdued before my friends, and thank them for subduing
me ; but among multitudes of men I have no feel of stooping ; I hate the
idea of humility to them.
" I never wrote one single line of poetry with the least shadow of
public thought.
"Forgive me for vexing you, and making a Trojan horse of such a
trifle, both with respect to the matter in question, and myself; but it
eases me to tell you : I could not live without the love of my friends ; I
would jump down Mtna for any great public good — but I hate a mawkish
popularity. I cannot be subdued before them. My glory would be to daunt
and dazzle the thousand jabberers about pictures and books. I see swarms
of porcupines with their quills erect ' like lime-twigs set to catch my winged
book,' and I would fright them away with a torch. You will say my Pre-
&ce is not much of a torch. It would have been too insulting ' to begin
from Jove,' and I could not (set) a golden head upon a thing of clay. If
there is any fault in the Preface it is not affectation, but an undersong of
disrespect to the public. If I write another Preface it must be done with-
out a thought of those people. I will think about it. If it should not
reach you in four or five days, tell Taylor to publish it without a Preface,
and let the dedication simply stand —
" 'Inscribed to the Memory of Thomas Chatterton '.•
" I am ever
" Your affectionate friend,
"JohnKeais."
The variant readings, as supplied in the notes, are selected by Mr.
Forman's courteous permission from his transcript of them given in his
1900 edition of Keats's complete works. Of bk. i., says Mr. Forman, only
one MS. survives, a quarto written out for press, but containing numerous
rejected readings. Of bks. ii.-iv. there is (1) a MS. book into which
Keats wrote the poem ; (2) the quarto foolscap copy written out for press
(asofbk. i.).
■ a ' Chatterton was a poet for whom Keats always had a deep admiration, though the
"™"ence which he exerted upon his style was never very great. Cf. however sonnet To
(■^etterlm, p. 348, general introduction, pp. li, Iv, notes to £ve 0/ St. Agnes, Eve
of St. Mark, and Where be ye going, you Devon Maid, and Appendix C, p. 584.
420 JOHN KEATS
BOOK 1
13. From our dark spirits. Such the sun, lh& moon. HBF supplies
the following; reading : —
From our dark Spirits, and before us dances
Like glitter on the points of Arthur's Lances.
Of these bright powers are the Sun, and Moon,
which is noticeable in its suggestion of Keats's interest in mediseval themes,
with which he showed later such vital sympathy. For its rejection here
we may compare the rejection in Hyperion, i. 20S of the delicate but in-
appropriate line which tells how Hyperion's palace door ilew open "most
like a rosebud to a faery's lute ".
21. the dooms We have imagined for the mighty dead : — Cf. Thomson's
Seasons, Winter, 432, ''and hold high converse with the mighty dead"
(HBF). There is some evidence that Keats knew Thomson well (cf.
Appendix C). This line in particular was a favourite with him, for he
makes use of it elsewhere. Cf. Sonnet written in Disgust of Vulgar Super-
stition, 8 : —
And converse high of those with glory crown'd.
39-57. The wish here expressed was actually fulfilled (vide Introduction
to poem).
63. The idea of introducing his story by a festival of Pan was probably
suggested to Keats, as Mr. Colvin has pointed out, by his reading of
Drayton's Man in the Moon (vide Introduction to Endymion), with certain
borrowed touches from Chapman's Homeric Hymn to Pan, and from the
sacrifice to Pan in Browne's Britannia's Pastorals (bk. i. song 4). Mr.
Colvin also suggests as a source Ben Jonson's Masque, Pan's Anniversary,
but I have been unable to trace any definite resemblance, though it is
highly probable that Keats had read it. In nearly all Elizabethan pastoral
I poetry the figure of Pan plays a large part, and in Fletcher's Faithful
Shepherdess, to which Keats was obviously indebted in Endymion (vide
Introduction), the priest of Pan is a leading character.
85, 86. edg'd round with dark tree tops : — Cf. Ode to Psyche, 64, 66, and
note.
142-44. The story of Apollo's exile is referred to in Ovid, Met. ii. and
thus rendered in Sandys : —
thee (i.e. Apollo) from thy selfe expeld
Then Elis, and Messenian pastures held
It was the time, when, cloth'd in Neat-herds weeds
Thou play'dst upon unequal sevenfold Reeds,
on which Sandys comments " (he) was then banished heaven for a yeere,
for killing the Cyclops who made the lightning which slew his sou
Phaetou, who liable to humane necessities, was enforced to keep the
cattell of Admetus, King of Thessaly, or rather kept them for love of his
ENDYMION, BK. I.— NOTES 421
daughter". Cf. also Ovid, Mtt. vi. 124. Keats was also familiar with
the story in Spenser, Faerie Queene, iii. 11. 39 : —
He loved Isse for his dearest Dame,
And for her sake her cattell fedd awhile.
And for her sake a cowheard vile became :
The servant of Admetus cowheard vile,
WTiiles that from heaven he suffered exile.
It is referred to by Shakespeare, The Wintet's Tale, iv. jf, 30.
163, 164. Prom his right hand, etc. : —
From his right hand there swung a milk-white vase
Of mingled wines, outsparkling like the Stars. — MS.
167, 168. Wild thyme . . . from the rill : —
Wild thyme, and valley lillies white as Leda's
Bosom, and choicest strips from mountain Cedars. — MS.
Both this and the previous alteration are obvious improvements in
sound and sense.
168. Leda's lave. Cf. Spenser, Faerie Queene, iii. 11. 32: —
Then was he turn'd into a snowy swan
To win fair Leda to his lovely trade :
O wondrous skill, and sweet wit of the man
That her in daffadillies sleeping made
From scorching heaJLher daintie limbes to shade !
Whiles the proud hjR, ruffing his fethers wyde.
And brushing his nt'e brest, did her invade
She slept, yet twjHber eielids closely spyde
How towards he^K rusht, and smiled at his pryde.
Or Prothalamium, 43 :
The snow inKh floth the top of Pindus strew.
Did never ^iter show.
Nor Jove himsejtfe when he a swan should he.
For love of Le^, whiter did appeare.
Yet Leda wasihey say as white as he.
The story is taken by/Spenser from Ovid, Met. vi. which Keats also
knew. /
170. Ganymede : — The love of Jove for his cupbearer Granymede is alluded
to by Chaucer and by almost all of the Elizabethans. The story is told in
Ovid, Met. x., and expounded at some length in Sandys's commentary.
206, 206. sounds forlorn . . . Triton's horn : — An obvious reminiscence
of Wordsworth's famous sonnet The world is too much with us, which
Keats had already used in Sleep and Poetry, 189, 190. Both Keats and
Wordsworth, moreover, must have been acquainted with Spenser's Colin
Clout's come home againe, where the poet says of the fishes : —
Of them the shepheard which hath charge in chief.
Is Triton, blowing loud his wreathed horn :
L
422 JOHN KEATS
And Proteus eke with him does drive his heard
Of stinking: Scales and Forcpisces together
With hoary head and deavry dropping beard — 244-60.
And a little further on in the poem, Spenser says of " a headland thrust
far into the sea" that it "seemed to be a goodly pleasant lea". — 283.
230. Keats had already made use of the story of Syrinx and Pan iu
/ stood tip-toe, 156-62 (q.v. note).
293. the unimaginable lodge
For solitary thinkings; such as dodge
Conception to the very bourne of heaven : —
There can be little d(mbt that this passage, which has been selected for
admiration by more than one critic, owes something to Marston, with
whom we know Keats to have been familiar. Cf. Antonio and Mellida
(1st part), iv. 1. 18-22 :—
for when discursive powers fly out
And roam in progress through the bounds of heaven,
The soul itself gallops along with them,
As chieftain of this winged troop of thought.
Whilst the dull lodge of spirit standeth waste. . . .
The word lodge is used again by Marston, in a somewhat strange meta-
phorical sense, in Ant. and Mell. (2nd part), v. 2. 148.
Both here (1. 293) and in 306 the quotation marks were omitted in the
first edition of the poem.
319. But in old marbles ever beautiful : — " Doubtless meant to refer to the
Elgin Marbles " (HBF). On Keats's appreciation of the Elgin Marbles,
vide Sonnets, pp. 274, 27S, and note. This passage shows clearly Keats's
instinctive feeling for the spirit of sculpture (cf. also bk. ii. 197, 198, and
the opening of Hyperion).
328. Hyacinthus, a Spartan youth beloved of Apollo, who slew him
accidentally when playing at quoits. Apollo in great grief at his loss
turned him into a flower on whose petals are inscribed the letters at at
(alas !). The story is told at length in Ovid, Met. x., and constantly
alluded to in English poetry, of. e.g. Milton, Lycidas "like to that
sanguine flower inscribed with woe," and Spenser, Faerie Queene, iii. 11. 37.
Keats makes use of the legend in its later form (for which he may
have been indebted to Lempriire) which attributes the death of Hyacin-
thus to Zephyrus, who, himself in love with Hyacinthus, and jealous of
the rivalry of Apollo, blew the quoit into Hyacinthus's fece. Keats in
taking this version adds an exquisite touch to the picture, suggesting in
the wind and rain that often herald a glorious sunrise the visit of the
penitent Zephyrus to weep his fault before the arrival of the angry Sun-
god. For the natural picture, noticed by Keats in other places, c/. / stood
tip-toe, 3-7 : —
the sweet buds . . .
Had not yet lost those starry diadems
Caught from the early sobbing of the mom.
ENDYMION, BK. I.— NOTES 423
In the same spirit, though without the same felicity of expression,
Keats recalls in the twanging of the howstring the story of " Niohe all
tears" {Htmlet, i. 2. 149), which he knew in Spenser, Faerie Qiteene,
iv. 1. 30, in Chapman's Iliad (xziv. S36-45), and as told at length in Ovid,
Met. vi. Phrases in Sandys's translation of Ovid as well as something of
its spirit {the bowstring twangs— fale lips) suggest that Keats had lately
been reading this version of the story, though he far surpasses Ovid in
the human sympathy with which he invests it. Particularly noticeable
is the manner in which by the use of the epithets caressing and motherly
he communicates the whole pathos of the situation.
334. raft : — Used by Keats as past part, of the Spenserian verb (to tear
or cut off) of which raft is the perfect. Cf. Faerie Queene, i. 1. 24, " He,
raft her hatefull head without remorse ".
336. Branch down sweeping from a tall ash top : — Keats, like Chaucer,
occasionally forms the first foot of this line with only one syllable. Cf.
e.g. Prologue to Canterbury Tales, " Al bismotred with his habergeoun " (76),
" For to delen with no swich poraille " (247).
347. After the Argonauts, in blind amaze: — The story is not told in
Lempri&re nor have I been able to trace it to any of the usual sources of
Keats's classical knowledge. Apollonius Rhodius relates it in Argona/ittica,
ii. 70, thus rendered by Fawkes (Chalmers, EngUsh Poets, xx. 270) : —
So toiled the Greeks : nor yet the morning light
Had passed the doubtful confines of the night.
To Thynia's neighbouring isle their course they bore
And safely landed on the desert's shore.
When bright Apollo showed his radiant face
From Lycia hastening to the Scythian race,
His golden locks that flowed with grace divine
Hung clustering like the branches of the vine :
In his left hand, his bow unbent he bore.
His quiver pendent at his back he wore ;
The conscious island trembled as he trod
And the big rolling waves confessed the god.
Keats may have obtained the story from Fawkes or from the version
of Green (1780), but this seems improbable, as he makes no use of Apol-
lonius elsewhere, and had he read the whole poem he would probably have
drawn upon it further. But as Mr Forman has pointed out, this passage
in the Argona/utica was a favourite with Shelley, who speaks of ''the
Apollo 80 finely described by Apollonius Rhodius when the dazzling of his
beautiful limbs suddenly shone over the dark Euxine " {Prose Works, iii.
66, ed. Buxton Forman). It seems likely, therefore, though this is pure
hypothesis, that Shelley had himself called Keats's attention to the Incidentj
and it is rendered somewhat more probable by the fact that Apollonius
Rhodius represents Apollo as appearing when the Greeks were on land ;
whilst Shelley suggests and Keats definitely states that they were at sea —
424 JOHN KEATS
a far finer picture. It is worth noticing^ that these stories suggested by the
games of the holiday makers are all of them episodes in the life of Apollo.
394. Whose eyelids curtain'd up their jewels dim : — C/. The Tempest, i. 2.
408, " The fringed curtains of thine eye advance ". Cf. Pericles, iii. 2.
99-101 :—
Her eyelids, cases to those heavenly jewels
Which Pericles hath lost.
Begin to part their fringes of bright gold.
These two passages seem here to have combined in Keats's mind. He
malces use of the first of them again, though with less success, in ii. 661-4 : —
I saw this youth as he despairing stood :
Those same dark curls blown vagrant in the wind ;
Those same full fringed lids a constant blind
Over his sullen eyes.
The use of the metaphor by Keats is of peculiar interest as the lines in
The Tempest on which it is founded were severely censured by Pope and
Arbuthnot in The Art of Sinking in Poetry, and praised with the subtlest
discrimination in Coleridge's Lectures on Shakespeare (Lecture ix., 1811-12).
405, 406. old tale Arabian: — "The allusion is to 'the Eldest Lady's
story in The Porter and the Three Ladies of Bagdad " (HBF). The lady
tells of her visit to a city wherein the king and the queen and all the
inhabitants except the prince have been turned into black stones for their
preference of fire worship to the faith of Mahomet. The prince alone, who
had been taught the true religion by his nurse, was found, untouched by
the enchantment, engaged in prayer, fasting, and reading the Koran.
Keats, like his contemporaries Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, and Scott,
took great pleasure in the marvels of the Arabian Nights, and they have
left slight traces of their influence upon his poetry. Hence he drew
the name Caf (Hyp. ii. 63), and it was probably the Arabian Nights that
suggested the simile in the Fall of Hyp. (i. 48, and note), and the use of
the word magian (Endymion, iii. 266, Staffa, etc). His love of oriental
names, which he introduces occasionally with singular effect, may have
been fed from the same source.
408. Peona, his sweet sister ; — The name Peona has been explained by
Mr. W. T. Arnold as taken from LempriSre's mention of Pteon, one of the
sons of Endymion, and by Mr. Colvin as a combination of this with a
recollection of Spenser's Pieana (Faerie Queene, iv. 9). It seems more likely
that the recollection of Spenser's name was associated in Keats's mind with
the Pseon of Ovid, Met. xv., whose healing powers are closely paralleled
by the watchful care with which Peona attends her sick brother. This
side of Peona's character is still further developed in the first draft
of the poem, in lines which stood at 440 (q.v. notes) ; and Endymion
definitely recognises it ; for at the close of the poem, when he announces
his intention of retiring to a hermit's cell, he makes her his deputy in the
words : —
ENDYMION, BK. I.— NOTES 4.25
Through me the shepherd realm shall prosper well ;
For to thy tongue will I all health confide. — iv. 863, 864.
Cf. also introductory note to hk. iv.
It is worth noticing that Ovid mentions Paeon in reference to the sick-
ness of Hippolytus, another votary of Cynthia, and that the names of Paeon
and Cynthia are coupled together as the sanative influences over his life : —
Had not Apollo's son imploid the aid
Of his great art ; I with the dead had staid.
But when by potent hearbs and Paeon's skill
I was restor'd, against stern Pluto's will :
Lest I, if scene, might envie have procur'd ;
Me, fidendly Cynthia in a cloud inunur'd.
One of the lesser gods, here in this grove,
I Cynthia serve, preserved by her love.
It is worth noting also that the " wise Paeon " is mentioned by Spenser
as the son of Apollo and " the lilly-handed Liagore " who healed Marinell
of the grievous wounds inflicted on him by Britomart {Faerie Queene, iii.
4. 41).
411. The just omission in the printed text of a passage of twelve lines
which marred the draft by their vulgarity of phrase is responsible for the
loss of a rhyme to this line.
440-42. In place of these lines stood originally the following passage,
which has a special interest in its possible relation with Keats's source for
the name Peona {vide note to 408) : —
When last the Harvesters rich armfiils took.
She tied a little bucket to a Crook,
Ran some swift paces to a dark wells side.
And in a sighing-time return'd, supplied
With spar cold water ; in which she did squeeze
A snowy napkin, and upon her knees
Began to cherish her poor Brother's face ;
Damping refreshfully his forehead's space.
His eyes, his Lips : then in a cupped shell
She brought him ruby wine ; then let him smell.
Time after time, a precious amulet.
Which seldom took she from its cabinet.
Thus was he quieted to slumbrous rest.
469. Followed in MS. by the three lines :—
From woodbine hedges such a morning feel
As do those brighter drops, that twinkling steal
Through those pressed lashes, from the blossom'd plant. . . .
— HBF.
For other passages altered by Keats to get rid of the Huntian use of
feel " cf. In a drear-nighted December and note, and Hyperion, i. 189, note.
426 JOHN KEATS
494, 496. For these lines the MS. originally reads : —
More forest-wild, more subtle^cadenced
Than can be told by mortal : even wed
The fainting tenors of a thousand shells
To a million whisperings of Lilly bells ;
And mingle too the Nightingale's complain
Caught in its hundredth echo ; 'twould be vain. . . .
496. Dryope, the wife of Andremon, bore a child to Apollo. On the
bank of a lake sacred to the Nymphs she broke off the branch of a tree-
flowering lotus, that her little son might amuse himself with it The
maiden Lotis had already been turned into the lotus plant, and Dryope
was punished with the same transformation. The story is told by Ovid,
Met. ix., with an emphasis upon the relations of Dryope and her child
which may have suggested the picture to Keats. The allusion is not
likely, in spite of the opinion of most critics, to be to the other Dryope,
mother of Pan and wife of Hermes, for in Chapman's Homeric Hymn to
Pan, whence Keats drew his ^owledge of her, she is distinctly represented,
in a grotesque passage, as terrified at the ugliness of her child.
612-14. Keats is here, perhaps, thinking of the beautiful passage m
Spenser, Faerie Queene, vii. 6. 40, where the poet describes Diana
bathing in the Molanna, and observed by Faunus.
616. At no time did Keats's critical judgment stand him in better stead
than when it led him to reject the following passage which originally stood
here : —
And I do pray thee by thy utmost aim
To tell me all. No little fault or blame
Canst thou lay on me for a teaming Girl ;
Ever as an unfathomable pearl
Has been thy secrecy to me : but now
I needs must hunger after it, and vow
To be its jealous Guardian for aye.
631. Out-facing Lucifer : — Mr. Forman quotes as a parallel to this passage
Ovid, Met. ii. 114, 116. Sandys renders it thus : —
Cleare Lucifer the flying stars doth chase,
And after all the rest resigns his place,
adding the significant comment "Lucifer is here saide to fore-runne
Aurora, or the morning: and last of all to resign his place, in that the
last starre which shineth. This is the beautiful planet of Venus; which
when it riseth before the Sunne, is the Morning starre, and setting after
it, the Evening."
660. tighten : lighten first edition. Keats often forgot to cross his t's.
This passage, like the glorious description of the rising sun in lines
630-32, owes something to Sandys's rendering of Ovid, Met. ii., where
the poet is describing the adventures of Phaeton with the horses of the
sun. The snorting four are thus described : —
ENDYMION, BK, I.— NOTES 427
Meane while the Sunne's swift Horses, hot Pyrdus
Light Aethon, fiery Phlegon, bright Edus,
Neighing aloud, inflame the Ayre with heat ;
And, with their thundering hooves, the barriers beat,
" The track of his wheeles," commeuts Sandys, " is the Ecliptick line,
and the beasts he encounters, the figures in the Zodiac." Hence, perhaps,
the reference in line 553 ; cf. also Endymion, iii. 363-65.
562. Young Mercu/ry . . . had dipt his rod in it, i.e., the Caduceus, of
which Keats had read in the Faerie Queene, where Spenser, describing the
Palmer's staff, writes : —
Of that same wood it fram'd was cunningly,
Of which Caduceus whilome was made,
Caduceus, the rod of Mercury,
With which he wonts the Stygian realmes invade
Through ghastly horrour and eternall shade :
Th' infernal feends with it he can asswage,
And Orcus tame, whom nothing can perswade,
And rule the Furyes, when they most do rage :
Such vertue in his Staffe had eke this Palmer sage.
— ii. 12. 41.
Cf. also Faerie Queene, iv. 3. 42, and Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3. 14.
646. along the dangerous sky : in safe deliriousness MS.
666. upon that alp. Cf. note to Sonnet XVII. (poems of 1817).
749. that . . . dreams and fitful whims of sleep are made of. An obvious
reminiscence of The Tempest, iv. 1. 166 : —
we are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
Keats had just been reading the play {vide Letter to Reynolds, l7th April,
1817).
770. Mr. Forman notes that the phrase nothing base is applied by
Tenayson " to the coinage of his predecessor Wordsworth " ; it had
already been used by Leigh Hunt in the Story of Rimini, ii. 86 : —
She he loved could have done nothing base.
776-81 . The original reading of this passage ran : —
To fret at myriads of earthly wrecks.
Wherein lies happiness .'' In that which becks
Our ready minds to blending pleasurable :
And that delight is the most treasurable
That makes the richest Alchymy. Behold
The clear Religion of Heaven ! Fold
A Rose leaf, etc.
This, says Mr. Forman, was altered to : —
To fret at sight of this world's losses. For behold
Wherein lies happiness Peona. Fold
A rose leaf, etc.
428 JOHN KEATS
Finally the text as we have it was sent to the publisher in the following
letter : —
" My dear Taylob,
" These lines as they now stand about ' happiness ' have rung
in my ears like a chime a mending. See here,
' Behold
Wherein lies happiness, Peona? fold, etc'
" It appears to me the very contrary of blessed. I hope this will appear
to you more eligible. (Then follows the reading of the text.)
" You must indulge me by putting this in, for setting aside the badness
of the other, such a preface is necessary to the subject. The whole thing
must, I think, have appeared to you, who are a consecutive man, as a
thing almost of mere words, but I assure you that when I wrote it, it was
the regular stepping stone of the Imagination towards a truth. My
having written that argument will perhaps be of the greatest service to
me of anything I ever did. It set before me the gradations of happiness,
even like a pleasure thermometer, and it is my first attempt towards the
chief attempt in the drama. The playing of difi«rent natures with joy
and sorrow. Do me this favour, and believe me,
" Your sincere friend,
"J. Kbatc."
The whole passage therefore must be regarded as of the utmost im-
portance in the interpretation of the poem, whilst particular attention
must be paid to the lines finally added ; for they contain a truth which Keats
thought essential to the development of his idea, which he had, evidently,
not fully grasped when he conceived the poem, but which only grew upon
him as he proceeded with it and came afterwards to revise it. The grada-
tions of happiness thus appear to be, (1) the sensuous delight in nature
and romance ; (2) the pleasures of friendship and human sympathy ;
(3) love, which feeds upon itself and is of its essence self-sacrificing. This
stage is all-sufficient for most men. (4) communion with the ideal — in
itself higher than them all, yet only to be gained by one who has passed
through them all. The pursuit of this ideal is the subject of the whole
poem, and its development corresponds with the plan here laid down. It
gives the key beforehand to the adventures of Endymion under the sea,
and explains the perplexities of his relations with Phoebe. Keats is
perfectly right in speaking of these lines as a " preface necessary to the
whole ". Without them lines 775, 776, are unsupported by what follows,
and the whole of the fourth book extremely difficult to comprehend.
His conception Is thus a somewhat crudely expressed, but intensely in-
teresting, foretaste of the sketch of the progress of the poet's soul pre-
sented in the Fall of Hyperion {vide Introduction to that poem).
786. JEoUan : Eolian 1818.
790. where : were 1818.
ENDYMION, BK. II.— NOTES 429
796. The rhymelessness of this line is unaccounted for in the draft.
802-806. high-fronted honour : — A common Elizabethanigm.
831. How tiptoe Night holds back her dark-grey hood. This beautiful
line eves, perhaps, a suggestion to both Shakespeare and Milton. In
Romeo and Juliet, Hi. 6. 10 : —
jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
In Comus, 188 :—
the gray-hooded Even
Like a sad Votarist in Palmer's weed
Rose like the hindmost wheels of Phoebus wain.
835-42. This passage may have been in Shelley's mind when, in 1819,
he wrote his well known lyric Lov^s Philosophy.
862. Latona : — The mother of Apollo and Cynthia, to whom she gave
birth in Delos ; hence the allusion in 966.
944. Proserpine : — One of Keats's favourite classical stories. Cf. note
on Lamia, i. 63.
947' Echo : — A legend already treated by Keats in / stood tip-toe, 165-80,
q.v. note.
975. And come instead demurest meditation.
To occupy me wholly, and to fashion
My pilgrimage for the worlds s dusky brink : —
It is impossible not to detect in these lines the spirit of Milton's //
Penseroso, with its conception of Melancholy, described by Milton as
demure, which, in contrast with the more thoughtless pleasures of his
earlier life, is to be the guide of his closing years.
BOOK II •
1-43. This passage has been much attacked by some critics (e.g. Cour-
thope, Liberal Movement in English Literature, 181) as illustrative of the
weakness of Keats's general temper and attitude to life ; but it is essentially
suitable to its context, as an introduction to the book which presents
Endymion's search for love, and it naturally follows upon the comparison
of love and heroism at the close of the preceding book. The same charge,
moreover, might equally well be made against Shakespeare for writing the
plays to which Keats refers, especially, e.g. Troilus and Cressida and Romeo
and Juliet, wherein the wars of Troy and the quarrels of Montagues and
Capulets are, as Keats suggests, totally subordinated to the love stories.
Keats doubtless knew the Troilus and Cresseyde^TChaMcer, to which Wood-
house thinks that he alludes here, but it is probable that Shakespeare's
play is more definitely in his mind ; partly because of the other references
to Shakespeare at the beginning of the book {cf. 27, Romeo and Juliet; 31,
Much Ado about Nothing and Cymbeline), and because we know Keats to
have been engrossed in Shakespeare study at the time, partly also because
430 JOHN KEATS
there are actual traces in this book of words and phrases probably suggested
by Troihts and Cressida. The word closer as Woodhouse notes, means
embrace; it is so used by Shakespeare in this very play (iii. 2. 51), "an
'twere dark you'ld close sooner " (for the noun of. Twelfth Night, v. 1. 161,
" the close of lips "). So the form pight (60) is in Troilus and, Cressida,
V. 10. 24, whilst in 92 the application of mealy to the wings of a butterfly,
" afraid to smutch even with mealy wings the water clear," used again, in
996, with less appropriateness, of the wings of a bee, recalls Troilus and
Cressida, iii. 3. 78, 79 : —
Men like butterflies
Show not their mealy wings but to the summer.
Pastorella is the heroine of book vi. of the Faerie Queene, always a,
favourite with Keats. Her capture by bandits is described in Cantos x.
and zi.
143. The loss of rhyme here is due to a change in the text from the
first draft. The passage originally ran : —
Whoso encamps
His soul to take a city of delight
O what a wretch is he : 'tis in his sight.
149. pebble head 1818 : — HBF alters to pebble-bead on authority of the
MS. and a corrected copy of the text.
197. The story of the flood from which Deucalion and Pyrrha alone
escaped is told by Ovid, Met. L Keats again alludes to it in Lamia, i.
333 {q.v. note).
Oriort was the son of Neptune, and a great hunter. Coming to Chios,
he wooed the daughter of Oionopion, Merope ; and Oionopion> having
drugged him, blinded him in his sleep and cast him out on the sea shore.
An oracle foretold that he would regain his sight if he journeyed to the
East and exposed his eyes to the rays of the rising sun. So Apollodorus,
i. 4. 3 ; according to earlier legends, (Homer, Od. v. 121) Orion married
Aurora and was in consequence killed by Diana. So Spenser, Faerie Queene,
vii. 7. 39. It is interesting to know that we owe this magnificent Une to
an afterthovight, the original reading Or blind Orion waiting for the dawn,
being tame in comparison, and, moreover, entailing a false rhyme. Hazlitt,
w^o, we are told by Haydon, could never be persuaded to acknowledge
Keats's genius, was much impressed by this line, for he makes it the motto
of his Essay On a landscape of Nicolas Povissin {Table Talk, 232, ed. Bohn ; first
published, 1821). He thus opens his essay: "Orion, the subject of the
landscape, was the classical Nimrod ; and is called by Homer * a hunter of
Shadows himself a shade '. He was the son of Neptune : and having lost
an eye in some affray of the gods and men, was told that if he would go to
meet the rising sun, he would recover his sight. He is represented i^
setting out on his journey, with men on his shoulders to guide him, a bow
in his hwud, and Diana in the clouds greeting him. He stalks along, a giant
upon earth, and reels tgiA falters in b>8 SSit, as if just awakened out of sleep,
ENDYMION, BK. II.-^NOTES 431
or uncertain of his way — you see his blindness, though his back is turned.
Mists rise around him, and veil the sides of the green forests ; earth is dark
and fresh with dews, the ' gray dawn and the Pleiades before him dance '
and in the distance are seen the blue hills and sullen ocean. Nothing was
ever more finely conceived or done . . . one feeling of vastness, of strange-
ness, of primeval forms pervades the painter's canvas, we are thrown back
upon the first integfrity of things. This great and learned man . . . alone
has a right to be considered as the painter of classical antiquity." Does it
not seem likely that Keats had this picture in his mind when he wrote the
line, even indeed that he had heard Hazlitt praise it ? Letters written in
April and May, 1817, suggest that Keats had already enjoyed something
of Hazlitt's society in the previous winter, and he might again be seeing
him in London at the very time he was writing this book. Both were
frequent visitors at Haydon's studio. We know that any remark of
Hazlitt's would sink deep into Keats's mind, for Hazlitt's " depth of taste "
was to him '' one of the three things to rejoice at in this age " (Letter to
Haydon, 10th Jan., 1818). This hypothesis receives some support from the
presence of Diana in Poussin's picture, thus connecting it with the heroine
of Keats's poem, whilst the power of a great painting to kindle his im-
agination is amply iUustrated by the influence upon him of Titian's Bacchus
and Ariadne {cf. Sleep and Poetry, 335 ; Endymion, iv. 196) and Claude's
Enchanted Castle {cf. Epistle to Reynolds, 26 ; Ode to the Nightingale, vii. 9).
230. vast antre : — A reminiscence of Othello, i. 3. 140, " of antres vast
and deserts idle ". This great speech wherein Othello tells how he won
Desdemona's love must have especially impressed Keats. In an /I crostic (10)
he again borrows from it, referring to the Anthropoph:^ mentioned by
Othello in line 144 of the same scene.
277. the fog-born elf. Whose flitting lantern, etc. : — ^The will o' the wisp
who "misleads night-wanderers laughing at their harm" (A Midsummer-
Nighfs Dream, iL 1. 39) described by Milton (Paradise Lost, ix. 634-42) as
a wandring Fire
Compact of unctuous vapor, which the Night
Condenses, and the cold invirons round,
Kindl'd through agitation to a Flame,
Which oft, they say, some evil Spirit attends.
Hovering and blazing with delusive Light,
Misleads th' amaz'd Night-wanderer from his way
To Boggs and Mires, and oft through Pond or Poole,
There swallow'd up and lost, from succour farr.
The first draft of BndynUon reads bog for swamp, and was thus slightly
nearer to Milton.
282. raught HBF, following MS. ; caught 1818.
318. boughs among HBF, following MS. ; among the zephyr boughs
1818.
360. Arion the poet, on his voyage from Italy to Grreece, was robbed
432 JOHN KEATS
and cast overboard by the sailors ; but the Dolphins, who had gathn^d
round the ship to hear his song, bore him safely back to Tgenarus. Cf.
Spenser, Faerie Queene, iv. 11. 23 : —
Then was there heard a most celestiall sound,
Of dainty musicke, which did next ensew
Before the spouse : that was Arion crownd ;
Who playing on his harpe, unto him drew
The eares and hearts of all that goodly crew.
That euen yet the Dolphin, which him bore
Through the Mgaean seas from Pirates vew.
Stood still by him astonisht at his lore.
And all the raging seas for joy forgot to rore.
So went he playing on the watery plaine.
363. The rhyme to lyre is lost by the rejection of the following
passage in the draft : —
To seas Ionian and Tyrian. Dire
Was the love lorn despair to which it wrought
Endymion — for dire is the bare thought
That among lovers things of tenderest worth
Are swallow'd all, and made a blank — a dearth
By one devouring flame : and far far worse
Blessing to them become a heavy curse
Half happy till comparisons of bliss
To misery lead them. 'Twas even so with this. . . .
387. Afier a thousand mazes overgone : — A classical construction which
we should hardly expect to find in Keats at this period. It is probably
due to the influence of Milton, which was by no means confined, as is
often represented, to Hyperion. Cf. Comus, 48, " after the Tuscan mariners
transformed ". For other Miltonisms, cf. End. iv. 367, note ; iii. 136, etc.
400. " Woodhouse notes that ' tenting swerve ' meant in the form of the
top of a tent" (HBF); cf. Glossary.
400. This picture of Venus and Adonis was probably suggested partly
by Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, and partly by Spenser's Gardens of
Adonis {Faerie Queene, iii. 6. 46-49 ; cf. also iii. 1. 35-40). Keats's version
is closer to Spenser in that in both writers Cupid is represented as being
present. The story is also related at length in Ovid, Met. x., a book
which Keats had certainly been reading quite lately, as the picture of
Cybele (640 q.v.) is taken from the tale of Atalanta which Ovid represents
Venus as relating to Adonis.
443. Ariadne : — Cf. Sleep and Poetry, 336 (note). It is worth noticmg
that the wine, fruit and cream with which Cupid presents Endymion are
all associated with a well-known love story. The legend of the love of
Vertumnus for Pomona is told in Ovid, Met. xiv. Amalthea the daughter
of Molossos King of Crete fed Jupiter with goat's milk. As a reward she
was made a constellation ; and one of the horns of the goat, presented to
ENDYMION, BK. II.— NOTES
her in commemoration, became the horn of plenty with the magic power
of pouring forth fruits and flowers at will. The horn of Amalthea is
mentioned by Milton (Paradise Regained, ii. 356) in his account of the
banquet provided by Satan for Christ, and it is significant that in Milton
88 in Keats it is followed by a reference to the Hesperides : —
Nymphs of Diana's train, and Naiades
With fruits and flowers from Amalthea' s horn.
And Ladies of th' Hesperides.
475, 476. drew Immortal tear-drops down, etc: — So in // Penseroso
Orpheus "drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek".
532, 633. muse . . . coy excuse : — So Milton to his Muse in Lycidas
"hence with denial vain and coy excuse":
This whole passage (526-533) in its earliest form (given by HBF)
affords a striking example of the weak side of Keats's poetic genius at this
time: —
Queen Venus bending downward, so o'ertaken.
So suffering sweet, so blushing mad, so shaken
That the wild warmth prob'd the young sleeper's heart
Enchautingly ; and with a sudden start
His trembling arms were out in instant time
To catch his fainting love. — O foolish rhyme
What mighty power is in thee that so often
Thou strivest rugged syllables to soften
Even to the telling of a sweet like this.
Away ! let them embrace alone ! that kiss
Was far too rich for thee to talk upon.
Poor wretch ! mind not those sobs and sighs ! begone !
Speak not one atom of thy paltry stuff.
That they are met is poetry enough.
536. tow's 1818; Love's HBF, MS.
641. dyes 1818 ; dies HBF, MS.
663. Those fringed lids a constant blind : — Cf. i. 394, note.
685. Mtnean : Etnean 1818.
639. Forth from a rugged arch . . . Came mother Cybele : — This wonder-
ful picture of Cybele has been supposed to have drawn its inspiration from
an engraving in Spence's Polymetis, but it was certainly suggested by
Sandya's translation of Ovid, Met. x. wherein Hippomenes and Atalanta
came to the "fane" of the "Mother of the gods" "obscured by dark
and secret shade" "a gloomy grot much like unto a cave" (The descrip-
tion of the place under the earth reached by Endymion is compared in
line 626 to "dusk places in times far aloof Cathedrals oall'd"). They
pollute the shrine and are changed into lions whom
Cybel checks
With curbing bits, and yokes their stubborn necks.
A study of the draft and cancelled readings shows still closer debts to
a8
434 JOHN KEATS
this passage. In 639 for '* rugged " «roh we read <* gloomy," and for " i^sh "
" dmh," and in 646-7 :—
nervy taih
cowering their tufted brusbeB to the dust (original draft),
Cf. Their tufted' tails whisk up the dust (Sandys).
The full reading of the earlier drafts was aa fallows. The first draft ran :—
About her ma^eaty^ and her palei brow
With turrets crown' d, which ft)r«rard heavily bow
Weighing heiJ chia to tiie breast. Four lions draw
The wheels in sluggish time — each toothed maw
Shut patientlyrrr-eyes hid in laway veils.—
Drooping about their paws, and nervy tails
Cowering their tufted brushes to the dust.
This was revised thus !-r-
About her majesty, and front death-pale
With turrete erown'd. Four t^^wny lions hale
The sluggiaik' wheels ; solemn thei:; eloseid maws
Their snfly eyfisi half shut, their heavy paws
Uplifted lazily, and, nervy tails
Vailing thfiin tawiny tufts.
Cf. also Spenser, Faeme Qateme, iv. 2. 28.
686. So sad, so nteimcholfi so bereft :^-Cf. the SQonet On a Dream
(p. 285):—
So play'd, so oharnt'd, so c(ta%uer'd, so bereft.
Hiis parallel was noted by Rwsetti.
688. dancing before the, mining gates of heavm ."-^A reference to the
Hours or Seasons who kept the gate of clouds at t]ie entrance of Olym-
pus, and with the Graces attended: upon Venus. • Cf.. Milton, Paradise
Lost, iv. 266-68 :—
Universal Pom
Knit with the Graces and lihe Hows in dance
Led on th' Eternal Spring.
In Chapman's Homeric Hymn to Apolto, well known to Keats, they
are represented as dancing before the sun god:-^
Put here the fair haired Graces, the wise Hows
Ha/rtmm», Hebe, and sweet Veims' powers
Danced, aDid eaoh other's palm to palm did eliag.
And in the description of the palace of Sel with which Ovid opens bk. ii.
of the Met. we read (in Sandys),
I Sol dothediin purple site upon a throne
Which clearly 'With translucent Emralds shone :
With equall-raigning Hwres on either hand,
The Days, the Moatju, the Veares, the Ages stand.
The fragrant Spring with ilowry ohaplet orown'd
Whe^teaves, the brows of naked Summer bovnd :
ENDYMION, BK. II.— NOTES 435
Rich Autumne smear'd with crusht Lyasus blood ;
Next hoary headed Winter quivering stood.
This last passage was obviously in Keats's mind when he wrote the
lines about the Hours in bk. iv. 420-26, q.v.
690. old A tlas' children : — i.e. the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas by Pleione,
one of the Oceanides. They, too, dance before the morning sun. Cf.
Milton, Paradise Lost, vii. 373 : —
the gray
Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danc'd
Shedding sweet influence.
691. One of shell-winding Triton's bright hair'd daughters ? : — A clear
reminiscence of Milton, Comus, 865 — " scaly Triton's winding shell ". It
is noticeable, however, that Keats alters the meaning of the epithet wind-
ing and applies it not to the shell as Milton in Cotmts, but to Triton
himself, perhaps with a recollection of Lycidas, 28, where the gray-fly
winds her sultry horn. Triton was the son of Neptune and Amphitrite,
whose duty was to stir or calm the waves by blasts upon his shell. In
the passage about the Hows both in Ovid (Met. ii.) and Milton (Paradise
Lost, iv.) Triton is also mentioned ; hence perhaps his presence here.
716. doting H, HBF ; doating 1818.
793. vailed MS., HBF ; veiled 1818, etc.
823, 824. Is grief' amtain'd In the very deeps of pleasure : — An anticipa-
tion of the idea upon which Keats wrote his great Ode on Melancholy : —
Ay, in the very temple of Delight
Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine.
The reading in the draft, which gives "shrine"' for "deeps," draws the
passages still closer together.
830. Long ago 'twas told, etc. : — On Keats's instinctive feeling for the
natural origin of all the great classical stories cf. I stood tip-toe, 123, and note.
841. ears Whose tips are gloming hot: — Mr. Forman compares with
Lycidas, 76, 77 :—
But not the praise,
Phcebus repli'd, and toueh'd my trembling ears.
Keats, therefore, probably means by his line "those who are eager to
gain poetic fame ". But even so the passage is obscure.
842. centinel stars : — ^The spelling of " centinel " suggests an Elizabethan
source, but the phrase is really Campbell's. Cf. Soldier's Dream (publ.
1804), "And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky".
866. Molian : Eolian 1818.
876. Alecto, daughter of Nox, and the most terrible of all the Furies.
It was " A lecto with swolne snakes and Stygian fire " that raised fierce passion
in Myrrha's breast (Ovid, Met. x., Sandys) ; and later she asks herself:—
Nor fearst the Furies with their hissing haire
Who on the faces of the guilty stare
With dreadful torches .*
436 JOHN KEATS
Keats may have remembered that it is Alecto whom Juno sends (Vergil,
Aen, vii. 324) to stir up war between the Trojans and Latins.
876. Hermes' pipe : — Hermes was sent by Zeus to carry off lo who had
been changed by Hera into a cow, and was guarded by the hundred-eyed
Argos. He succeeded in lulling Argos to sleep by the music of his flute,
and after cutting off his head returned with lo. Mr. Forman suggests that
the vivid impression made upon Keats by this story was due to the reading
of Gary's Dante (Purgatory, canto xxxii.), for on the fly leaf of his copy he
wrote the sonnet As Hermes once, etc. {q.v. p. 285). But it is doubtful
whether Keats, when he wrote bk. ii. of Endymion, had read much Dante.
His interest in Dante was chiefly stimulated by Bailey and seems to have
begun a little later. Anyhow the story was known to him elsewhere, both,
as Mr. Forman points out, in Ovid, Met. i., where it is treated in detail,
and in Milton's description of the cherubim : —
four faces each
Had, like a double Janus, all thir shape
Spangl'd with eyes more numerous then those
Of Argus, and more wakeful then to drouze,
Charm'd with Arcadian Pipe, the Pastoral Reed
Of Hermes, or his opiate Rod.
— Paradise Lost, xi. 128-33.
936. Arethusa, a nymph in attendance on Diana, was loved by Alpheus
a river god in whose stream she was bathing; she fled his pursuit and
calling upon Diana for help was changed into a stream. The story is
told at length in Ovid, Met. v., whence Keats borrowed it. Its intro-
duction into Endymion was doubtless in a measure suggested by the
part played by Diana — its significance in the allegory of the poem has
already been pointed out (vide Introduction, p. xl). It is by his sympathy
with the lovers that he enters into the third stage of his pilgrimage-
beneath the sea, and advances nearer to the consummation of his own quest.
960. In the 1818 edition invei-ted commas stand at the end of this line
and beginning of 961, and after " criminal " and before " Alas " in 963.
994. more unseen Than Saturn in his exile : — ^A first suggestion of the
picture with which Hyperion opens.
BOOK III
The exordium to this book is eminently characteristic of Keats both at
his worst and at his best. Beginning in an attack upon the Tory govern-
ment (with a thought, doubtless, of the critics who supported it), written in
a confused jumble of inappropriate metaphors that read with ludicrous
effect, it develops into his most marvellous interpretation of the beauty of
the moon, described with delicate observation and the subtlest musical
cadence.
7. Fir e-bremded foxes :—Cf. Book of Judges, xv. 4, 6. Keats rarely draws
ENDYMION, BK. III.— NOTES 437
upon the Bible for suggestions of phrase or idea, but cf. Sleep and Poetry,
197 ; Bndymion, iv. 877 ; Isabella, xzxiii. ; Fall of Hyperion, i. 75.
£4. a holier din : — The elevation of the meaning of a commonplace
word, generally used with a contemptuous significance, may perhaps be
attributed to the influence of Wordsworth, who in the White Doe of RhyU
stone alludes to the "fervent din " of the music in the abbey.
71. AndTelhts feels his forehead's cumbrous load: — i.e. the forehead of
Ocemus, but it was not so understood by the printer, who gave her in the
first edition ; and though the mistake was corrected in the errata at the end
of the volume Mr. W. T. Arnold notes this as one of the examples of Keats's
ignorance and compares with line 918, where also he misjudges Keats. He
imagines that the his is meant to refer to Telhis ; but this argues a mis-
conception of the picture, which is of huge moonlit billows thundering
in upon the shore that seems to tremble at their weight — a magnificent
conclusion to Keats's presentation of the varied splendours of the moon.
78. Vesper ; " amorous glow-worm of the sky " {Ode to Psyche, 27) : —
A name given to Venus as the evening star.
80. How chang'd, how full of ache, how gone in woe ! : — The cadence of
this line may have been caught from a line which Keats had read in
Sandys's commentary on Ovid, Met. iv. : —
How pale th^ look, how wither'd, how forlorn.
97. A series of classical reminiscences particularly dear to the Eliza-
bethans. Cf. e.g. Marlowe's Hero and Leander; for Orpheus, Milton
L' Allegro and II Penseroso, and for Pluto The Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 116-18,
and Milton, Paradise Lost, iv. 269-72 (Keats's favourite passage) : —
Proserpin gathring flours
Her self a fairer Floure by gloomie Dis
Was gatherd, which cost Ceres all that pain
To seek her through the world.
120-36. Mr. Sidney Colvin (£ML, p. 103) notices that "the description
of the sunk treasures cumbering the ocean floor challenges comparison,
not all unequally, with the famous similar passage in Shakespeare's
Richard HI. ". Cf Richard III., i. 4. 21-33.
133. Ancient N ox . . . behemoth . . . leviathan: — Milton is suggested
by the application of the epithet ancient to Night (cf. Paradise Lost, ii.
970, 986) and by his allusions to behemoth {Paradise Lost, vii. 471) and
leviathan (Paradise Lost, vii. 412). It was principally due to the influence
of Bailey that Keats first came to appreciate the genius of Paradise Lost,
Eo that it is especially interesting to notice in this third book, written at
Oxford in Bailey's company, several Miltonic phrases and expressions
which we might not, perhaps, expect to find in his work at so early a date.
Cf. the Miltonic use of the indefinite adjective in S93 and 867 to express
limitless space. It should, however, be noted that the word vast in this
sense is to be found not in Milton but in Shakespeare (Pericles, iii. 1. 1).
Cf. also notes to iii. 282, 616 ; iv. 365, etc.
488 JOHN KEATS
142. Mr. Robert Bridges compares this passage with Wordsworth's
account of the influence of nature upon his childhood. A parallel even
more forcible is to be found in the account which Coleridge gives {Night-
ingaU, 98-106) of the effect of the moon upon his own child : —
I deem it wise
To make him Nature's playmate. He knows well
The evening star : and once when he awoke
In most distressful mood (some inward pain
Had made up that strange thing, an infant's dream)
I hurried with him to our orchardplot.
And he beholds the moon, and hushed at once
Suspends his sobs, and laughs most silently
While his fair eyes that swam with undropt tears
Did glitter in the yellow moonbeam.
180. orby: — The form of the word throws an interesting light on
Keats's love of -y adjectives ; for in the draft he wrote orbed. The form
orby is Chapman's.
192. An old man sitting eeUm andpeact^uUy : — The episode of Glaucus and
Scylla, introduced by Keats in order to develop still further his conception
that only after active sympathy with the fate of others could Endymion
realise his aspirations, was probably suggested to him by his reading of
Ovid, Met. xiii., xxiv. Keats treats the story, however, with absolute
freedom. In Ovid Glauous, enamoured of Scylla, applies to Circe for aid ;
Circe proffers her own love instead, is spurned by Glaucus, and in revenge
turns Scylla into a monster with a hundred barking mouths. Keats, desir-
ing to read more meaning into his version, makes Glaucus submit to the
charms of Circe, forgetting for the time his allegiance to ScyUa. By
chance he discovers Circe among the beasts who were once, like himself,
her lovers, and realises his true condition. Then Circe, enraged, sends
Scylla into a deathlike trance and casts a spell of palsied age upon Glaucus.
Thus Keats makes the punishment of Glaucus the result of his temporary
infidelity, perhaps following out the idea suggested in the introductory
poem in Sandys which contrasts with a baser passion the powerful love of
Nature that leads to Fame and Glory, adding
But who forsake that faire Intelligence
To follow Passion and Voluptuous sence
Such, charm' d by Circe's luxurie and ease,
Themselves deforme.
Glaucus is punished by the apparent death of Scylla and the paralysis
in himself of all power of advance, and is only saved by the sympathetic
strength of Endymion who is in pursuit of the ideal. Thus whilst Endymion
is given an opportunity of rising out of his own fatal self-absorption to help
another, the fate of Glaucus throws additional light upon the problem
which is before Keats's mind all through the poem-^the relation of love
in its different forms to higher ambitions of the soul. In Ovid Glaucus
ENDYMION, BK. HL^NOTES 489
eats a herb which, he has noticed, givfes liiia to the fishes he has caught, and
thereby he becomes a god. In Keats he thirsts for a larger life and like
Endymion pursues with love a maid above him ; whilst his temporary
infidelity to Scylla affords a contrast with the supposed infidelity of
Endymion tb Cynthiit presented in bk. iv.
202. This line, not in 1818 edition, was first restored to the text from
the MS. by Mr. Suxtcn Porman.
244. giant . . . That writhis abota ike roots of Sieity : — " It ife net clear
whether the reference is to Briareus or BnceladuSj since both were sup-
posed to have been imprisoned under Mount Etna" (HBF). Keats is
probably thinking of Enceladus, whom he generally identifies with
Typhon, though he makes two persons of them in Hyperion {q.v.), trans-
ferring however tlie powers of Typhon to Enceladus. "Typhwn from
earth's gloomy entrails raised" is mentioned in a passage frohi Sandys's
Ovid Of which KCiats made clear use in HyperioH, ii. 70-72. Hfe may also
have remembered tr^Slating from VArgil, AMieU, iii. 577-^2, the lines :—
Fama est Enceladi semiustum Ailmine corpus
tJrgferi mole hac, ingentemque itisuper Aetnam
Impositam ruptis flammam espirare caminis,
Bt fessum qUotiens mutet latus, intremere omuem
Murmure Trinacriam et caelum subtexere fumo.
It is noticeable also that Ovid in the very passage upon which Keats
in drawing in this book, mentions Gkucus in his search for Circe as
passing
Hig:h Aetna On the jaws of Typhon cast.
This reference makes the allusion certain. Briareus, on the other
hand, is a mere name to Keats.
282. Look'd high deflcmce : — ^Another phrase with a Miltonic ring, cf.
Paradise Lost, iv. 873, "in his look defiance lottrs".
301, 302. hadU thou never loved an iMiknown paiBvr, etc. :-^It is by
reason of the high aspii-ations Which guide Bndyinion's life that he is able
to save Glaucus.
364. Mthon : — Cf. note to Endymion, i. 660.
406. Prom where large Hercules &ound up his story .•■^This awkward
and ambiguous line is probably an example of the way in which Keats
sometimes allowed his rhyme to lead his sense. To one who knew
Lycidas as well as Keats "promontory" naturally Suggested "story" (cf.
Lycidas, 94, 96). The death of Ilercules is told in Ovid, Met. ix. and
his labours alluded to. His last labour was to sustain heaven on his
shoulders, on which Sandys comments, " The flible goes how Atlas, who
sate on a mighty mountain and supported Heaven on his back, desired
Hercules, having heard of his surprising streng:th to ease him for a while
in bearing his burden ; Who readily undertook it. Hercules," he adds,
"had travelled to the uttermost bounds of the earth to increase his know-
ledge by conferring with Atlas." Hence the point of the allusion here.
440 JOHN KEATS
411. Ctrce was the daughter of Helios by Perse the Oceanid^-Sandys
calls her Phocbean Circe. It was. at ^aea, the island where she lived,
that Odysseus visited her (Odyssey, bk. x.) and Keats in his description of
the transformation of her late lovers into beasts is rather drawing upon
Homer's description of her treatment of the followers of Odysseus than
upon Ovid, who confines his story to her dealings with Glaucus and Scylla.
Keats would also remember the description of Circe in Comus.
461. Amphion was the son of Zeus and Antiope and husband of Niobe
(cf. i. 337). Hermes presented him with a lyre, upon which he played so
beautifully that the stones moved of their own accord and without human
intervention built up the walls of Thebes. It is evident from this
passage, and still more from line 1002, that Keats, working from memory,
is confusing him with another mythical musician, Ariou (cf. ii. 360).
Amphion had no connection with the sea.
530. Python was the huge serpent that inhabited Parnassus and was
killed by Apollo (Ovid, Mei. i.). Boreas, the North, and the most up-
roarious, wind. Cf. e.g. 'the ruffian Boreas' of Troihis and Cressida,
i. 3. 38, and the Masque in Beaumont and Fletcher's Maid^s Tragedy, i. 1,
where Cynthia asks that all the winds should be loosed : —
only Boreas
Too foul for our intention, as he was.
Still keep him fast chained.
545. ruddy drops: — Cf. Julius Casar, ii. 1. 289. "The ruddy drops
that visit my sad heart."
565. Into the dungeon core of that wild wood: — It is interesting to
notice that Milton uses the word dungeon to suggest the gloom of the im-
penetrable wood where his enchanter Comus lurks. In this close dungeon
of innumerous bowes. Comus, 349.
615. such hellish spite With dry cheek who can tell ? — ^The strange trans-
position in the order of words as well as the cadence of the sentence
forcibly recalls Milton, Paradise Lost, xi. 494, 496 : —
Sight so deform what heart of Rock could long
Drie-ey'd behold ?
It is not at all in keeping with Keats's natural manner at this period.
Cf. note, line 133.
625. like a common weed
The sea-swell took her hair : —
These beautiful lines recall Sleep and Poetry, 376-80 : —
as when ocean
Heaves calmly its broad swelling smoothness o'er
Its rocky marge, and balances once more
The patient weeds ; that now uusheut by foam
Feel all about their undulating home.
653. Molus : Eolus 1818 ; so in line 951.
811. Through HBF ; though 1818,
ENDYMION, BK. III.— NOTES 441
835. The vivid use of the word shoitldef'd recalls Clarke's account of
Keats's admiration on first reading Spenser — " What an image that is —
' Bea-shouldering whales ' ! " The line in Spenser " Spring-headed Hydraes,
and sea-shouldering whales " is to be found in Faerie Queene, ii. 12. 23.
863. Paphian army, i.e., army of lovers. The isle of Paphos was
eacred to Venus.
859. vdl their eyes Like callow eagles at the first sunrise: — "This
simile must surely be a reminiscence of Ferrin's Fables Amusantes or some
similar book used in IMr. Clarke's school. I remember the Fable of
the old eagle and her young stood first in the book I used at school "
(HBF). But surely an Elizabethan source would be at once more
likely and more inspiring; cf. Beaumont and Fletcher, The Hutnourous
Lieutenant, i. 1 : —
The B«yal Eagle
When she hath try'd her young ones 'gainst the sun
And found them right ; next teacheth them to prey. . . .
And cf. Spenser, Faerie Queene, i. 10. 47 : —
Yet wondrous quick and persant was his spright
As eagles eye, that can behold the sunne.
866. BeoMty's paragon. Spenser, Faerie Queene, vii. 7- 69 : —
So Venus eeke, that goodly paragone.
8o Drummond, Madrigal, iii., calls his lady " beauty's fairest paragon ".
The draft of this and the previous line reads : —
At his right hand stood winged Love, elate
And on his left Love's fairest mother sate.
899. Nais the mother of Glaucus, according to some authorities
beloved by Neptune.
918. Visit thou my Cythera : etc. : — Mr. Forman by restoring the draft
reading supplied by Woodhouse has freed Keats from the stigma cast
upon him by the text of previous printed editions. Visit my Cytherea, which
suggested to Mr. Arnold and others that Keats was not aware that Cythera
vas the name of the island and Cytherea the epithet of Venus as its queen.
Fortunately we are not also obliged to incorporate with it the vul|;ar line
which closes the couplet in the draft : —
Visit thou my Cithera : thou wilt find
Cupid a treasure, my Adonis kind.
927, 928. pleach'd .-—Mr. W. T. Arnold first noticed that Keats had
probably borrowed this word from Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing,
iii. 1. 7. The matter is made doubly certain by the fact that a few lines
later Shakespeare also uses the word "coverture" introduced by Keats
into his next li^ae.
973. Molian : Eolian 1818. So in line 1000, the 1818 edition reads
Egean far ^gean.
979. when thou hast smiVd : — So of the moon in iii. 144, " I oft have
dried my tears when thou hast smil'd ".
442 JOHN KEATS
994-1004. Oemnus. The mention of OceanuB here, though his
kiaigdoiA had already passed away from him, may have been suggested by
the somewhat parallel scene of the marriage of the Thames and the
Medway in Spenser, Faerie Queem, iv. 11. 18: —
Next came the aged Ocean, and his Dame
Old Teihys, th' oldest two of all the rest ;
For all the rest of those two parents came.
Which afterwards both sea and land possest :
Of all which Nereas, th' eldest, and the best.
Did first proceed, then which none more upright,
Ne more sincere in word and deed profest ;
Most voide of guile, most free from fbwle despight.
Doing him selfe, and teaching others to doe right.
Nereus is the " iBgean seer '' of line 1000, as Spenser tells us in his
next stanza "expert in prophesies," the reference to Nereus following,
in Keats as in Spenser^ upon a reference to Oceanus. It is noticeable also
that a few stanzas later Spenser brings Arion on to the scene and tells hig
history — in Keats by error of memory or slip of pen Amphion (but cf. note
to 1. 461). " The gray-eyed Doris " Spenser alludes to in stanza 48 as one
of the Nereides, i.e. the daughter and not the wife of Nereus, but Ovidj
Met. ii. init., a passage we know that Keats studied in Sandys very care-
fully (vide Hyperion, ii. 21, note) gives us : —
Grey Doris and her daughters heavenly fkire.
Some sit on Rocks, and dry their sea^reene haire.
And on Doris Sandys gives a marginal note. "Wife of Nereus and
mother to the sea nymphs". Thetis Spenser does not mention in this
passage, but the whole feast is presided over as in Keats by Neptuae who
is accompanied by his queen Ampfaitrite (iv. 11. 11) in a passage which
offers several points of comparison with the lines of Keats :-^
First came great Neptune with his three forkt mace
That rules the Seas, and makes them rise or fall ; (cf. 945-60).
His dewy lockes did drop with brine apace (cf. 890^2).
Under his Diademe imperiall ;
And by his side his Queene with coronall
Fair AmphitrUti most divinely faire, (cf. lOOS).
Whose yvorie shoulders weren covered idl,
As with a robe, with her owne silver haire.
And deckt with pearles, which th' Indian seas for her prepaire (^.
1003).
These marched farre afore the other crew :
And all the way before them as they went,
Triton his trompet shrill before them blew (cf. 888).
For goodly triumph and great jollyment
That made the rocks to roare, as they were rent. {cf. 888).
Into this scene Glaucus also is introduced, though playing a subordin-
ENDYMION, BK. IV.— NOTES 448
ate part, wbilit Venus, introduced by Keats for purposes of his own story,
ha« no raison d'etre in Spenser's scene, and is therefore absent.
This similarity is extraordinarily interesting as showing Keats's deep
knowledge of Spenser, especially where he deals with classical themes.
It is not in the least to be supposed that he definitely copied the passage —
the mistalce as to Amphion would hardly have occurred in that case — but
it had sunk into his mind, so that, when desirous of representing a similar
scene himself, he drew upon it unconsciously. A comparison hetween the
two passages as independent treatments of a similar theme would have
interesting results. Spenser's picture is of a far more sustained beauty
and is nowhere marred by the faults of taste from which the work of
Keats at this period is never free for any long space. At the same time
Keats rises in places to a higher pline of emotion, and where Spenser is
content with presenting a picture of serene beauty, Keats is more dramatic,
and realises more fully the human significance in which the legends took
their riee.
1016. After this line the MS. originally reads : —
They gave him nectar — Ahed bright drops, and strove
Long time in vain. At last they interwove
Their cradling arms, and carefully conveyed
His body towards a iquiet bowery shade.
BOOK IV
This book is so important to Keats's conception of the relation which
the pursuit of ideal beauty and truth bears to actual life, that it will, per-
haps, be well to give some aiialysifi of its development, with indications
as to the probable significance of the allegory.
At the end of Book III. Endymion is rewarded for his sympathy with
Glaucus and Scylla by a renewed vision of Cynthia and a promise of eternal
happiness. He is roused from his prayers of thanksgiving by the voice of
an Indian maiden lamenting her lost lover (iv. 86). She typifies intense
human love, which is keenest when brought into being in sorrow, and
Endymion is all the more susceptible to it by reason of his awakened
human sympathy, so that he cannot choose but love her, and strive to con-
sole her in her grief (124 ; cf. Sleep and Poetry, 124, 126, where " the agonies
of human hearts " is represented as an essential to the poet's development,
and the Fall of Hyperion, i. 147-49). Yet in loving her he feels that he is
disloyal to Cynthia, and his heart is " cut in twain " between his love for the
actual and the ideal (85-97). The maiden urges upon him that his impulse
to human love is the just law of his being, that all nature incites to it (130),
but she fails to ease his heart of its perplexity, and only after she has sung
to him the Ode to Sorrow, laying stress again on sorrow as the surest bond
of human love, does she win him to surrender. Even then, as he submits to
her call, he hears a warning note. Woe to Endymion ! sound through the
44)4 JOHN KEATS
forest (321). Then two heavenly steeds appear and bear the lovers through
the air (347). A comparison with Sleep and Poetry (126-64) suggests that
these steeds are meant to typify the rekindling of the poet's imagination
— now called upon to act on a mind which has become exquisitely sensitive
to deep human passion . A vision follows naturally upon this state of mind.
The steeds bear them through the realm of sleep (370), and, as they pass,
Morpheus dreams of Endymion's coming apotheosis (376-89), whilst En-
dymion himself has a vision of like import (406-33). Then, while his
dream of happiness still retains its reality to him and Cynthia still seems
to be bending over him, he is conscious of the presence of his human-lover
by his side (440), and he is again lost in perplexity ; though as the im-
agination loses vitality the ideal seems to slip from him and the actual
once more asserts her supremacy (470). He rekindles his imagination to
a more conscious effort (481, " he roused the steeds "), and as he beholds
the beauty of the moon and once more the ideal regains its hold upon him,
his human love begins to fade ; he cannot take her with him ; her steed
drops to earth, and he is left alone (612). And now for the time he seems
to have lost both. His imagination which has separated him from his
human love is not vital enough to compensate for her loss — without her
lacks its necessary inspiration ; whereas without the presence of the ideal
in his heart, even his earthly love proves herself a shadow. There follows
a state of spiritual exhaustion (626-61) in which he has neither strength to
feel the loss nor hope to surmount it, nor alertness of mind to realise the
joy that awaits him in the future (610). From this state he reaches earth
and once more finds his human love. Overcome with the intensity of his
passion he persuades himself that he has found the root of his mistake.
He should not have attempted to reconcile a deep sympathy with the
realities of life with impossible aspirations — rather should he avoid both
and live in an exquisite enjoyment of the present (the peculiar temptation
of the poet, cf. Sleep and Poetry, 100-21, and Introduction to Fall of
Hyperion, p. 616) recognising the nobility of his aspirations, but postponing
them to another world (666). He tries to satisfy his imagination by draw-
ing a picture of such an existence (670-720). But his fancies are " vain
and crude" (722). And the maiden only gives voice to his own ianer
feeling when she tells him that she may not be his upon these terms.
Endymion is destined for higher things (763).
Once more he is in bitter perplexity. But now at last he realises
that he is at home, in Caria — i.e. he becomes conscious of the existence
around him of that large world of reality which he had deserted in
his pursuit of the ideal. Feona comes forward to meet him (800). She
typifies the perfection of the practical as opposed to the imaginative mind,
one of those who, contented with fulfilling their sphere in the world of
action : —
seek no wonder but the human face,
No music but a happy-noted voice {Fall of Hyperion, i. 163, 164),
ENDYMION, BK. IV.— NOTES 445
Peona calls upon him to fulfil his place in the world, and, seeing the
maiden in his company, rejoices that he is also to share the pleasures of
intense human love (856). But Endymion has at last realised wherein
his mistake has Iain. His passion for the maiden, like his quest for the ideal,
has been too self-absorbed, he has allowed it to narrow his outlook, and
only when he has renounced this passion in a wider love of humanity can
be truly attain his goal. And so he will renounce his Indian imaid, giving
ber to the care of his sister, and devote his life to that study which shall
at once foster his imagination and minister to the real needs of the world
(860-64). The pleasures which his sister has held out to him are I'eal
enough for those who have no thirstings after the imaginative life (851,
862 ; cf. the contrast developed in the Fall of Hyperion (i. 161-81) between
the man of action and the dreamer), but such a life is impossible for him
(853-57). His renunciation costs him such anguish that for the time life
seems impossible to him and a state of apathy follows, in which he longs
for death (960) ; but the necessary purification of his soul has been effected.
He is spiritualised (992), and thus at last the different impulses of his nature
are reconciled and he is at peace.
The whole book should be compared with Sleep and Poetry and with the
Pall of Hyperion. Cf. also Bndymion, i. 769, etc., and notes. The view
here presented of the development of the poet's mind in its search for ideal
beauty and truth is fully borne out by many passages in the Letters.
1-29. This invocation to the Muse of English poetry, who sits " rapt in
deep prophetic solitude " till the poets of the East, of Greece, Rome and
Italy have sung their songs, should be compared with Keats's other
utterances upon English poetry and his own genius, especially with the
famous passage in Sleep and Poetry (163-312). Here, as in Sleep and Poetry,
there is a deep recognition of the greatness of the past, mingled with a
feeling of despondency at the present, the same ambition for himself
blended with that humility which naturally accompanies his abiding rever-
ence for "the eternal Being, the Principle: of Beauty and the Memory
of great Men ". Particularly interesting is the tribute to Dante (16) to
whom Keats had just been introduced, in the version of Gary, by his friend
Bailey. The idea of traci&g the genius of poetry through Greece, Rome
and Italy to England may have been suggested to Keats by Gray's Pro-
gress of Poesy,
66. Hermes' wand : — The magic Caduceus, " opiate rod " of Milton,
Paradise Lost, xi. 133 ; cf, Bndymion, i. 662, note, ii. 876 ; and Lamia, i.
133.
68. Hyacinthus :—Cf. i. 328, and note.
97. for them in twain MS. reading, restored by HBF ;- in twain for
them 1818, etc.
111. Thou art my executioner : — A reminiscence of the words of Phoebe
to her lover Silvius in i4s You Like It, iii. 6. 8, "I would not be thy
executioner".
446 JOHN KEATS
136-4S. In place of these lines the draft reads :—
" Canst thou do so ? Is there so balm, oo cure
Could not a beckoning^ Hebe soon allure
Thee into Paradise? What sorrowing
So weighs thee down what utmost woe could bring
This madness— Sit thee down by me, and ease
Thine heart in whispers— haply by degrees
I may find out some soothing medicine."—
" Dear Lady>" said Endymion, " I pine,
I die — the tender accents thou hast spoken
Have finish'd all^^^^ny heart is lost and broken.
That I may pass in patience still speak :
Let me have music dying,, and I seek
No more delighfe^I bid adieu to all.
Didst thou not after other climates call
And. murmur about Indian streams — now, now —
I listeo^ it may save me— O my vow —
Let me have music dying ! " The ladye
Sitting beneath the midmost forest tree
With tears of pity sang this roundelay-^
167, 168. A hver would not tread
A cowslip on the head : —
A reminiscence of Sabrina's song (ConM», 898-900) : —
Thus I set my printless feet
O're the Cowslips Velvet head.
That bends not as I tread.
18S. Bvimmmg the water-lHy eups with tears : — An echo of Lycidas,
160, " And Daffadillies fill their eups with tears ''. The music and cadence
of Milton's earlier poems were evidently running in Keats's head at the
time that he wrote this Ode. Cf. the sound' of 266, " And all his priesthood
moans," with Lyeidas, ^,'' And all their echoes mourn," and " To the silver
cymbals' ringj" with Ode on the Naiivify, 208, " In vain with cymbals ring".
In his use of the short line of three beats Keats is driven back of necessity
upon his old master (ef. I stood tip-toe, 48, note), and his alternation of short
lines with decasyllabics gains much of the metrical charm of Milton's
Ode on the Nativity. That this poem was in his mind seems additionally
probable not only from his use of the epithet Osirian, but from the obvious
parallelism in idea between lines 267-67 and stanzas xix.-xxv. of Milton's
Ode, which tell how all the heathen deities vail their might before the
infant Christ. For other Miltonisms in this book ef. S66, note.
193. This marvellous picture of Bacchus and his crew " is in &ot the
Bacchus and Ariadne of Titian in the National Gallery, translated into
verse '' (Houghton). Keats had already made use of it in Sleep and Poetry
(336) where he vividly describes the picture. The conquest of the Bast
by Bacchus, which gives suitability to his introduction into the roundelay
ENDYMION, BK. IV.^NOTES 447
gung by the Indian maid, is suggested by Keats in a passage glowing with
ail the colour of the East. LempriSre asserts that Bacchus is the Ogiris
of the Egyptians and that he was drawn by lions and tigers, hut even ,here
it is probable that where Keats is not drawing entirely ou his imagination,
he is developing suggestions which are to be found in Ovid, Met. iii. and
iv., the passage which was also (with Carmen Ixiv. of Catullus) the inspirst-
tion of Titian's picture. The more important lines are thus rendered by
Sandys : —
The dames and Maids from usual labour rest
That wrapt in skins, their hair-laces unbound
And dangling Tresses with wild Ivy crown'd
Tl^ey leavy speares assume. . . .
The Matrons and new-married wives obey :
Their webs their unspun wool aside they lay.
In the lines which follow Bacchus is thus addressed : —
Thy conquests through the Orient are renown'd
Where tawny India is by Ganges bound
. . . Thou hold'st in awe
The spotted lynxes, which thy chariot draw
Light Baeehiiies, and skipping Satyrs follow.
Whilst old Sihmis, reeling still doth hollow :
Who weakly hangs upon his tardy Asse.
What place so'ere thou entreat, sounding brasge.
Loud Sacbuts, Tymbrels, the confused cfyes
Of Youths and Women, pierce the marble skyes.
Titian's Bacchus OMcl Ariadnei is also .finely described by Lamb, Essays
ofBlia — Barrenness of the, imaginative faculty in the productions of modern art.
221. Followed originally by the line : " We follow Bacchus from a far
country ".
260. Nor carefo* wind and tide : — A line recalling the mygterious motion
of the phantom ship in the Ancient Matirimr '^ withouten wind withouten
tide". Another slight coincidence occurs in the next stanza where
Coleridge tells ua that "the western wave was all aflame". Keats uses
the same phrase to describe the faces of the Bacchanals (1. 201). In the
draft, afier line 136, comes a passage, in which Keats uses the word ladye
with accent on the last syllable, and Mr. Forman notices that " its use
was defended by Coleridge". . . . See the Ballad of the Dark I^ac^e.
This accentuation is retained by Keats in line S86, whilst the line which
stood originally after 221 {vide previous note) again gives a ColeridgiAn ac-
centuation {cf. Ancient Mariner, 570, " all in my own countree"). Similarly
as in the Aneieni Mariner we read that the sun was "no bigger than the
moon," so in lines 497, 498 :—
The moon put forth a little diamond peak.
No bigger than an unobserved star.
448 JOHN KEATS
and the passage is itself more suggestive of Coleridge than the mere
parallelism of a commonplace phrase would suggest (c/. Ancient Mariner,
209-12). Each of these parallels is trivial in itself, but if taken together
they show that Keats had been reading Coleridge, and are significant
examples <of the manner in which the books that he read gained an
irresistible hold over him. And proof is here given external evidence, for
among his letters we find the following, dated November, 1817, i.e. exactly
when he was writing the fourth book of Endymion : —
" My dear Dilke, Mrs. Dilke or Mr. W. Dilke, whoever of you shall
receive this present, have the kindness to send per bearer "Sibylline
Leaves," and your petitioner shall ever pray as in duty bound. Given
under my hand this Wednesday morning of November, 1817,
" John Keats.
" Vivat Rex et Regina — amen."
From the passages quoted above we may conjecture that the volume was
sent.
364. Muse of my native land, am I inspir'd ? : — An unfortunate line that
was seized upon for ridicule, in itself quite just, by a contemporary
review.
362-66. The presence of the word snuff in Hyperion is explained by
critics as showing the influence of Milton on that poem {cf. Paradise Lost,
X. 272. " He snuffed the smell of mortal change on earth "). Its pres-
ence here goes perhaps to swell the evidence afforded in these notes that
Milton's influence upon Keats was far more general than is often supposed.
Cimmerian (375) is of course a reminiscence of the Cimmericm desert of
L' Allegro (10) whilst the treatment of sleep in lines 370-85 recalls
the drowsie frighted steeds
That draw the litter of close-curtain'd-sleep.
— Comus, 553, 554.
Perhaps also 426 " To sway their floating morris " may be a reminiscence
oi Comus, 116, the "wavering Morrice".
392-97. An interesting passage in connection with Keats's treatment
of Nature ; lines 391-93 may be placed with / stood tip-toe, 72-75, as a
vivid reminiscence of his own childhood " when he frequently loitered
over a rail of a foot bridge that spanned ... a little brook near Ed-
monton" (Clarke). The reference to Skiddaw, as Mr. Arnold pointed
out, is a purely literary reminiscence, and must be regarded as a tribute
to Wordsworth, for at that time Keats had not visited the Lakes.
400. Endymion's dream suggests the identity of Diana and the Indian
maiden, though he does not realise its significance. In his delineation of
the dream Keats introduces the well-known traditional characteristics of
the different gods and goddesses : the peacocks of Juno, the shield of
Pallas, the thunderbolt of Jove, the goblet of Hebe, goddess of youth,
and the bugle, attribute of Diana in her rile of huntress queen. For the
ENDYMION, BK. IV.^NOTES 4*49
source of the lines on the Seaaana, etc.^ ^. ii. 688, note, and ako ThonsoBi's
SMSons, Summer, 120 : —
round thy beaming car.
High-seen, the Seasons lead,, in sprightly dance
Harmonious knit, the rosji-fingered Hours,
The Zephyrs floating loose, the timely rains.
Of bloom ethereal the light-footed dews
And, softened into joy, the surly storms.
For the reference to Icarus in 442, c/. Sleep and Poetry, 308.
429, 430. its mistress' lips, etc. : — These two lines, weak as , they are,
show an unmistakable improvement on those which stood in the MS. : —
Its Mistress' Lips ? Not thou ? Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah !
'Tis Dian's, here she comes, look out afar.
486. sUverly MS., HBF ^ silvery 1818.
filO. The absence of a rhyme to this line is unaccounted for.
536. Semde the mother of Bacebus by Jove. Hence Keats supposes
that she must have quaffed delicious draughts be£ove his birbh.
548. Ud MS., HBF ; let 1818.
648. This Cave of Quietude :—" There, could not be a truer description
of apathy " {Mrs. Owen, John Keats, a Study, p. 101). The whole descf ipr
tion of the den of the soul's quiet seems made out of the real stuff of
experience, and stands out with a strange vividness frem its vague and
Bomewhat fantastic surroundings.
567. Hesperus, the star of Evening : frequently,, therefore,' invoked in
epithalamia. Cf. Ben Jonson's famous Epithalamion written for. the
marriage of Lord Ramsay (1608), every stanza of which ends with the
line : —
Shine Hesperus^ shine forth, thou wished star !
But thwe is an additional appropriateness in the introduction of Hesperus
here, for, as evening star, he was the natural forerunner of Diana h^self.
Cf. Ben Jonson's well'known Hymn to Diana : —
Queen and huntress, chaste and fair.
Now the sun is laid to sleep.
Seated in thy silver chair.
State in wonted manner keep.
Hesperus entreats thy light -
Goddess ezeellently br^ht,
Zephyrus, " flowery Zepbyrus," as Sandys calls him, was " the West
wind, the nourisher of life," and thus supposed to be enamoured of Flora,
the goddess of flowers and Spring. So in Paradise Lost, v. 16, Adam
addresses Eve
with voice
Milde, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes;
The rest of the song is a pure ebullition of Keats's fancy on the relations
of the signs of the Zodiac and tbe planets. Keats, apparently, was not
39
460 JOHN KEATS
himself certain as to whether it had a clear enough bearing either upon
the situation he was describing, or upon the character of the different
planets ; for he sent the passage to Reynolds asking him to vote for it
pro or con (Letter to Reynolds, 22nd November, 1817). Keats seems to
have been interested in the astronomical application of ancient mythology,
for he bought later a copy of Hyginus, Auctores MythografM Latini and
made some use of it for Hyperion. Here he was probably drawing on the
commentary to Sandys's Ovid, and has no other object than to present the
signs of the Zodiac that are propitious to man as triumphing over those
which were regarded as hostile. Thus Castor and Pollux (the Gemini)
who are under the direction of Apollo are represented as subduing Leo
and the Bear, both hostile, and the Centaur, another hostile planet, is
also put to flight
Aquarius, "the winter sign of the zodiac, was the name gfiven to Gany-
mede as a constellation. He was represented as a boy pouring wine out
of a goblet ; and because an abundance of raine is poured upon the earth
from the clouds when the Sunne is in that signe, he is said to be Jupiter's
Cup-bearer" (Sandys). Keats's lines are a development of this idea.
AndrtMeda, "bound to a rock for the pride of her mother Cassiope
who durst contend in beatity with the Nereides : for which a sea-monster
was sent by Neptune to infest the country " (Sandys, Met. iv. commen-
tary). Perseus, " Danae's son," slew the monster and freed Andromeda,
who was afterwards turned into a constellation.
€69. Followed in the MS. by two lines fortunately omitted in the
text: —
He stay behind — he glad of lazy plea ?
f Not he ! not he !
611. Daphne fled the love of Apollo, and was changed into a laurel.
Ovid tells the story in Met. i. Cf. Spenser, Faerie Queene, iii. 11. 36.
632. to : too 1818.
661. cloudy phantasms, etc. : — A reminiscence of Comus, 204 : —
'' a thousand fantasies
Begin to throng into my memory
Of calling shapes, and beckning shadows dire.
And airy tonguies, that syllable men's names
On Sands, and Shears, and desert Wildernesses,
[tself, perhaps, indebted to the Faithful Shepherdess, i. 1. 112 : —
Voices calling me in dead of night
To make me follow.
Mr. Forman refers "for the explanation of this speech" to bk. ii.,
199-214, where Endymion hears a voice from the deep cavern saying : —
He ne'er is crown'd
With immortality, who fears to follow
Where airy voices lead : so through the hollow,
"Hie silent m^^steries of earth, descend.
ENDYMION, BK. IV.— NOTES 461
693. tarn : — ^The use of this word is another (vide 394) suggestion of
the influence of Wordsworth at this period. Tarn to the modem reader
is quite a familiar word, hut it was at this time confined to the Lake
district, so that Wordsworth in his 1807 poems thought it necessary to
explain its meaning in a footnote, " a small Mere or Lake mostly high up
in the mountains ".- Keats shows how he has heen impressed by the superb
picture of Helvellyn in Fidelity : —
There sometimes does a leaping fish
Send through the tarn a lonely cheer ;
by allowing the word to pass, quite naturally, into his own vocabulary.
701. I'll kneel to Vesta, for aflame of fire : — Cf. Ovid, Met. xiv. (Sandys)
" Chaste Vesta with thy ever burning fire ". She was the Roman goddess
of the hearth.
713. Delphos, or as it is more commonly called by Keats, Delphi, was
the shrine from which the priestess of Apollo gave forth her prophecies.
Cf. i. 499 and the allusion in ii. 80-82. Milton, however, only used the
form Delphos, cf. the Ode on the Nativity (178) with which Keats was familiar
(cf. note to iv. 185), " steep of Delphos," and Paradise Regained, i. 458.
739. The rhymelessness of this line is unaccounted for. Mr. Forman's
reading " kisses gave," is, he tells us, a pencil insertion in the margin of
the MS.
766. Ask me no more! — ^An anticipation of a famous phrase usually
associated with Tennyson. Keats repeats it in a rejected reading of the
Cap and Bells, lix. 4.
764. lovelorn, silent, wan : — A cadence which Keats caught from Chatter-
ton, and uses in one or two places. Cf. Eve of St. Agnes, ii., "meagre,
barefoot, wan," and Hyperion, i. 18, note.
774. The subject of Hyperion is already in the poet's mind. For other
passages which suggest this cf. the treatment of Oceanus (iii. 994-98) and
the reference to " Titan's foe " (iv. 943), to " Saturnus' forelock," and " his
head shook with eternal palsy " (iv. 956), oaths which could hardly have
occurred to Keats in this place if he had not already thought on the
subject of his next classical poem.
818, 819. There is in these lines a curious though vague suggestion of
Wordsworth. The first of them recalls the contrast in the Ode on Intima-
tions, etc., between the gladness of thoughtless childhood and the sobered
happiness of experience, and the expression " common day " recalls the
lines in the Prospectus to the Excursion where we are told of Paradise and
the Elysian groves that :—
the discerning intellect of Man,
When wedded to this goodly universe
In love and holy passion, shall find these
The simple produce of the common day.
Both these poems Keats had been studying deeply in September ; and in
Endymion, where he is attempting to present his own conception of the
progress of the soul, Wordsworth's solution of the problem must often
462 JOHN KEATS
have been in his mind. And this passage of Keats grovs in. sig^i^cj^ce
if it is considered, in this relation.
878], 879. no little bwd. Tender soever, but is Jove's own tare .--aOne of
the few passages in which (and heve rather unfortunately) Keats is perhaps
indebted to the Bible. Cf. St. Matthem, x. 29. But it is more probable
that Keats is thinking of Hamlet,, v. 1. 231, " we defy augury : there^'^
a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to
come : if it be not to come it will be now."
935. nor much it grieves To die, when swmmer dies on the cold, sward,
Cf. Ode to the Nightingale, 6 and note.
953. Rhadamanthus, one of the " three sons al Jupiter ; who for their
justice were fained to judge the soules in another world " (S»ndys, on
Ovid, Met. ix.).
970. Wan as primroses, gathered at midnight By chilly fingei^d s^irtg :—
A fine esamiple of the manner in which Keats's imagination found il?
material in a loving observation of Nature. Cf. Ode to Maia, aoid note.
The phrase " chilly-fingered spring " was probably suggested bjr Collins's
How sleep the brave,. 3, *' When Spring with dewy fingers cold "■
1003. Cf. I stood tip-toe, 141, 142. " On the smooth wind to realms
of wonderment ".
LAMIA, ISABELLA, THE EVE OF ST. AGNES AND OTHER
POEMS
Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes and Other Poems, as the volume
of 1820 was styled, contains, with the exception of a few sonnets and
short lyrics, all the best worl^ of the eighteen months which extended
from April, 1818, to September,^ 1819. Beginning, chronologically with
Isabella and ending with the Ode to Autumn it is surely the richest volume
ever produced in so short a time, and by a poet not yet twenty-five years
of age; and it is upon this book that the claim of Keats "to be among
the English poets," ultimately rests. Towards the end of 1819 Keats
began to prepare it for the press, for in December he wrote to his sister :
" I have been very busy since I saw you, and shall be for some time, in
preparing some Poems to come out in the Spring ". The publication was
somewhat delayed, for in June we find him still occupied with the fingj
revision, and writing to Brown : " My book is coming out with very Ipw
hopes, thpugh not spirits, on my part. This shall be my last trial ; not
succeeding I shall try what I can do in the apothecsty line." The volume
actually appeared about 10th July, and in the ne^ month he wrote to
Brown : " My book has had good success among the literary people and
I believe has a moderate sale." A little later he writes again: "Tbe
sale of my book is very slow though it has been very highly rated. One
of the causes I understand from different quarters, of the unpopularity of
this new book, and the others ^Iso, is the offence the ladies take at me.
On thinking th? matter over, I am certain that I have said nothing in a
spirit to displease any woman I would care to please ; but still there iga
LAMIA— NOTES 468
tendency to class women in my books with roses and sweetmeats, — ^they
never see themselves dominant."
Leigh Hunt wrote an excellent criticism of the volume in the Indicator
of 2nd and 9th August, and Jeffrey noticed it in the Edinburgh Review of
the same month, though he devoted most of his space to a consideration
of Bndymion, which he had not criticised before. But the most interest-
ing criticism, perhaps, was that of Lamb in the New Times for 19th July
(vide note on Isabella, xlvi.).
On the Adveytisement, vide Introduction to Hyperion, p. 487.
LAMIA
Lamia was plauned and a small part of it written before Keats left
Hampstead for Shanklin, at the end of June, 1819, for the language in
which he tells Reynolds on 12th July that he has " proceeded pretty well
with Lamia, finishing the first part which consists of about 400 lines"
proves that his correspondent knew something of the poem already.
Then he leit the poem for more than a month ; for writing to Bailey on
Ifith August he records no more progiress. Lamia is still " half finished ".
However he had concluded ^is work upon it by 5th September, when be
sent a specimen (ii. 122-46) to his publisher, Taylor. Keats himself
regarded Lamia as the most successful of his compositions: "I am
certain," he writes to his brother (18th Sept., 1819,) "there is the sort
of fire in it which must take hold of people in some way. Give them
either pleasant or unpleasant sensation — what they want is a sensation of
some sort." For a criticism of the poem vide Introduction, p. xli. It is
indeed an admirable example of impassioned narrative only vitiated in
certain places by lapses into the bad taste of his earlier poems, by a re-
currence of faulty rhymes (c/. i. 17, 18 ; 36, 36 ; 67, 68 ; 233, 234 ; 277,
278, etc.), and some unfortunate coining of words. Lamia was founded
upon a story told in Burton's Anatomy oj MelanohoUe, quoted by Keats at
the close of the poem (^q.v.). For its classical embellishments he drew as
usual upon Sandys and Spenser. The vocabulary shows signs of his
intimacy with Spenser, Milton and the Elizabethans, with a slight
tendency to the laxities of Bndymion and the 1817 volume.
The versification is closely modelled upon the Fables of Dryden, from
which Keats learnt how to relate his metre with his sentence structure
and to use both the triplet and the Alexandrine with striking success.
The influence of Dryden upon the verse as a rule acts merely as a restraint
upon his earlier vices of style, but occasionally, as in the following lines,
Keats directly reproduces the epigrammatic and antithetical style of his
model : —
So threw the goddess off, and won his heart
More pleasantly by playing woman's part,
With no more awe than what her beauty gave.
That, while it smote, still guaranteed to save.
464 JOHN KEATS
As would naturally be expected, considering Keats's recent study of
Milton, there are several traces throughout the poem of Miltonic style
and reminiscence.
The variant readings supplied, by permission of Mr. Forman, from the
corrected printer's MS., and from two leaves of the draft of book ii. in
the possession of Lord Houghton, are of particular interest as showing
Keats's power of criticising his own worst faults of style and taste. It
is noticeable also that some of them are made in order to secure a correct
quantity to a classical proper noun (fi,g. U. 78, 115, 174, 225). It is
probable that Woodhouse was the authority to whom Keats referred such
matters, for at the beginning of the proof sheets of Lamia, corrected by
Woodhouse, is a list of all the classical names in the poem with their
quantities carefully marked.
1-6. ' before the faery broods Drove Nymph and Satyr, etc. : — Mr. Buxton
Forman has called attention to the striking parallel between this passage
and Sandys, Ovid, Met. i. 192-95: —
Our Demigods, Nymphsj Sylvans, Satyrs, Faunes
Who haunt clear Springs, high Mountains, Woods and Lawnes,
(On whom since yet we please not to bestow
Celestial dwellings) must subsist below.
He adds that in bk. iv. "we find Latona daughter of Coeus the Titan
called Titania, a name suggestive of fairy-land to any English imagination,
and sufficient to account for the presence of ' King Oberon ' in line 3 ".
But it is not necessary to go to bk. ii. for Titania, for the name occurs in
this very book, in which we also find the story of Jupiter's employment of
Hermes to slay Argus, which may have suggested lines 10, 11, where
Hermes is represented as desirous "to escape the sight of his great
summoner". As a matter of fact, however, the association of the faines
of English folklore with characters of classical mythology was common in
Elizabethan literature. An interesting illustration of this is to be found
in Spenser (Faerie Queene, ii. 10. 70, 71), who tells how Prometheus :—
did create
A man, of many parts from beasts deryv'd
And then stole fire from Heaven to animate
His worke . . .
The man so made he called Elfe, to wit
Quick, the first author of all Elfin k}md.
Who, wandering through the world with wearie feet
Did in the gardins of Adonis find
A goodly creature, whom he deemed in mynd
To be no earthly wight, but either Spright,
Or Angell, th' Authour of all womankynd ;
Therefore a Fay he her according hight.
Of whom all Faeryes spring, and fetch their lignage right.
This stanza and the following suggested some of the names used by Keats
in the Ca^ and Bells (iv. notes), written by him only a few months later.
LAMIA— NOTES 456
There is an interesting passage, which also illustrates this point, in
Burton's Anatomy of Melancholic (pt. i. sect. ii. mem. i. subs, ii.) " Terrestrial
devils are these Lares, Genii, Fauns, Satyrs, Wpodnymphs, Foliots, Fairies,
Robin Goodfellows, Trolli, etc., which as they are most conversant with
men, so they do them most harm. Some think it was they alone that
kept the heathen people in awe of old, and had so many idols and temples
erected to them. Of this range were Dagou among the Philistines, . . .
Isis and Osiris amongst the Egyptians, etc. Some put our Fairies into
this rank which have been in former times adored with much super-
stition. . . . These are they that dance on heaths and greens."
68. Ariadn^s tiar : — The constellation of seven stars into which
Ariadne was translated after her marriage with Bacchus. Keats is
thinking of the Titian which inspired him in the Ode to Sorrow {End. iv.
196, q.v.), wherein the circlet of stars is placed above Ariadne's head as a
symbol of her coming transfiguration. Cf. also Spenser, Faerie Queene,
vi. 10. 13:—
Looke how the crowne which Ariadne wore
Upon her yvory forehead, that same day
That Theseus her unto his bridal bore.
Being now placed in the firmament.
Through the bright heaven does her beames display.
And is unto the starres an ornament.
Which round about her move in order excellent.
63. As Proserpine still weeps for her Sicilian air : — The story of Proser-
pine who was beloved by Pluto and carried o£F to Hell, but upon her
mother's entreaty was allowed to return to earth for half the year, was
especially dear to Keats. Milton's well-known allusion to
that faire field
Of Enna, where Proserpin gath'ring flours
Her self a fairer Floure by gloomie Dis
Was gatherd, which cost Ceres all that pain
To seek her through the world (Paradise Lost, iv. 268-72)
was singled out by him on his notes on Paradise Lost as one of ''two
specimens of a very extraordinary beauty in the Paradise Lost ; they are
of a nature as far as I have read unexampled elsewhere ". And so in a
letter to Bailey (18th July, 1818), he writes : "When I see you the first
tiling I shall do wiU be to read you that about Ceres and Proserpine".
The cadence of Milton's lines he imitated in Hyperion, ii. 64 : to the story
he alludes in the Fall of Hyperion, i. 37, 38 :—
Proserpine return'd to her own fields.
Where the white heifers low.
Cf. also Bndymion, i. 944.
The story is told at length in Ovid, Met. v., and Keats would also know
it in Spenser, and in the allusion in The Winter's Tale (iv. 4. 116).
456 JOHN KEATS
76. HMf to Ms thfobbing throats hngi long melodious mom-.—Cf,
Hyperion, iii. 80. Apollo then
Thug answered, while his white mdodious throat
Throbb'd with the syllables.
78. bright Phtebean dart : mission'd pfaisbean dart MS. (quoted HltF)^
amended by Keats to avoid fhe false quantity.
81. stay 0/ Lethe : — Hermes is so called because it was his duty to lead
the souls <of the dead to Hades (c/. Odyss^, xziv. intt. }. The phrase " star
of" is an Elizabethanistti (cf. Beaumont and Fletcher "star of Rome").
We are not surprised to find that the expression appealed irresistibly to
the lonly contemporary of Keats who eould be said to equal him in his
passion for Blizabethan literature, Charles Lamb, reviewing Lamia in
the New Times, 19th July, 1820^ calls this "one of those prodigal phrases
which Mr. Keats abounds in, which are each a poem in a word, and
which in this instance lays open to us at <once, like a picture, all the dim
regions and their inhabitants, and the sudden coming of a celestial among
them".
Lines 81, 82, with their inversion not delay' d and the phrase rosy eloquence
suggest a recent study of Milton. So too line 92 the phrase brilliance
feminine and cf. ii. 26, note.
115. lifted her Circean head : lifted up her circean head MS. (quoted
HBF) amended for the same reason as line 78.
133. Caducean : — Cf. Endynwm, i. 662, note.
139. self-folding like a flower That faints into itself at evening hour :—
Nowhere perhaps in Paradise Lost does Milton show more delicacy in
observation of nature, nor more insight into the simple charm of his
heroine, than in that line in which Eve tells the time of day by its effect
upon the garden which she tended with such loving care : —
Just then returned, at shut cf Evening Flours. — (Paradise Lost, ix. 278.)
Keats, at least, was peculiarly impressed by it, for he reproduces part of
Milton's phrase in two places {Hyperion,yU. 36, and Sonnet xxix. p. 287).
Here he develops the picture wit^ an added touch peculiarly characteristic
of himself. So line 220, " Now on the motii-time of that evening dim " is
a develppment of the same poetic method noticeable in the original line
of MUton. Cf. also Lmnia, ii. 107, " at shut of day ".
144. green-recessed woods : — Cf. Hyperion, iii. 41 where the isolation
of Apollo's isle is described :—
Throughout all the isle
There was no covert^ no retired cave
Unhaunted Iby the murmurous noise of waves,
Though scarcely heard in many a green recess.
149. grass, therewith besprent, Withe^d at dew : — Cf, Conms, 462, " Knot
grass dew besprent ".
168. brede : — vide Appendix C, p. 683.
173, 174*76. She fled into that valUy thy pass o'er, etc. :— Here again
LAMIA— NOTES 467
the MS. (ijuoted HBF) shows false quantities and was emended. Origin-
ally these lines ran : —
She fled into that valley they must pass
Who go from Corinth out to Cencreas,
The rugged paps of little Perea's rills.
212. Mulciber : — The name for Vulcan used by Milton, Paradise Lost,
i. 740. So also Spenser, Faerk Queme, iii. 11. 26.
226. port Cmchreas, harbour Cenohreas, MS.
244. syllabling: — The use of syllable as a verb again recalls Comus
(208), " and airy tongues, that syllable mens names ''. The voice which
"syllables" the name of Lycius is, like the voices in Comus, itself un-
earthly, and fraught with dire consequences to him that hears it.
248. Orpheus : — Perhaps the Miltonic touch in the preceding passage
leads Keats unconsciously to this story to which Milton alludes both in
V Allegro and II Penseroso.
261. his eyes had drunk her beauty up : — Cf. Burton's Anatomy of
MeUmcholie (pt. iii. sect. ii. mem. iii. subs. i.). " So will she by him — drink to
him with her eyes, nay drink Mm up, devour him, swallow him," cf. also Ode
to Fanny, iii., " WTio now, with greedy looks, eats up my feast ? " and notes.
260. so I shall die: — Followed in MS. by a line omitted in printed
text: —
Thou to Elysium gone, here for the vultures I.
333. Pyrrha's pebbles : — The story how, after the flood which de-
stroyed mankind, Deucalion and Pyrrha peopled the world by casting
stones behind them which became men, is told at length in Ovid, Met. i.
The juxtaposition of Adam and Pyrrha savours of the commentary of
Sandys, who always parallels, where it is possible to do so, the stories of
the Bible and of Classical Mythology. It is noticeable, also, that Milton
thus represents Adam and Eve repentant :—
. . . thir port
Not of mean suiters, nor important less
Seem'd thir Petition, then when th' ancient Pair
In Fables old, less ancient yet then these,
Deucalion and chaste Pyrrha to restore
The Race of Mankind drownd, before the Shrine
Of Themis stood devout — Paradise Lost, xi. 8-14.
Cf. also Spenser, Faerie Queme, bk. v., Introduction, 2.
377. dreams": dreams 1820.
LAMIA II
26. slope : — A Miltonic reminiscence. Cf. Hyperion, i.. 204.
39. That but a moment's thought is passion's passing bell : — Cf. Hyperion,
i. 173, note.
46. After this line stood in MS. an additional couplet (quoted HBF) : —
Too fond was I believing, fancy fed
In high deliriums, and blossoms never shed !
458 JOHN KEATS
47. My silver planet : — Lycius perhaps recurs to his former conjecture
{cf. i. 267) that the Lamia is one of the Pleiades.
81. She burnt, she lov'd the tyranny : — The MS. reading of the passage
which follows, besides showing some alterations of detail, contains the
following additional lines : —
Became herself a flame — 'twas worth an age
Of minor joys to revel in such rage.
She was persuaded, and she fixt the hour
When he should make a Bride of his fair Paramour.
After the hot[t]est day comes languidest
The colour'd Eve, half-hidden in the west ;
So they both look'd, so spake, if breathed sound,
That almost sileace is, hath ever found
Compare with nature's quiet. Which lov'd most.
Which had the weakest, strongest, heart so lost.
So ruin'd, wreck'd, destroy'd : for certes they
Scarcely could tell . . . they could not guess
Whether 'twas misery or happiness.
Spells are but made to break.
This was rightly replaced by Keats by the reading in the text; but
the first two lines are interesting in the parallel they afford to the idea in
the Ode on Melancholy : —
Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,
Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave ;
whilst the exquisite lines that follow — " After the hottest day . . . quiet,"
eminently characteristic of Keats, we can iU afford to lose. " So ruin'd,
wreck'd, destroy'd," in its collocation of adjectives, repeats a favourite
mannerism of Keats — cf. Hyperion, i. 18, note ; Eve of St. Agnes, ii. 3.
89 Fit appellation for this dazzling frame : — ^An additional variation of
this line "Of fit sound for this soft ethereal frame," again suggests
Milton.
141, 142. The Houghton fragment gives the following four lines
between 141 and 142 : —
And so till she was sated — then came down
Soft lighftjing on her head a brilliant crown
Wreathed turban-wise of tender wannish fire
And sprinkled o'er with stars like Ariadne's tiar.
These were probably omitted because the comparison to Ariadne's tiar
had already been employed in i. 678.
187. Ceres' horn .-—Cf. Fall of Hyperion, i. 35 :—
Still was more plenty than the fabled horn
Thrice emptied could pour forth at banqueting,
237. Unweave a rainbow : — Mr. Forman quotes Haydon's Autobiography
which tells how " Keats and Lamb, at one of their meetings at Haydon's
house, agreed that Newton had destroyed all the beauty of the rainbow.
LAMIA— NOTES 459
by reducing it to the prismatic colours". Many critics, irooi Leigh
Hunt onwards, have blamed Keats for the introduction of this passage,
and treated it as though it expressed his own settled point of view. But his
general attitude to science can hardly be inferred from this one place ;
nor is it fair to compare it, as it has been compared, with the position
taken up with regard to science in Wordsworth's Prefaces. The lines
have here an obvious dramatic value, and Keats's final word with regard
to science is no more summed up in them than Wordsworth's is summed
up in the Poet's Epitaph, when the man of science is described as
a prying fingering slave
One that would peep and botanise
Upon his mother's grave.
Both the Poet's Epitaph and these lines of Keats present a point of view,
and figure truly the influence which science exercises upon a certain
narrow type of mind. If Keats had been writing a defence of poetry, he
would not have admitted for a moment that science had power to affect
the things of the imagination ; he would have been the first to insist, to
borrow the words of Leigh Hunt, that " there will be a poetry of the im-
agination as long as the first causes of things remain a mystery ".
,, Keats's lines have often been compared with Campbell's poem The
Rainbow, where a similar idea is expressed : —
Triumphal arch that fills the sky
When storms prepare to part
I ask not proud Philosophy
To teach me what thou art
When science from Creation's face
Enchantment's veil withdraws
What lovely visions yield their place
To cold material laws !
It should be remembered that The Rainbow was only written in 1819, and
made its first appearance in the New Monthly of December, 1820.
293. as heart-struck and lost, He sank supine beside the aching ghost.
The MS. (quoted HBF) reads :—
From Lycius answer'd, as he sunk supine
Upon the couch where Lamia's beauties pine,
and gives the speech of Apollonius (296 et seq.) thus : —
from every ill
That youth might suffer have I shielded thee
Up to this very hour, and shall I see
Thee married to a Serpent? Pray you Mark,
Corinthians ! A Serpent, plain and stark !
29a pr»y?" prey? 1820.
460 JOHN E£ATS
ISABELLA OR THE POT OF BASIL
"ThiB adaptation of Boccaccio," says Lord Houghton, " was intended
to form part of a collection of Tales from th6 great Italian novelist,
versifibd by Mr. Reynolds himself. Two hy Mr. Reynolds appeared in
the Garden of Florenci (publ. 1821). Isabella was the only one Keats
completed." He began the ■po^ta in February, 1818, and writes to
Reynolds on 27th April that it is finished. The poem is founded on the
Decameron, Day iv. Novel 5, the heading of which runs: "The three
brethren of Isabella slew a gentletnan that secretly loved her. His
ghost appeared to heir %n her sleep, and ^owed her in what place they
had buried his body. She, in silent manner, brought away his head, and
putting it in a pot of earth, such as flowers, ba^il and other sweet hei^
are usually set in, she watered it a long while with her tears. Whereof
her brothers haVing intelligence, soon after she died with mere conceit
of sorrow." Keate follows his sdurc^ very closely, but he alters the
scene of tbe tragedy from Messina to Florence, and the number of
Isabella's brothers from three to two. He adds, also, as the motive of
the murder, their desire to Xved their sister to a rich noble, and develops,
in some places with inartistib insistence, their intense greed for gold.
In his treatment of the two main characters and their passion, and in the
spirit in which he tells the Story he is, of course, completely independent
of Boccaccio {qf. Introd., p. liv). Re}moIds was ddighted with the poem,
and felt it to be unsuited to publication with his hulnbler stories. " You
ought to be alone," he writes, and again : " I am confident that the Pot
of Basil hath that simplicity and quiet pathos which are of sure sovereignty
over all hearts " {Letter from Reynolds <quoted by HBF).
It was probably the Italian source of the story which suggested to Keats
the employment for this poem of the oUava rimu, the favourite metre of
the Italian narrative poets. This measure had been used by Chaucer and
the Elizabethans, and had been recenliy reintroduced into Gnglish poetry
by Hookham Frere {The Monks and the Gicmts) and by Byron {Btppo and
Don Juan) for the mock heroic. Keats employs it with striking success,
and for the first time shows complete mastery over ihis verse, avaiding
the danger, common to the use of this stanza in narrative poetry, of giving
it too epigrammatic a finish ; and never, except perhaps at the close of
xlviii., allowing the search for a rhyme to lead him into bathos, but sustun-
ing throughout a delicate and subtly modulated rhythm well suited to the
emotion of the story. In command of language, too, he shows a distinct
advance/ Once or twice, perhaps, does he ftiU below the high poetic standard
which his conception deqii^dW, in the ludicrous ending of xvi., and in the
common-place and ofP-hand adieu of Lorenso, "Good-'bye ! I'll soon be hack,"
of xxvi. His vocabulary, too, is singularly free ftlike from the natural finilts
of his earlier work and the direct influence of the work of his predecessors.
For the first time the -y adjectives are kept under due control and the
ISABELLA^NOTES 461
only lioenea he aUows lumself is in the use of douhb as verbgy ungmished
(vii.) (used again in Hyp.) and feair (found however in Shakespeare), and
verba as nouns, assail (xz.) wid pigree (nxxiv.) neither of them supported
by good autiiority. The word leafils (liv.) has been regarded as Keats's
invention and the N£D'. gives no precedent for its use in Engtish poetry.
But Coleiridge had employed it in The NightingaU {Lyrical Ballads, 1798),
though in later editions of the. poem he substituted the, commoner word
The variant readings ar& supplied from the MS. of the poem, in Keats's
handwriting, now in the British Museum. The poet's alterations from them
afford several fine exwnples of his rapidly dieveloping taste and feeling
in all matters c^aniceted with his avt. Woodhouse evidently follows BM.
but his copy is correoted in several placeato the vearsiw} of the text.
I. 6. each to be the other by : each to be each other by BM.
VII. 7, 9f "Lorenzo!" — here she ceas'd,.ote, BM reads: —
" Lorenzo,, I would clip my rini^et hair
To make the«, laugh again and dehonnair."
"Then should I he," said he,, "fyU, deified ;
And yet I would not hayfl it, dip, it, not :
For, lady, I do love it whei^ 'tis tied
About the neck I dote, on, and that; spot
That anxious dimple it doth tal^e a pxide
To play about-^Aye lady, I have got
Its shadow in my heart wd ev'ry sweet
Its mistress owns there summed all complete
and on the opposite page records the following vejeeked passage : —
Lorenzo in the twilight Mom was wont
To rouse the clamoroug- Kennel toithe Hunt ;
And then, his cheek iaherited th« Ray
Of the outpouring Sun ; and ere the Horn
Could call the Hunters to the Chace away
His voice more softly woke me : Many a Morn
From sweetest Dreams it drew me to a Day
More sweet ; but now Lorenzo holds in scorn
" His Health ; and all those bygone Joys are Dreams
To me — ^to him, I mean — so chsng'il he seems.
XII. Theseus' spouse : — A reference to the story of Ariadne, known to
Keats in Ovid, Met. viii. (to which he is here alluding) and impressed on
his imagination by the famous picture of Titian. C/. notes to Endymion,
iv. 196, and Lamia, i. 68.
XTV. proudrqfdver'd : — .Ms. Forman thinks it necessary to delete the
hyphen, undejrstandiing thn passage as ntaeaniBg " many loins once proud.
462 JOHN KEATS
now quivered," but in spite of MS. authority this change from the first
edition does not seem desirable. The compound adjective is quite in
Keats's manner at this period, and the significance of the whole phrase
" once proudly equipped with quivers," i.e. who once delighted in hunt-
ing, quite intelligible. The soft-conchid of the Ode to Psyche is a similar
adleetive-compound — ^the soft being half independent of the conched and
applying directly to the noun ear which follows.
XV. Mr. Forman points out the debt of this stanza to Dryden's Annus
Mirabilis : —
For them alone the Heav'ns had kindly heat.
In Eastern Quarries ripening precious Dew ;
For them the Idumaean Balm did sweat.
And in hot Ceilon spicy Forrests grew.
XVII. 6. The hawks of ship-mast forests: — i.e. " ready to pounce on the
trading vessels as they came in" (Palgrave, Golden Treasury Keats).
After xvii. BM gives the following additional stanza : —
Two young Orlandos far away they seem'd.
But on a near inspect their vapid Miens —
Very alike, — at once themselves redeem'd
From all suspicion of Romantic spleens —
No fault of theirs, for their good Mother dream'd
In the longing time of Units in their teens
Of proudly bas'd addition and of net —
And both their backs were mark'd with tare and tret.
XIX. 1, 7, 8; O eloquent and famed Boccaccio ! etc. BM reads in place
of these lines : —
O eloquent Boccace of green Arno !
For venturing one word unseemly mean.
In such a place, on such a daring theme.
XXV. 7, 8. features bright Smile through an in-door lattice. BM reads :—
" her smiling through A little indoor Lattice ".
XXXIII. Hitmofn's valer. — It was in Hinnom's vale that Ahaz "burut
his children in the fire after the abominations of the heathen " (2 Chron-
icles, xxviii. 3). Thus the crime of the two brothers comes upon them
like the smoke which betokened to Ahaz that he had murdered his
children.
XXXVIII. 7, 8. Go shed one tear, etc. : —
Gro shed a tear upon my hether bloom
And I shall turn a diamond in my tomb. — BM.
Woodhouse follows the same reading, but changing I to it and my to the.
ISABELLA— NOTES 468
XL. 3. the taste of earthly bliss : the heaven of a kiss BM.
XLI. Mr. F. S. Storr has communicated to me the following interesting
note upon this stanza. " Browning was discussing the relations of Tenny-
son to Keats and quoted these lines as an instance of Keats's supreme
mastery of language^ adding "They have to me an additional pathos
because they record a personal experience. It is what Keats, poor fellow,
must himself have seen many a night in the early stages of consumption ! ' "
"I cannot vouch," adds Mr. Storr, "for the exact words, as I made no
note of them at the time, but I can still hear Brovming's delivery of 'and
see the spangly gloom froth up and boil '."
XLVI., XLVII. Mr. Colvin has justly called attention to these stanzas
as containing some of Keats's finest work. "The swift despairing gaze
of the girl, anticipating with too dire a certainty the realisation of her
dream : the simile in the third and fourth lines, emphasising the clear-
ness of that certainty, and at the same time relieving its terror by an
image of beauty : the new simile of the lily, again striking the note of
beauty, while it intensifies the impression of her rooted fixity of posture
and purpose : the sudden solution of that fixity, with the final couplet,
into vehement action, as she begins to dig 'more fervently than misers
can ' ; then the first reward of her toil, in the shape of a relic not ghastly,
but beautiful both in itself and for.the tenderness of which it is a token :
her womanly action in kissing it and patting it in her bosom, while all
the woman and mother in her is in the same words revealed to us as
blighted by the tragedy of her life : then the resumption and continuance
of her labours, with gestures once more of vital dramatic truth as well as
grace : to imagine and write like this is the privilege of the best poets
only, and even the best have not often combined such concentrated force
and beauty of conception with such a limpid and a flowing ease of nar-
rative" (EML, p. 153). It must be a satisfaction to Mr. Colvin to find that
in bis selection of this passage for especial praise he has been anticipated
by the finest critic of Keats's own time. In the New Times for 19th July,
1820, appeared a review of the Lamia volume only recently unearthed by
Mr. E. V. Lucas and attributed by him to Lamb, on evidence which seems
to me indisputable. Lamb tells the story of Isabella and speaks of it
as "the finest thing in the volume". On reaching this point of the
narrative he breaks out : " Her arrival at the place digging for the body,
is described in the following stanzas, than which there is nothing more
awfully simple in diction, more nakedly grand and moving in senti-
ment, in Dante, in Chaucer, in Spenser" (here follow stanzas xlvi.-Iiii.).
He concludes his criticism with a comparison of Lamia and Isabella.
Lamia is "for younger impressibilities. To us an ounce of feeling is
worth a pound of fancy ; and therefore we recur again, with a warmer
gratitude, to the story of Isabella and the pot of basil, and those never
464 JOHN KEATS
cloying stamas which we have cited, and which we think sliouid disarm
criticism, if it be not in its nature cruel ; if it would not deny to honey
its sweetness, nor to roses redness, nor light to the stars in heaven ; if it
would not bay the moon out of the skies, rather than acknowledge she
is faijc" (Works of Chofles and Mary Lambf ed. by E. V. Lucas, 1903,. vcd.
i. 200, 470).
XLVIir. 6. Three hours they lahom'cL Three hours were they BM.
L. 1. With duller steel, etc. BM reads :—
With duller sliver than the Pbrsean sword
They cut away no foul Medusa's head
But one's . . .
And in line 6 : —
If ever any piece of Love was dead. . . .
Woodhouse corrects this to
With fond caress, as if it were not dtod,
and records, with pencil on the opposite page, another reading : —
The ghastly Features of her lover dead.
Persian : — i.e. of Perseus, ths slayer of the Medusa.
LI. fringed : single BM.
LXI. your " WelUa-way ! " : yon well away BM.
THE EVE OF ST. AGNES
Keats began the Eve of St. Agnes at Chichester towards the end of
January,. 1819,^ and iiidshed it on his return to Hampstead in February.
Writing to his brother in America on 24th February, he says of his visit
tq Sussex, " I took down some thin paper and have wrote on it a little
pawi called St.. Agnes' Eve, which you shall have as it is when I have
finished the blank part of the rest for you ". Its composition therefore
followed immediately upon the laying aside of Hyperion. On 5th Sep-
tembec he writes to John Taylor, from Winchester, to say that he is
engaged in revising it„ and upon the text of no other poem does he seem
to have expended so much paina The rough draft still extant in. the
LookerrLampson collection and the Woodhouse transcript of it exhibit
a large number of variant readings, whilst the transcript of the poem by
George Keats, now in the British Museum, seems to have been made
from a different MS. altogether. For a complete account of the readings
in the Locker-Lampson MS. reference must be made to Mr. Buxton Forman's
edition. The most interesting variants are recorded below.
> Not improbably! on the ISve of St. Agnes itself, i.e. aoth January; for we know
that Keats was back in, Hampstead early in Febnaiy, tlut he spent about, a fortni^
at Bedhampton, whence he writes a letter on a4tb January, and that be was for a few
days, onl^ just befbre this, at Chichester.
EVE OF ST, AGNES^NOTES 465
Leigh Hunt, in an article in the London Journal for 21st January,
1836 (quoted by HBF) explains the legend on which the poem is based
by a reference to Brand's Popular Antiquities where Ben Jonson is
quoted : —
And on sweet St. Agnes' ' night,
Please you with the promis'd sight —
Some of husbands,' some of lovers^ '
Which an empty dream discovers.
But the subject was more probably suggested to Keats by a, passage in
Burton's Anatomy of MelanchoUe (pt. iii. sect. ii. mem. iii. subs. L). "'Tis
their only desire if it may be done by Art, to see their husbands picture
in a glass, they'll 'give anything to know when they shall be married,
how many husbands they shall have> by Crommyomantia, a kind of divina-
tion with Onions laid on the Altar on Christmas Eve, or by fasting on
St. Agnes' Eve or Night, to know who shall be their first husband."
U. 3. meagre, barefoot, wan : — A favourite collocation of epithets pro-
ducing a cadence which had been suggested to Keats by Ohatterton. Cf.
Excellent Ballad of Charitie, " withered^ forwynd, deade/' etc. Keats had
already made use of it iaEndymion, iv. 79i, "loTelomy sitent, wan," and
in Hyperion, i. 18, " nerveless, listless, dead '■< He employed it again in
this poem (xxi. 7), " silken, hush' d, and chaste".
To think how they may eeche, etc. : — " The germ of this thought," says
Hunt, " or something like it, is in Dante, where he speaks of the figures
that perform the part of sustaining columns in architecture. Keats had
read Dante in Mr. Gary's translation, for which he had a great respect.
. . . Most wintry as well as penitential is the word 'aching' In Mcy
hoods and mails ' ; and most felicitous the introduction of the Catholic
idea in the word ' purgatorial '. The very colour of the rails is made to
assume a meaning, and to shadow forth the glOom of the punishment —
Imprisoned in bladk, purgatorial rails."
(^It would, indeed, be difficult to par^tUel in our poetry the dramatic
intensity with which Keats has conceived the background of his subject,
so that both here and in stanza iv., in which
The carved angels, ever eager-eyed,
Star'd, where upon their heads the cornice rests.
With hair blow^ back, and wings put cross-wise on their breasts, —
the very architecture seems to be taking a silent part in the action. Such
passages illustrate the manner in which the ari; of Keats at times approxi-
mates to the art of painting ; recalling, for example, the wonderful treat-
ment of background in Botticelli's picture of Cahmmy in the Uffizi Gallery
at Florence.""]
^Tbe quotation is from Ben Jonson's Masque Tlte Satyr (so-sz). Most editions
read Anna's for A^ne^, and this is probably what Jonson wrote — not from error, for
he was well versed in popular legmd, but out of compliment to Queen Anne, for whos^
entertainment the Masque was performed.
30
466 JOHN KEATS
Keats had been making a study of Caxy'sDcmte on his Scotch, tour in
the previous summer, the passage alluded to (quoted ' by HBF) being as
follows : —
As, to support incumbent floor or roof,
For corbel is a figure sometimes seen.
That crumples up its VivAea into its breast ;
With the feign'd posture, stirring ruth unfeign'd
In the beholder's fancy ; so I saw
These fashion'd, when I noted well their guise.
Each as his back was laden, came indeed
Or more or less contracted ; and it seem'd
As he, who show'd most patience in his look,
Wailing exclaim'd : " I can endure no more ".
III. Followed in Woodhome MS. by the additional stanza : —
But there are ears may hear sweet melodies,
And there are eyes to brighten festivals.
And there are feet for nimble minstrelsies.
And many a lip that for the red wine calls. —
Follow, then follow to the illumined halls.
Follow me youth — and leave the eremite —
Give him a tear — ^then trophied banneral
And many a brilliant tasseling of light
Shall droop from arched ways this high baronial night.
V. 1. At length burst in the argent revelry : At length step in the
urgent revelers, Woodhouse MS., gives 3-6: —
Ah what are they ? the idle pulse scarce stirs.
The muse should never make the spirit g^y ;
Away, bright dulne^s, laughing fools away — ,
And let me tell of one sweet lady there. . . .
VI. Between Yl. and VII. BM has the following additional stanza : —
' 'Twas said her future lord would there appear
Offering as sacrifice-^all in the dream —
Delicious food even to her lips brought near :
Viands and wine and fruit and sugar'd cream,
To touch her palate with the fine extreme
Of relish : then soft music heard ; and then
More pleasures followed in a dizzy stream
Palpable almost : then to wake again
Warm in the Virgin mom, no, weeping Magdalen.
VII. 3. She scarcely heard : Touch'd not her heart, Woodhouse MS.
'■■ 4. saw many a sweeping train Pass by : — An interesting letter to John
Taylor, dated 11th June, 1820, shows that this passage was misunderstood
EVE OF ST. AGNES^NOTES 467
by the printer. " In reading over the proof of St. Agnes' Eve since I left
Fleet Street, I was struclc with what appears to me an alteration in the
seventh stanza very much for the worse. The passage I mean stands
thus : —
her maiden eyes incline
Still on the floor, while many a sweeping train
Pass by.
'Twas originally written : —
her maiden eyes divine
Fix'd on the floor, saw many a sweeping train
Pass by.
'My meaning is quite destroyed by the alteration. I do not use train
for concourse of passers by, but for skirts sweeping along the floor."
high disdain. '^A Miltoaic phrase. Cf. Paradise Lost, i. 98: to be
found also, however, in Coleridge's Christabel, 416 {cf. note to xxiv.-xxvii.).
VIII. 1. regardless : uneager BM.
XI. 8. Mercy, Porphyro ! Mercy, Jesu ! BM.
XIII. 9. St. Agnes' wool is that shorn from two lambs which (allusive
to the Saint's name) were upon that day brought to Mass, and offered
whilst the Agnus was chanted. The wool was then spun, dressed and
woven by the hands of the nuns (Palgrave).
XIV. 3. hold water in a witch's sieve : — The power of rendering a sieve
impervious to water was regarded as one of the commonest signs of witch-
craft. Cf. Macbeth, i. 3. 8 :—
But in a sieve I'll thither sail.
5, 6. it fills me with amaze, etc. : about these thorny ways Attempting
Be'lzebub BM.
6. XV. 2, etc. Porphyro :. Lionel Woodhouse MS., and so throughout.
XV. brook Tears : — i.e. " to check or forbear them " (EML, p. 169), a
meaning which the word brook can never bear. Keats has coined several
words, and somewhat stretched the meaning of others, but I can re-
member no other example of an actual mistake in his use of a common
archaism.
XVI. 1, 2. like a full-blown rose : full-blown like a rose : flushing
heated BM. more rosy than the rose. Heated. Woodhouse MS.
B. Go, go! O Christ BM.
XVII. 1-3. / will not harm her, etc. : —
I will not harm her, by the great St. Paul ;
Swear'th Porphyro, — O may I ne'er find grace
When my weak voice shall unto heaven call. — BM.
468 JOHN KEATS
XVIII. 1. Aht why wilt thou affright : How canst thou terrify BM.
3. Whose passvng'beill : — Cf. Hyperion, i. 173 and note; Lamia, ii. 3S>
/ XIX. Never on such a night, etc. : — This passage is explained hy Mr.
FSrman by a reference to Dunlop's History of Fiction. "The demons,
alarmed at the number of victims which daily escaped their fangs since
the birth of our Saviour, held a council of war. It was there resolved that
one of their number should be sent to the world with instructions to en-
gender on some virgin a child who might act as their vicegerent on earth,
and thus counteract the great plan that had been laid for the salvation
of mankind." This " monstrous debt " was, as Mr. Forman rightly points
out, " his monstrous existence which he owed to a demon and repaid when
he died or disappeared through the working of one of his own spells by
Viviane ". At the same time I cannot agree with Mr. Forman in thinking
that Dunlop's, History of Fiction was the source upon which Keats drew, for
the simile was obviously suggested to his mind by the storm which he con-
ceives as bursting out upon the meeting of Pori^iyro and Madeline, as
before on the meeting of Merton and Viviane, and no mention of the storm
is made in Dunlop. But I have not yet been able to trace the reference! /
XXI. 8, 9. Woodhouse MS. reads :—
There hiB id' panting covert will remain
From Purgatory sweet to view what he may attain.
On the opposite page "all that" is suggested in place of " what ".
XXII. 4. mission'd spirit : Spirit to her BM.
9. like vtnig-deve fray'd and fled. A reminiscence, as Mr. Read has
suggested, of Spenser, Faerie Queene, v. 12. 6 :^-
he them chast away
And made to fly like doves, whom th' eagle doth affray.
5^5
^XIII. 2. its little srnoJie,i« pallid moonshine^ died: — A picture of delicate
but vivid imagination, recalling to the mind Sir Walter Scott's account
of how Wordsworth "told Anne (Scott) a story the object of which, as
she understood it, was to show that Crabbe had no imagination. Cntbbe,
Sir George Beaumont, and Wordsworth were sitting together in Murray's
room in Albemarle Street. Sir George, after se^ng a letter, blew out
the candle which had enabled him to do so, and exchanging a look with
Wordsworth, began to admire in silence the undulating thread of smoke
which slowly rose from the expiring wick, when Crabbe put on the
extinguisher. Anne laughed at the institnce, and inquired if the taper
was wax, and being answered in the negative, seemed to think that there
was no call on Mr. Crabbe to sacrifice his sense of smell to the admiration
of beautiful and evanescent forms. In two other men I should have said,
' Why, it is affectations,' with Sir Hugh Evans ; but Sir George is the
man in the world most void of affectations ; and then lie is an exquisite
EVE OF ST. AGNES-^NOTES 469
painter, and no doubt saw where the incident would have succeeded in
painting." Keats saw here, as often, with the eye of a painter. \
XXIV. -XXVII. " This sumptuous passage occupied the poet's care very
considerably. The following opening stands cancelled in the Locker-
Lampson MS. : —
A Casement tripple arch'd and diamonded
With many coloured glass fronted the Moon
In midst w[h]ereof a shi[e]lded scutcheon shed
High blushing gules ; she kneeled saintly down
And inly prayed fbr grace and heavenly boon ;
That blood red gules fell on her silver cross
And her white hands devout." — HBF.
And the rough draft of these stanzas shows many false starts to lines,
as well as many words and phrases which the poet did not allow to stand
mhis final verE^ion.
XXV. Shi knelt : prayed BM. so ... so : too . . . too Woodhouse
its., BM.
These stanzas (xxiv.-xxvii.) have been selected for especial praise by
many famous critics, among them Leigh Hunt, Hazlitt, and Lamb. Par-
ticularly interesting is Lamb's criticism. " Such is the description that
Mr. Keats has given us, with a delicacy worthy of Christabel, of a high-
born damsel, in one of the apartments of a baronial castle, laying herself
down devoutly to dream on the charmed Eve of St. Agnes, and like the
radiance, which comes from those old windows upon the limbs and
garments of the damsel, is the almost Chaucer-like painting, with which
this poet illumines every subject he touches. We have scarcely anything
like it in modern description. It brings us back to ancient days, and
Beauty making-beautiful old rhymes."
This parallel in the delineation of Madeline and that of Christabel,
each perfect in its own peculiar way, suggests also a striking contrast in
the characteristic methods of these two greatest masters of the medisval
romance, Keats obtaining his effects in a picture of rich and detailed
splendour, Coleridge by a reticence fully as eloquent: —
Her gentle limbs did she undress
And lay down in her loveliness.
In La Belle Dame sans Merci, Keats approaches more closely to the
manner of Coleridge.'
1 Keats in all probability took a few hints from Christabel in points of detail The
mastiff hitch was doubtless responsible for the wakeful bloodhound of stanza xli., and
Christabel's chamber carved so curiously : —
Carved with figures strange and sweet,
All made out of the carver's brain,
For a lady's chamber meet :
The lamp with twofold silver chain
Is fastened to an angel's feet —
may have given a suggestion foi^the " carved angels" of stanza iv, as well as for the
" chained drooped lamp " of xl.^S
J
470 JOHN KEATS
< Another interesting parallel is to be found in Browne, Brit. Past, i.
6. 80 et seq., which, says Mr. W. T. Arnold {Keats, xliii.), "1 do not
think that any one can read without being convinced that Keats had them
in mind when he wrote the lines on Madeline ". The passage runs : —
And as a lovely maiden, pure and chaste.
With naked ivory neck, a gown unlaced.
Within her chamber, when the day is fled.
Makes poor her garments to enrich her bed :
First, puts she off her lily-silken gown.
That shrinks for sorrow as she lays it down ;
Her breasts all bare, her kirtle slipping down.
Prepares for sweetest rest, y^
CXXIX. 7. clarinet : Woodhouse, MS., BM. Clarionet 1820.
9. The hall door shuts again, and all the noise is gone: — On reading to
Clarke the MS. of the Eve of St. Agnes Keats told him that this line
" came into my head when I remembered how I used to listen in bed to
your music at school ".
It seems likely that in his contrast between the " rude wassailers " in
the castle and the emotion of his hero Keats is indebted, though uncon-
sciously, to a similar contrast between Hamlet's refined nature and his
grosser uncle. Cf. especially Hamlet, i. 4. 8-12 : —
The King doth wake to-night and takes his rouse.
Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels ;
And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down.
The Kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
The triumph of his pledge.
This is borne out by stanza zxix. where the bloated wassailers (cf. the
phrase "bloat king" applied to Claudius, iii. 4. 182), are represented
as
Drown'd all in Rhenish and the sleepy mead.
The original reading in xxxix. 7, Drenching mead again suggests how
Keats's mind turned to Shakespeare for his presentation of this side of his
story. Cf. Macbeth, i. 7. 67 :—
When in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures He as in a death ;
whilst the porter, with uneasy sprawl
With a huge empty flaggon by his side
is no distant relation to the guardian of Macbeth's castle?^
Y^XXX. While he, etc: — The description of the banquet prepared for
Madeline, like that of the banquet in the Fall of Hyperion {i. 30, etc.)
owes much to the famous description in Milton of the meal prepared by
Eve for the Archangel ; —
EVE OF ST. AGNES— NOTES 471
fruit of all kindes, in coate.
Rough, or smooth rin'd, or bearded husk, or shell
She gathers, Tribute large, and on the board
Heaps with unsparing hand : for drink the Grape
She crushes, inoffensive moust, and meathes
From many a berrie, and from sweet kernels prest
She tempers dulcet creams {Paradise Lost, v. 341-347.)-
For the whole stanza Keats drew upon his Elizabethan reading.
Tinct is a word only found in Spenser {Shep. Cal., November) ; for the use
of soother he was in a measure indebted, as Mr. Forman has noticed, to
Milton's use of the superlative " the soothest shepherd " (Comus, 823),
though he gives it a different meaning— so/ter; the argosies are probably
suggested by Marlowe or Shakespeare ; whilst Saniarcand and Fez are
both perhaps drawn from Milton (Paradise Lost, xi. 389, 403). "J
XXXIII. La belle dame sans mercy : — Cf. note to Keats's poem of that
name.
XXXV. 9. For if thou diest, my Love, f know not where to go :krlt is
interesting to know that this beautiful line, so expressive of the pure
simplicity of l\{adeline's whole character, as Keats has conceived it, was
an afterthought^BM reads for lines 8, 9 : —
See while she speaks hi^ arms encroaching slow
Have zon'd her, heart to heart — loud, loud the dark winds blow.
XXXVI. 1-7. In place of the text BM reads here :—
For on the midnight came a tempest fell.
More sooth for that his close rejoinder flows
Into her burning ear ; — and still the spell
Unbroken guards her in serene repose.
With her wild dream he mingled as a rose
Marryeth its odour to a violet.
Still, still she dreams. — louder the frost wind blows.
The phrase solution sweet is Miltonic, both in its inversion of the adjective
and in its appositional relation with the rest of the sentence.
XXXVIII. 3. vermeil dyed : — Cf. Milton's vermeil-tinctured lip {Comus,
762).
XXXIX. 4. The bloated wassailUrs . . . Drown'd all in Rhenish : — Cf.
note to xxix.
8, 9. Awake! arise! etc. Woodhouse reads here: —
Put on warm clothing, sweet, and fearless be
Over the Dartmoor black I have a home for thee.
The alteration in the first of them is a fortunate escape from bathos ; the
reading in the latter is intensely interesting, as affording us a clue to the
472 V JOHN KEATS
scenery in which the' imagrination df ' Keats had localised his story. The
reading of the text Southern gives just that touch of warmth which
throughout the poeid is reserved for the lovers, whilst our knowledge that
Dartmoor was first written sugg'ests inevitably that the home which awaited
Madeline ''opened on the foam of perilous seas ".
f XL, 9. the long carpets rose along the gusty floor : — Critics from Hunt
OBWards have commented on the anachronism of the introduction of
carpets here. But the poem belongs by right to no definite period of the
world's history. Thus Mr. Forman's quotation from Rossetti's King's
Tragedy showing how the unchronbloigical ilaw could be avoided "And
the rushes shook on the floor" seems hardly to the point; for Rossetti
is writing a strictly historical ballad in which accuracy of local cdlour may
justly be demanded, whilst Keats's poem is ehtirely imaginative. It is
noticeable that though the carpets have been mentioned twiceJ)efore (in
stanzas xxviii. and xkxii.) no critic hag objected to them there. J
XLI. 3. the Porter : — Cf. note to xxix.
Xtill. 679. were hfig be^ightmar'd, etc. : —
Were all benightmared. Angela went off
Twitch'd with the Palsy ; and with face deform
The beadsman stifen'd, twixt a sigh and laugh
Ta'en sudden from his beads by one weak little cough. — BM.
7. with meagre face deform ;— Mr^ Read compares Spenser, Faerie Queene,
iv. 8. 12. "~)
— With heary glib deformed and meiger face.
OoB, TO THE NioHTiNGAiiE : — Written ea;rly in May, 1819, when Keats
was living with Charles Brown at Went worth Place, Hampstead, and first
published in the following July in the Annals of the Fine. Arts, a quarterly
magazine edited, by James Elmes. Of the origin and circumstances of com-
position of the poem Brown w^rites ; " In the spring of 1819 a nightingale
had built her ne^t near my house. Keats felt. a tranquil and continual joy
in her song : and one morning he took his chair from the breakiast table
to the g^ass-plot under a plum-t);ee,' where he sat for two or three hours.
When he came into the house, I perceived he had some scraps of paper in
his hand, and these he was quietly thrusting behind the hoqks. On inquiry,
I found those scraps, four or five in number, contained his poetic fieeling on
the song of our nightingale. The writing was not well legible ; and it was
difficult to arrange the stanzas on so many scraps. With his assistance I
succeeded, and this was his ' Ode to a Nightingale,' a poetti which has
been the delight of every one." The original draft of the poem has
recently come to light and was reproduoed in facsimile in the Monthly
Review foi: March, 1903, accompanied by a valuable commentary by Mr.
ODE TO THE NIGHTINGALE— NOTES 478
Sidney Colvin, entitled A Morning's Work in a Hampstead Garden. Mr.
CaWin proves conclusively that the Keats MS. which he reproduces is the
original draft, "written while the main and essential work of composition
was actually going on in the poet's brain. . . . Hence we maf^ismiss
Haydon's account of the ode having been recited to him by Keats in the
Hampstead fields ' before it was committed to paper ' as one of the orna-
mental flourishes characteristic of that writer ; whose vividness of State-
ment is seldom found, when we have opportunity to test it, to coexist with
strict accuracy."
Brown's account of the genesis of the poem, written twenty years
later, is inaccurate in detail. For example, the Ode was not written on
four or five scraps, but upon two half sheets of notepaper, and the difficulty
of arranging the stanzas in order was not due to piecing these together,
bat rather because of the odd in and out arrangement of the stanzas on
the two sheets. But in spite of such a slip of memory as this there is no
reason to doubt the substantial truth of Brown's statement, for he is
generally found to be a trustworthy authority, nor ta regard as a legend
the story that Keats " was quietly thrusting away the scraps behind the
books ". It receives some support at least from a letter written some six
months before wherein he tells Woodhouse, " I feel assured that I should
write from the mere yearning and fondness I have for the beautiful, even
if my night's labours should be burnt every morning, and no eye ever
shine upon them" (22nd October, 1818).
The readings of the draft, as they have not before been given in any
edition of Keats, are recorded in fuP in the following notes. The final
text shows remarkably few alterations from it. a signal proof of the readi-
ness with which language of supreme poetic felicity came naturally to the
poet, according to his own ideal, " as leaves to a tree ". It is, however,
interesting to notice that the two most famous lines
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perUous seas, in faery lands forlorn,
show two vital corrections — "magic" for the tame "the wide," and
" perilous " for the cacophonous and unsuggestive " keelless ". On these
alterations — "the former made after the whole line had been written
down, and the latter instantly after the epithet ' keelless ' had been tried
and found wanting, depends, remarks Mr. Colvin, the special enchantment
of the passage ".
For a general criticism of the Ode, cf. Introduction, p. Ix.
I. In the Draft (D) is a cancelled opening, " Small winged Dryad ".
I. 1. drowsy numbness pains : painful numbness falls D cane.
4. past : hence D cane.
5. 'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot: — Mr. Bridges compares
Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, i. 3. 164. " Sweet Philomela ... I do not
envy thy sweet carolling."
474 JOHN KEATS
II. 2. Cool'd a long age : Cooling an age D cane.
2. deep-delved eo/yth : — Suggested, as Mr. W. T. Arnold has pointed out,
by Milton's Death of a Fair Infant, " Hid from the world in a low-delved
tomb ".
6. true, the : true and D.
?• headed : cluster'd D.
10. away D, 1820 ; omitted by Dilke, BM, and Annals.
III. 3. the fever, and the fret : — An unconscious reminiscence of Words-
worth's Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey (62, 63) — a favour-
ite poem with Keats —
the fretful stir
Unprofitable, and the fever of the world.
6. pak, and spectre-thin, and dies : pale and thin and old and dies D
cane.
IV. 2. Bacchus : — Another reminiscence of the great picture by Titian
which had already inspired two passages in his poetry. Cf. Sleep and Poetry,
336, and the Ode to Sorrow {End. iv. 196, and notes).
7. Cluster'd : dusted {sic) D cane., but no alternative suggested.
10. "sidelong" D cane, as false start to line
IV. 10, V. 1-3. It is interesting to notice that Coleridge, in his poem
of The Nightingale, well known to Keats (c/. End. iii. 144, and note) makes
use of several similar words in describing the landscape in which his own
bird sang :■ —
You see the glimmer of the stream beneath
But hear no murmuring; it flows silently
O'fer its soft bed of verdure — All is still,
A bahny night, and though the stars be dim
Yet let us think upon the vernal showers
That gladden the green earth, and we shall find
A pleasure in the dimness of the stars.
V. 2. Nor what : followed in D by " blooms " {cane.)
VI. The feeling expressed in this stanza is essentially characteristic of
Keats, and, as several critics have pointed out, had been expressed by him
in a sonnet written some weeks earlier than this Ode.
Why did I laugh .'' I know this Being's lease.
My fancy to its utmost blisses spreads ;
Yet would I on this very midnight cease,
And the world's gaudy ensigns see in shreds.
2. easeful: painless D. VI. 7. forth : thus D, Annals. VI. 10. To D:
for D cane., Annals.
VII. 6. song : voice D cane.
9, 10. magic . . . perilous : the wide . . . keelless D cane.
ODE TO THE NIGHTINGALE— NOTES 475
VII. This stanza has been blamed by Mr. Colvin ^' as a breach of logic
which is also a flaw in the poetry contrasting the transitoriness of the
human life, meaning the life of the individual, with the permanence of
the song-bird's life, meaning the life of the type '' (EML, p. 176), and by
Mr. Bridges who remarks {Keats, p. liv.) that " the thought is fanciful or
superficial — man being as immortal as the bird in every sense but that of
sameness, which is assumed and does not satisfy ". But these objections
hardly seem to me to be serious. For the poet is not really thinking of
the permanence of the song-bird's life, but rather of his song, with which
he naturally identifies the bird, seeing that, apart from its song, it has no
life for him.* I have never seen this objection raised against Words-
worth's lines To the Cuckoo to which it would be as applicable. Words-
worth, like Keats, addresses the bird as : —
The same whom in my schoolboy days
I listened to ;
and the emotion of each poet is kindled by
No bird, but an invisible thing,
A voice, a mystery,
which has power, by reason of this very lack of individuality, to awaken
in his mind the beauty and the glory of the past.
It is interesting to observe that Wordsworth, in a passage which we
know Keats to have studied, represents the ancient Greek as impressed
with this same sense of contrast between the eternity of nature and the
mutability of human life. The father, lamenting the loss of his child,
would cast his hair as a votive ofifering upon the river Cephisus. . . .
And, doubtless, sometimes, when the hair was shed
Upon the flawing stream, a thought arose
Of Life continuous. Being unimpaired ;
That hath been, is, and where it was and is
There shall endure ; existence unexposed
To the blind walk of mortal accident ;
From diminution safe and weakening age ;
While man grows old, and dwindles, and- decays ;
And countless generations of mankind
Depart, and leave no vestige where they trod.
— Excursion, iv. 752-62.
In the last two lines of the stanza Keats is once more recording the
impression made upon him by a favourite picture, Claude's Enchanted Castle.
{Of. Epistle to Reynolds 26-66 and note.)
VIII. 2. me back : to me D cane, my sole self! unto myself D.
4. deceiving : deceitful D cane.
' So Meredith in his poem The Lark Ascending, delights in the bird's
Song seraphically free
From taint of personality.
476 JOHN KEATS
3. 4. Fancy . . . deceiving elf : — Profiessor A. C. Bradley has called my
attention to a »milarity of phrase in Wordsworth's Duddon Sonnets xxiv.
10, " the Fancy, too industrious elf". This sonnet was written in 1820, and
it seems likely that Wordsworth had seen the Ode to the Nightingale when it
appeared in the Annals of the Fiaie Arts in the previous Julyi, ~ Haydon was
the inspiring g:eniuB of that magazine,, and would doubtless send him a
copy of it. Wordsworth never appreciated the genius of Keats, and it is
signiiiiciuat that he should hfire re-echo what is undoubtedly the weakest
passage in Keats's great Ode.
9. Was it a vision, etc. : —
Was it a vision real or waking dream
Fled is that Music—do I wake or sleep-^r-D.
Vision? . . . music? — Annals.
Ode on a Grecian Ubn : — Written in February or March, 1819, and iirst
\ published early in 1820 in no. xv. of. the Annals of the Fine Artfi. The
[ Annals affords some variant readings, others are to be found in the MSS.
of Sir Charles Dilke and at the British Museum. As Mr. Colvin points
out, the poem was inspired by no single extant work of antiqi^ity, but was
imagined by a " combination of sculptures actually seen in the British
Museum with others known to him only from engravings, and particularly
from Piranesi's etchings. Lord Holland's urn (often spoken of as though
it were the sole inspiration of the poem) is duly figured there in the Vasi
de Candelabri of that admirable master " (GML, p. 174). It is difficult indeed
to believe 4hat the lines on the sacrifice and the picture of the " heifer
lowing at^the skies " were not suggested solely by the Elgin marbles.
In his expression of the main idea upon which the poem if based — the
permanent character of the beautiful in art as opposed to its mortality and
change in nature and humanity — Keats was echoing a thought which must
have been an inspiration to many 0|f the greatest artists. It is concen-
trated by Leonardo da Vinci into one pregnant phrase which Keats might
well have taken as the motto of his poem : —
Cosa bella mortal passa e non d'arte . .
and there can be little doubt that here, as often, Wordsworth was not
without his influence upon him. Cf. the sonnet Ufton the Sight of a
Beautiful picture (publ. 1816). ^
Praised be the Art whose subtle power could stay
Yon cloud, and fix it in that glorious shape ;
Nor would permit the thin smoke to escape.
Nor these bright sunbeams to forsake the day ;
Which stopped that band of travellers on their way,.
Ere they were lost within the shady wood ;
And showed the bark upon the glassy flood
For ever anchored in her sheltering bay.
Soul soothing Art, whom Morning, Noontide, Even,
Po serve with all their changeful pageantry ;
/
ODE TO PSYCHE— NOTES 4T7
Thon, with Ambition modest yet sublime.
Here, for the sight of mortal man, hast giyen
To one brief moment caught from fleeting time
The iqtpropriate calm of blest eternity.
(N£. eepec. U. 7, 8). Wordsworth, too, had ntlled his attention_tQ_the -
musie of silence : — - '—
music of finer tone ; a harmony
So do I call it, though it be the hand
Of silence, though there be no ycaob.'^'Bxmirwm, ilL 710.
And in another parage, well known to Keats, had actually suggested
aometbing of the phraseology by which to express it : —
sweetest melodies
Are those which are by distance made more sweet.*
—Personal Talk, 26, 26, pubL 1807.
But it was left for Keats to realise the full significance of the idea and to
gi?e it adequate expression.
In the Bpistk to Reynolds {vide p. 270} written 26th Sforch, 1818, are
to be found two anticipations of this Ode : —
The sacrifice goes on ; the pontiff knife
Gleams in the Sun, the milk-white heifier lows.
The pipes go shrilly, the libation flows. — 20-22.
Things cannot to the will
Be settled, \m% they tease us out of thought. — 77, 78.
For Keats's use of brede cf. Appendix C, p. 683.
L 8. What men or gods : what Gods or Men Annals.
9. What mad pursuit ? what love? what dance? Annals.
n. 6. nor ever can those trees be bare : nor ever bid the spring adieu
Annals.
III. 2. ever : never Annals.
IV. 7. this folk : its folk H.
V. 9, 10. "Beauty is truth," etc. :—
Beauty is truth, truth Beauty-^-That is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. — Annals,
Ode to Pstcbe: — Writing to his brother George on 16th April, 1819,
Keatg sends this Ode and speaks of it as "the last I have written — ^the
first and only one with which I have taken even moderate pains. I have
for the most part dash'd off my lines in a hnny. This I have done
leisurely, — I think it reads the more richly for it, and will I hope encourage
me to write other things in even a more peaceable and healthy spirit.
'Wordsworth was himseir indebted to Collins, Tie PasHms, 6a "In notes by
oistaiKe made more sweet."
478 JOHN KEATS
You must recollect that Psyche was not embodied as a goddess before the
time of Apuleius the Platonist who lived after the Augustan age, and
consequently the goddess was never worshipped or sacrificed to with any
of the ancient fervour — and perhaps never thought of in the old religion
— I am more orthodox than to let a heathen goddess be so neglected."
The copy of the poem included in the letter affords several variant read-
ings. The Psyche legend was known to Keats in Spence (and Mr. Foiinan
thinks that an engraving in Spence had suggested the picture in the first
stanza), Mrs. Tighe and Spenser, and he had already treated it in / stood
tip-toe, 140 (vide note). Keats's reference to the story in Apuleius may be
due to Burton's Anatomy of Melancholic, which he was reading at the time.
" If he be a man of extraordinary parts, they will flock afar off to hear
him, as they did in Apuleiusy to see Psyche. . . . Many mortal men came
to see fair Psyche, the glory of her age : they did admire her, commend,
desire her for her divine beauty, and gaze upon her but as on a picture"
(pt. i. sect. ii. mem. iii. subs. xv.).
Palgrave suggests that in writing this Ode Keats had Gray and Collins
in mind, but what literary obligation there is rather is to Milton. The
opening couplet recalls both in idea and cadence the " bitter constraint
and sad occasion dear " of Lycidas, and later on there is an obvious d9bt
to the Ode on the Nativity. It is strange to read {vide supra) that Keats took
unusual pains over the poem, for it is not flawless as are some of the other
Odes which were apparently written far more rapidly ; but despite occa-
sional weaknesses in it, it is a magnificent example of that blending of a
delicate feeling for Nature with a sense of the true significance of ancient
legend which is peculiarly characteristic of him.
This was, in all probability, the last of the Odes written by Keats in
the Spring of 1819 ; it is interesting to notice how it knits them all to-
gether by re-echoing a. phrase from each.
" Their lips touched not but had not bade adieu " (c/. Grecian Urn, iii. 2 ;
its idea a contrast with ii. 7, and the Ode on Melancholy, iii. 2, 3) and
" the casement ope at night " («/. Ode to the Nightingale, vii. 9).
The manuscript letter supplies the following variant readings: — 10.
roof : fan. 14. silver-white, and budded Tyrian : freckle pink and budded
Tyrian. 17. bade : bid. 23. true\ true.' 36. brightest : bloomiest
32-5. No shrine, no grove, no oracle, no heat
Of pale-mouth' d prophet dreaming.
Cf. Milton, Ode on the Nativity, xix. : —
The Oracles are dumm.
No voice or hideous humm
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine.
With hollow shreik the steep of Delphos leaving.
No nightly trance, or breathed spell.
Inspires the paU-ey'd Priest from the prophetic cell.
FANCY— NOTES 479
52-5. Par, far around shall those dark-cluster'd trees
Pledge the wild-ridged mountains steep by steep.
This wonderful passage affords a deeply interesting example of the way in
which literary reminiscence combined in Keats's mind with accurate and
impaagioned observation to form some of his greatest pictures. The first
uipesrance of the " Mountain pine " in his poems (/ stood tip-toe, 128) is obvi-
ously a purely literary reminiscence, and suggests neither feeling nor
olwervation. But he came across two passages in the Faithful Shepherdess,
which had evidently sunk into some " backward comer of the biain ".
In the first Act he read : —
" Straighter than the 8traightest^*n« upon the steep
Head of an ancient mountain."
In the fourth Act : —
" Sailing pines that edge yon mountain in." >
Then, in the summer of 1818, he visited the Lakes, and seeing now with
his own eyes what had before only been imaged in his mind, at once made
it his own, touching it with a vivid imagination far beyond Fletcher's
reach.
Far, &r around shall those dark-cluster'd trees
Pledge the wild-ridged mountains steep by steep.
Of Lodore he had said in a letter to his brother Tom (29th June, 1818),
"There is no great body of water, but the accompaniment is delightful ;
for it oozes out from a cleft in perpendicular rocks, all fledged with ash
and other beautiful trees ". An exactly parallel example of the manner
in which Keats's imagination wag stimulated by the combined influence
of literature and nature is to be found in his debt for the picture {q.v.) of
the fidlen Iltans, to Chapman, Wordsworth and the Druid Stones near
Keswick.
Fahcv, included together with Bards of Passion and / had a Dove in
Keats's Jonmal Letter to his brother and sister in America under the date
2nd Jan., 1819, and presumably written shortly before. Keats prefaces
them with the words, " Here are the poems — ^they will explain themselves
—as all poems should do without any comment".
This and the four following poems are written in the four-accent metre
which Keats had employed in his lines to G. A. W. (p. 16). It had been
oommon in English poetry since Chaucer, but Keats's use of it suggests
especially Milton and Fletcher ; and while the poem is perfectly original
and independent, the style of description and much- of the cadence of the
verse seem to recall L' Allegro. Keats is hardly at home in the four-accent
vene, which was not entirely suited to his genius. He is evidently troubled
with the weight of his unaccented syllables (e.g., 11. 7, 8, 17, 38) and was
never completely successful with the metre till he wrote the Eve of St. Mark.
* In Bndjmum, i. 85, 86, we have a similar picture, in
"Tbe freshness of the space of heaven above,
Ed^d round with dark tree taps.
480 JOHN KEATS
But of the lyrics written in this measure Fmuy is certainly the most
charming, the treatment of the Seasons is felicitous throughout and the
language is nowhere marred (except perhaps in the use of "so " in 76) by
the peculiar faults of Keats's style.
1. The story of " Ceres' daughter " (81) was a special favourite of Keats's
{^v%it Lamia note). For Hebe (86) the goddess of youth and cupbearer of
JovCj cf. End. iv. 416.
The following interesting variants and rejected passages are supplied
by the manuscript letter : —
6. Through the thought : Towards heaven MS.
24, 26. Even . . . there : Vesper . . . then MS.
29. bring, in spite : bring thee spite MS.
33, 34. All the buds, etc. :—
All the faery buds of May
On spring turf or scented spray ; MS.
43-46. And, in the same moment, etc. : —
And in the same moment hark
To the early April lark
And the rooks with busy caw MS.
67. And the smike, etc. : —
And the snake all winter-shrank
Cast its skin on sunny bank MS.
67| 68. For these two lines the manuscript letter gives six : —
For the same sleek throated mouse
To store up in its winter house.
O sweet Fancy let her loose !
Every sweet is spoilt by use
Every pleasure every joy
Not a Mistress but doth cloy.
89. And Jove grew languid. The letter here adds the followikig lines : —
And Jove grew laugliid. Mistress fair !
Thou shalt have that tressed hair
Adonis tangled all for spite
And the mouth he would not kiss
And the treasure he would miss ;
And the hand he would not press
And the warmth he would distress
O the Ravishment — the Bliss —
Fincy has her there she is !
Never fulsonie, ever new
There she steps ! and tell me who
Has a mistress so divine ?
Be the palate ne'er so fine
She cannot sicken.
BARDS OF PASSION, ETC.— NOTES 481
Break the Mesh
Of the Fancy's silken leash
Where she's tether'd to the heart —
Quick hreak her prison string. . . .
Ode. Bards of Passion and of Mirth : — Included in Journal Letter to
George and Georgiana Keats dated 2nd January, 1819. " From the fact
that it is written in Keats's Beaumont and Fletcher, . . . and from in-
ternal evidence, we may judge it to be addressed to the brother poets of
passion and mirth who wrote the tragi-comedy of The Fair Maid of the
Inn" (HBF). Keats had written the poem on the blank page facing
The Fair Maid of the Inn. The Ode, Keats explains to his brother, " is
on the double immortality of poets," and after copying it he adds : " These
{i.e., the Ode and the Fancy) are specimens of a sort of Rondeau which I
think I shall become partial to — because you have one idea amplified with
greater ease and more delight and freedom than in the sonnet ". Keats's
idea of the Rondeau form must have been somewhat vague.
19, 20. But divine melodious truth, etc. The manuscript letter reads : —
But melodious truth divine
Philosophic numbers fine.
Lines on the Mermaid Tavebn : — Written in 1818 and sent to Reynolds
in a letter dated 3rd February. It is another expression of Keats's delight
in the Elizabethan dramatists. The Mermaid 'Tavern was their principal
resort. Keats in his reference to it is probably indebted to Master Francis
Becmmont's Letter to Ben Jonson, written before he and Master Fletcher came
to London with two of the precedent comedies, then not finished, which de-
ferred their merry meetings at the Mermaid : —
"I lie and dream of your full Mermaid wine." — line 6.
And again : —
"What things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid ! heard words that have been
8o nimble, and so full of subtle flame.
As if that every one from whence they came
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest.
And had resolved to live a fool the rest
Of his dull life."
The rare word " bowse " was probably taken by Keats, as Mr. Forman
suggests, from Sandys's Commentary to Ovid, Met. v. " I of the horses
spring did never bowse," a trans, of Persius in Prolo. ; labra prolui. The
MS. gives the following conclusion to the poem : —
Souls of Poets dead and gone.
Are the winds a sweeter home,
Richer is uncellar'd cavern
Than the Merry Mermaid Tavern ?
31
482 JOHN KEATS
Robin Hood. The " Friend " is John Hamilton Reynolds (vide p. 637)
to whom Keats sent the poem together with the Lines on the Mermaid in
a letter dated 3rd February, 1818. In the letter the poem is headed "To
J. H. R. in Answer to his Robin Hood Sonnets ". It is prefixed by an attack
upon modern poetry, especially that of Wordsworth, as having " a palpable
design upon us," which suggests a contrast with the " great and unobtru-
sive poetry " of the' Elizabethans. " I do not mean," he adds, " to deny
Wordsworth's grandeur or Hunt's merit, but I mean to say we need not
be teased with grandeur and merit when we can have them uncontaminated
and unobtrusive. Let us have the old ' Poets and Robin Hood. Your
letter and its sonnets gave me more pleasure than will the Fourth Canto
of Childe Harold and the whole of anybody's life and opinions. In return
for your dish of Filberts, I have gathered a few Catkins, I hope they'll
look pretty." The reference in line 10 is probably to Reynolds having
taken up the profession of Lawyer — on 14th February, 1818, Reynolds
wrote his Fcwewell to the Muses, and Keats must have known of his inten-
tion by the time he wrote the poem. Perhaps in lines 47, 48, there is
another side allusion to the same event.
18. forest drear, Milton, II Penseroso, 119.
36. " greene shawe," Chaucer, Friar's Tale, " Wher ridestou under this
greene shawe ? "
To AiTTiriHN. The latest written of the Odes. Woodhouse adds a note
to his copy of the 1817 volume stating that this poem was composed on
Sept. 19, 1819. In a letter to Reynolds from Winchester dated Sept 22,
1819, Keats says — " How beautiful the season is now — How fihe the air
— a temperate sharpness about it. Really without joking, chaste weather
— Dian skies — I never liked stubble-fields so much as now^Aye better
than the chilly green of the Spring. Somehow, a stubble-field looks warm
— in the same way that some pictures look warm. This struck me so much
in my Sunday's walk that I composed upon it."
The BM MS. shows two or three interesting variant readings.
In I. 6. "Sweetness" for "ripeness".
II. 6, 7. Dosed with a fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next sheath and all its honied flowers ;
9. Steady thy leaden head across the brook ;
11. " oozing " for " oozings ".
Ode on Melancholy. Though there is no external evidence of the
date of this Ode it can be attributed with certainty to the early spring of
1819. Keats was reading the Anatomy of Melancholie at the time, and the
introductory verses in Burton may have helped to suggest the theme. He
would also be familiar with the song in Fletcher's Nice Valour which Mil-
ton imitated in the opening to /{ Penseroso.
ODE ON MELANCHOLY— NOTES 48S
Hence, all your vain delights.
As short as are the nights,
Wherein you spend your folly !
There's nought in this life sweet.
If man were wise to see't
But only melancholy.
Oh sweetest melancholy ! etc.
p'or the significance of the ode in relation with Keats's train of thought
at the time cf. Introduction, p. Ixi.
H supplies from MS. the following rejected opening to the poem, which
Keats wisely discarded as out of keeping with the true spirit of the whole —
Though you should build a bark of dead men's bones.
And rear a phantom gibbet for a mast.
Stitch shrouds together for a sail, with groans
To fill it out, blood-stained and aghast ;
Although your rudder be a dragon's tail
Long sever' d, yet still hard with agony.
Your cordage large uprootings from the skull
Of bald Medusa, certes you would fail
To find the Melancholy — whether she
Dreameth in any isle of Lethe dull.
III. 6. in the very temple of Delight, etc. : — Cf. Endymion, ii. 82, 83
(draft), " There is a grief contained In the very shrine of pleasure ".
484 JOHN KEATS
HYPERION
The idea of writing a poem on the subject of the fall of the Titans,
with Apollo the god of light and song as its hero, to form, as it were,
a companion poem to Bndymion, occurred to' Keats before he had finished
Endymion. It is to this that he alludes when, on 28th September, 1817,
he writes to Haydon, " I have a new romance in my eye for next summer,"
and the treatment of Oceanus in Bndymion, bk. iii. 994-7 {vide note) written
certainly within a few days of the letter to Haydon, contains the germ
of the conception of Oceanus in Hyperion. Similarly in Endymion, iv.
written in November, 1817, the line : —
Thy lute-voic'd brother will I sing ere long (774)
and the rather far-fetched oaths " by Titan's foe " (943) and
By old Satumus' forelock, by his head
Shook with eternal palsy " (956-7)
suggest again that he is brooding over the story of the Titans. He
referred to it again in the famous Preface to Endymion (April, 1818) — "I
hope I have not in too late a day touched the beautiful mythology of
Greece, and dulled its brightness: for 1 wish to try once more, before
I bid it farewell " ; and it is highly probable that it was beginning to take
definite shape, no longer as a romance but as an epic, before his departure,
at the end of June, for the English lakes and Scotland. There is evidence
from his letters that while he was away the subject was still in his mind,
and writing to Woodhouse, some two months after his return, he refers
to the theme of the poem as though it were well known to his friends tliat
he was engaged upon it. " If (the poet) has no self, and if I am a poet,
where is the wonder that I should say I would write no more? Might
I not at that very instant have been cogitating on the characters of Saturn
and Ops ? " (27th October). In the next month, probably, as he watched
by the bedside of his dying brother, he actually began to put the poem
upon paper, for in December he writes to America that he has "gone on a
little with it " : and a few days later that " it is scarce begun " (».«., "scarce
begun " in proportion to the length of the poem which at that time he con-
templated). When, therefore. Brown asserts of the first few weeks after
Tom's death, " It was then that he wrote Hyperion " he can only be under-
stood as referring to the main portion of the work. On 14th February,
1819, Keats wrote, "I have not gone on with Hyperion". During the
next three months he was chiefly occupied with the Odes, and whether he
added to Hyperion we have no means of judging. Certainly, no more can
have been written after April, for in that month Woodhouse had the MS.
to read, and noted that " it contains two books and a half— about 900 lines
in all ". . . . " When Keats, after nearly a year's interruption of his
HYPERION— NOTES 485
correspondence with Bailey, tells him in August ' I have been writing parts
of my Hyperion ' this must not be taken as though he had been writing
them lately, but only that he had been writing them — like Isabella, and
The Eve of St. Agnes, which he mentions in the same passage, since the
date of his last letter" '■ (Cf. EML, pp. 228, 229). This letter to BaUey,
therefore, does not fix the downward limit of the date of the composition
of the poem, but it suggests, by its reference to " my Hyperion," that
Keats had definitely projected his poem and discussed it among his
friends before he went to Scotland, when he last saw Bailey. But it is
evident that for some time after April, Keats contemplated proceeding
with the poem, for it is not till 22nd September that he writes de-
finitely to Reynolds, "I have given up Hyperion".
Of the sources of the poem something has already been said {cf. Intro- <-
duction, p. xliii). Notwithstanding the fact that critics almost unanimously
assert that Keats was drawing upon information obtained from Lempriire
and Tooke— even Mr. Colvin saying (EML, p. 166) that " he had nothing
to guide him except scraps of ancient writers, principally Hesiod, as re-
tailed by compilers of classical dictionaries " there is very little that cannot
be ascribed with probability to a more inspiring source. Apart from the
intensely significant passages in Chapman's Iliad, quoted in the General
Introduction, Keats would know the main points in the story from many
references to it in previous English literature, e.g. in Spenser, Faerie
Queene, iii. 7. 47, or in Paradise Lost, i. 610 et seq. where Milton mentions \
among those who attended the Council in Hell : —
Titan Heav'ns first bom
With his enormous brood, and birthright seis'd
By younger Saturn, he from mightier Jove
His own and Rhea's Son like measure found ;
So Jove usurping reign'd : . . .
All these and more came flocking.
Chapman's translation of the Works and Days of Hesiod (called by him
the Georgics) would also be known to Keats, and it is difilcult to believe
that he did not read one of the translations of Hesiod's Theogony, well
known at the end of the eighteenth century, e.g., that of Cooke, given in
Chalmers's English Poets (1810), or that of Greene. Anyhow, bks. ii. and
iii. of Ovid's Metamorphoses (trans, by Sandys) were certainly known to him,
and in Sandys's observations on these books he would have found several
translations of passages bearing upon the subject, from which he would
cull a f%v suggestions. It is noticeable that Keats's version of the story,
independent as it is both in construction and conception of any one original,
contains many elements clearly taken from sources more literary than
• Asa matter of fact, Isabella was written before Keats's last letter to Bailey, wliich
is dated i8th July, 1818, and the fact that be includes it in bis list only shows more clearly
that Keats is not attempting to record bis recent literary activity, but to give some
account of his occupations during tbe long intemiption of tbeir intercourse, the exact
duration of which be has for tbe moment forgotten.
486 JOHN KEATS
LempriSre, whilst Lempridre supplies him with nothing which he could not
have obtained elsewhere. One may add that he falls into the error, against
which Lempri^re particularly warns his readers, of confusing the Titans
and the giants (cf. bk. ii. 19). His confusion of Greek and Latin names
points also to the variety of sources upon which, in many cases uncon-
Boiausly, Keats was drawing. Lempri^re almost invariably gives the Latin
name only.
There is probably no fragment in our literature which we would rather
,^ee completed than Hyperion; and it is, therefore, interesting to conjec-
ture as to the scheme on which Keats intended to carry on his work. It
is obvious, from what he has written, that he was taking full advantage
of the divergence of his different authorities to present the story and to
interpret it in his own manner. In the first place we must consider what
he has actually left us in .the two and a half books that we possess.
Hyperion begins in mediis rebus. Saturn and Oceanus are already deposed,
many of their colleagues^(mogt of them, it may be remarked. Giants not
Titans, who, therefore, topk part in the later war and not properly
speaking in the Titanomachia at all)>are already chained in torture (ii 18) ;
the kingdom of Hyperion himself, though as yet unassailed, is filled with
portents of its coming doom. Bk. i. gives first the picture of the fallen
Saturn whom Thea, wife of Hyperion, is summoning to the council of the
Titans (1-167), and then a picture of Hyperion himself, conscious of im-
pending fate, yet vowing resistance to the end. His father Coelus pities
him and encourages him to resist, though he can afford him little hope,
and Hyperion plunges into the night to join his brethren (-357). Bk. ii.
presents us with the Titans in council, now joined by Saturn. Oceanus
interprets to his brothers the meaning of their inevitable fall, speaking of
the invincible beauty of his dispossessor, and Clymene, in a speech of
like import, tells of the beauty of Apollo. But Enceladus scorns their
words, calling upon the Titans to renew the struggle and gather around
Hyperion who is still undisgraced (1-345). The sun god appears, but his
dejected form only brings despondence upon the fallen gods, and suggests
in no ({uestionable manner the coming catastrophe. Bk. iii. relates the
meeting of Apollo with Mnemosyne, and breaks off as the new god of light
and song attains his invincible divinity. How was the poem to proceed }
Woodhouse, who evidently knew Keats's original design, asserts that
''the poem if completed would have treated of the dethronement of
Hyperion, the former god of the Sun, by Apollo — and incidentally of
those of Oceanus by Neptune, of Saturn by Jupiter, etc., and of the war
of the Giants for Saturn's re-establishment — with other events, of which
we have but very dark hints in the mythological poets of Greece and
Rome. In fact, the incidents would have been pure creations of. the
poet's brain." It is evident that the execution of this scheme upon the
same scale as the two and a half books actually written would require at
least the ten books which tradition has always ascribed to the complete
HYPERION— NOTES 487
poem as projected by Keats — a tradition borne out by the publishers'
Advertisement to the volume which states " The poem was intended to
have been of equal length with Bndymion, but the reception given to that
work discouraged the author from proceeding ". -J
It may be said at once that the reason here given for the discontinuance
of the poem is not only disproved by Keats's own attitude to this criticism
{vide Introduction to Bndymion) but also by a slight attention to dates ; for
the last of the hostile reviews uyon Endymion had appeared in September,
1818; Keats's correspondence proves that the annoyance occasioned by
them had certainly reached its height by October, whereas Hyperion was
not begun before November {vide sit^ra). If the reviews had any influence,
therefore, they would have prevented his writing the poem at all, and not
caused him to give up the work some time later. But we have, in fact,
other evidence that Keats himself was not responsible for the Advertise-
ment. In a copy of the volume formerly in the possession of the late
Canon Ainger, Keats has himself firmly crossed out the whole of it, writing
above it the remark, " I had no part in this ; I was ill at the time " ; and he
has bracketed the statement concerning his discouragement at the recep-
tion ot^ Endymion, placing beneath it the words "This is a lie". This is
intensely significant, and it gives a greater plausibility to a theory of
which careful examination of the poem had previously convinced me :
that Keats had modified his scheme of the poem considerably since his
discussion of it with his friends, and that during the actual time of com-
position he had no intention whatever of writing an Epic in ten books.
For there are obvious discrepancies between the scheme of the poem as
presented by Woodhonse and the fragment as it actually exists. Accord-
ing to Woodhouse the depositions of Saturn and Oceanus are to be related
incidentally. But to whom could the episodes be related and by whom ?
They might, it is true, be narrated in the council of the gods on Olympus,
but this seems on the face of it improbable ; and the interest of such a
narration would be considerably lessened by the iact that the climax in
the case of Saturn has already been alluded to by Coelus (i. 322-26), and
in the case of Oceanus has been described with significant detail (ii. 236-39).
Again, we are told that the subsequent wars of the Giants for Saturn's
re-establishment are to follow ; but surely, if the central event of the
poem is to be the fall of Hyperion, any detailed account of siich a war
would be an inartikic anti-climax — it would naturally be alluded to, but
could hardly be made the subject of elaborate treatment. There are other
difficulties in the way of belie vii^g that Keats intended to narrate the wars,
of the Giants. In the first place many of the most conspicuous Giants are
already "chain'd in torture," and "pent in regions of laborious breath"
(ii. 22) ; in the second place Keats has already alluded to the most import-
• Not, as Mr. Forman implies, the whole statement about Endymion, but the second
half of it from " but " to " proceeding "
488 JOHN KEATS
ant event of that war, the momentary victory of the Griants before their
final overthrow. Enceladus, we are told,
plotted, and even now
Was hurling mountains in that second war,
Not long delay'd, that scar'd the younger Gods
To hide themselves in forms of beast and bird.
If Keats had intended to narrate this war, would he have spoilt his
story by anticipating its most interesting feature ? The poem, as fiir as it
goes, is much too masterly to allow us to believe it. Moreover, the very
phrasing "in that second war" is a characteristic and effective way of
alluding, not to an event which the author intends to record, but rather
to one which the reader is expected to know for himself, which bears upon
the action, but is outside its immediate scope {(f. the superb phrase of
Milton, from Keats's own favourite passage in Paradise Lost "which
cost Ceres all that pain"). As a matter of fact Woodhouse's scheme,
which presupposes a long poem, stands and falls with the Advertisement
for which, as literary adviser of Messrs Taylor & Hessey, he was very
likely responsible. Now if all these events referred to by Woodhouse are
cut out or curtailed, what remains to fill a poem of 4000 lines .'' and if they
are not cut out, but dealt with upon a scale suggested by the two and a
half books that exist, how could the poem be so short as to justify Keats's
repudiation of the Advertisement in so far as it relates to the length of
the poem ? The view, therefore, which I advance tentatively, as seeming
to fit in both with the external evidence and with the contents and char-
i acter of the poem as it stands, is that Hyperion would not have reached
< more than 1200 — 1500 lines, or four books of the length of the first and
second. Conjecture as to what the unwritten one and a half books would
j have contained may seem impertinent, but it is irresistible, and may be justi-
I fied on the ground that it may stimulate a renewed and more careful study
f of the poem itself. I conceive that Apollo, now conscious of his divinity,
; would have gone to Olympus, heard from the lips of Jove of his newly
acquired supremacy, and been called upon by the rebel three to secure the
j kingdom that awaited him. He would have gone forth to meet Hyperion
i who, struck by the power of supreme beauty, would have found resistance
impossible. Critics have inclined to take for granted the supposition that
an actual battle was contemplated by Keats, but I do not believe that such
: was, at least, his final intention. In the first place he had the example of
I Milton, whom he was studying very closely, to warn him of its dangers ; '
I in the second, if Hyperion had been meant to fight he would hardly be
represented as already, before the battle, shorn of much of his strength ;
thus making the victory of Apollo depend upon his enemy's unnatural weak-
' In addressing his Muse at the beginning of bk. iii. Keats dwells upon his sense of
unfitness for treating stormy themes, and it is noticeable how little there is of martial
language and allusion in all of the poem that Keats bad as yet written, though he bad
plenty of opportunities of introducing it. Milton, on the contrary, gives us vivid detail
from the first, thus preparing for the account of the battle which follows.
HYPERION— NOTES 489
neB8 and not upon his own strength. One may add that a combat would
have been completely alien to the whole idea of the poem as Keats conceived
it, and as, in fact, it is universally interpreted from the speech of Oceanus
in the second book. The resistance of Enceladus and the Giants, them-
selves rebels against an order already established, would have been dealt
with summarily, and the poem would have closed with a description of the
new age wliich had been inaugurated by the triumph of the Olympians,
and, in particular, of Apollo the god of light and song. The events here
suggested would have formed a part of the poem however long, and if
we accept the view that it was not to attain the dimensions once supposed,
it is hard to believe that there would have been room for more. The
ignorance of Woodhouse and others as to the change which had come over
Keats's conception since he had first discussed it among them as something
after the conventional epic pattern, is easy to explain. He wrote the poem
by his brother's bedside and immediately after his brother's death, when,
probably, he was seeing little society but that of Brown. Then he laid
it aside to write the Odes and some of his romantic poems, becoming en-
gaged in work which was more congenial to him, and could be composed
in greater freedom from an exact model ; and there is no proof that he
touched it again till he came to reconstruct it in the form of a vision.
Hyperion represents, as has been pointed out in the Greneral Introduc-"
tion, the height of Milton's influence upon Keats, its style as well as much
of .its treatment of subject being modelled on Paradise Lost. Milton's
minor poems had fascinated Keats at an early period, and in the summer
of 1817, partly owing to the enthusiasm of Bailey,' he first began to fall
under the spell of Milton's masterpiece. Signs of its influence are apparent
in the later books of Bndymion {vide notes to End. iii. 133, 615, iv. 365) and
early in 1818 Milton began to be his chief study. " I long to feast on old
Homer," he writes to Reynolds (April 1818), " as we have on Shakespeare,
and as I have lately upon Milton," and early in the next month followed
the well-known comparison between Milton and Wordsworth {Letter to
Reynolds, 3rd May, 1818). Writing to Bailey, (18th July) he refers to the
" fine thing about Milton and Ceres and Proserpine " (Paradise Lost, iv.
268 ; c/. notes to Hyp. ii. 64) as " in his head," and in August of the next
year he tells both Reynolds and Bailey that Paradise Lost is every day "at,
greater wonder " to him. He had already, however, discovered that Mil- 1
ton's style could not be imitated by him without the sacrifice of much that
was essential to the expression of his own genius {vide p. li). Mr. Sidney
Colvin remarks that " Hyperion is hardly Miltonic in the stricter sense";
and justly points out the essential differences between the genius of the I
two poets (EML, p. 158) ; but in doing so, perhaps, he somewhat under- 1
estimates the persistence with which Keats reproduces the more obviou#
Miltonic effects, sometimes in conscious imitation, and oftener as any
' Severn also laid claim to this and spoke " with a natural pride in having been
mstrumental in turning Keats's attention to the noble beauty of Paradise Lost " {Life cf
Severn, Sharp, p. 40).
490 JOHN KEATS
unconscious echo of the Miltonic music which was ringing^ in his ears.
llie following list of parallels is not short considering that the whole
length of Hyperion is less than 900 lines.
L Miltonic Syntax. These are perhaps the most important, as they are
e chief indication of the undue influence of Milton on his style, and
illustrate clearly the introduction of un-English expressions to which, in
'. his advocacy of Chatterton's native English, he particularly objected.
(a) Elliptical constructions : — uncertain where (ii. 9) ; cf. Paradise
Lost, iii. 76, 76:—
Firm land imbosom'd without Firmament,
Uncertain which, in Ocean or in Air.
Under this head might he classed also phrases like — though an immoi-tal
(i. 44) ; though feminine (ii. 6d) ; thus brief (i. 153).
(6) Redundancies : —
No further than to where his feet had stray'd.
And slept there since (i. 16).
I, Coelus, wonder, how they came and whence ;
And at the fruits thereof what shapes they be. . . . (i. 314, 316).
Cf. Paradise Lost, ix. 288, Thoughts, which how found they harbour in
thy brest, and Paroflise Lost, xii. 128, 129, I see him, but thou canst not,
with what Faith He leaves his Gods.
(c) Classical construction : — save what . . . gave of sweet (i. 207).
Cf. Paradise Lost, i. 182, Save what the glimmering of these livid
flames casts pale; cf. also Paradise Lost, v. 324. For "gave of" cf.
Paradise Lost, x.|143, gave me of«the Tree. With the whole phrase Mr.
Arnold compares: —
With what besides in Councel or in Fight,
Hath bin achievd of merit {Paradise Lost, ii. 20, 21).
(d) Classical use of the participle and adjective : —
I. in place of a relative sentence : thus afllicted (i. 56) ; so gifted (iii. 68).
II. in place of adv. or adv. phrase : a stream went voiceless by (i. 11) ;
let the rose glow intense (iii. 15) ; shook horrid (i. 94) ; plucked witless
. . . etc.
III. t» place of the abstract noun : barren void (i. 119) ; (cf Milton's
" vast abrupt," etc.).
Miltonic repetitions. One of the most characteristic and effective
features of the style of Paradise Lost is the studied repetition of words
and phrases. This is a development of the poetic device called by Drydeu
the ''turn," by which the same word or phrase is used twice in a different
relation — its repetition giving a particular significance to the part which
it performs on the second occasion. The "turn" can be employed for
mere emphasis, or for musical effect, or, more satisfactorily, for both com-
, bined ; but its finest use is informed with a certain pathos, or subtle bat
HYPERION— NOTES 491
telling irony, as in Vergil's lines on the fetal impatience of Orpheus to J
see his bride : —
Cum subita incautum dementia cepit amantem
Ignoscmda quidem, scirent si ignoscere Manes. .^.
(Georgics, iv. 488, 489.)
In classical literature the " turn " found most favour with Ovid, in whom
it degenerated into a mere prettiness, and the early Elizabethans caught i
it principally from Ovid, though Spenser developed to the full its most'
delicate musical possibilities. But in English poetry Milton has the most
constant recourse to it ; in his work it is found in all its forms, from the
vulgar Ovidian pun, which fortunately Keats escaped, to its finest and
highest use. The most sustained example of its musical development is
to be found in the speech of Eve (Paradise Lost, iv. 641-68), " Sweet is
the breath of morn," etc., where an exquisite effect is obtained by the re-
iteration of the delights of earth which in Eve's eyes were associated with j
her love for Adam. Other illustrations, of varying force, are the foUowJ
ing:—
There rest, if any rest can harbour there {Paradise Lost, i. 185).
and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extreams, extreams by change mot^ fierce (ii. 598.)
faithful found
Among iht) faithless, faithful only hee (v. 897).
unchang'd
To hoarce or mute, though fall'n on evil dayes, "]
On evil dayes though fall'n, and evil tongues (vii. 24-26). \
Even Wordsworth in the Excursion fell under the influence of Milton's t
style in this respect, and Keats, often with singular success, makes use of
the same poetic device.
(1) How beautiful, if sorrow had not made * — .
Sorrow more beautiful than Beauty's self (i. 35, 36)/^ -■
(2) sometimes eagles' wings, . J
Unseen before by Gods or wondering men,
Darken'd the place ; and neighing steeds were heard.
Not heard before by Gods or wondering men (i. 182-86).
(3) Two wings this orb
Possess'd for glory, two fair argent wings (i. 283, 284).
(4) Unus'd to bend, by hard compulsion bent (i. 300).
(5) There is a roaring in the bleak-grown pines
Such noise is like the roar of bleak-grown pines (ii. 116, 122).
(6) Now comes the pain of truth, to whom 'tis pain (ii. 202).
(7) it enforc'd me to bid sad farewell
To all my empire : farewell sad I took (ii. 238, 239).
(8) (the brook that)
Doth fear to meet the sea : but sea it met (ii. 302).
492 JOHN KEATS
I question whether Milton himself uses this device on an average
once in every hundred lines, as Keats does.
The "turn" can in many of these cases be clearly distinguished from
■ the mere repetition of phrase (as 2, 3, 5, 7 and 8) but the dividing line
; between them is a vanishing one, so that it seems better to group them
together, as having all the same musical effect upon the poem.
P- MilUmic inversions. This simple device is, of course, employed by all
poets to aid them in overcoming the difficulties of metre and rhyme, but
the excessive use of it is peculiarly associated with. Milton and is one of
the most obvious examples of the Latinism of his style. Keats, who used
it sparingly elsewhere, employs it nearly fifty times in Hyperion, e.g.;
j)alace bright (i. 176) ; metal sick (189) ; rest divine (192) ; stride colossal
(196) ; radiance faint (304) ; children dear (309) ; palpitations sweet, and
pleasures soft (313) ; etc., etc. And the effect is especially Miltonic when
one adjective precedes the noun and another follows it ; e.g. gold clouds
metropolitan (i. 129) ; lithe serpent vast (i. 261) ; cf. Paradise Lost, iv.
870, faded splendour wan, etc.
Miltonic vocabulary. Under this heading may fairly be placed words
^which, not in Keats's ordinary prose vocabulary, are to be found in both
Milton and Hyperion. Many of them are common to other writers of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries {cf. Glossary) but their presence in
, Hyperion is probably due to Keats's engrossing study of Milton at this
period. Most noticeable among these are the following (further explana-
tion, when necessary, will be added in the notes) argent (i. 284) ; colure
Mi. 274) ; essence (i. 232, ii. 331, iii. 104) ; gurge (ii. 28) ; inlet (i. 211) ;
lucent (i. 239) ; oozy (ii. 170) ; orbed (i. 166) ; reluctant (i. 61) ; slope
(i. 204). Notice also the spelling of sovran (iii. 115) and astonied (ii. 16fi).
It is noticeable also that in Hyperion for the first time Keats's vocabu-
lary abounds in adjectives formed from substantives by the addition of -ed
instead of -y. This is a formation used largely by Milton, and from this
\time onward by Keats also.
~ Miltonic reminiscence or intonation. Under this head must be classed
lines and phrases which recall to the ear some well-known Miltonic cadence
or combination of words. They cannot be regarded as direct borrowings,
but they are indicative of the profound influence which Milton exercised
in this poem over Keats's style and thought.
Came like an inspiration (ii. 109) ; cf. Paradise Lost, i. 711, rose like
an Exhalation.
Dark, dark And painful vile oblivion seals my eyes (iii. 87), cf. Samson
Agonistes, 80, O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon.
(The conjunction of the two epithets " painful vile " has also a Miltonic
sound.)
No shape distinguishable (ii. 79) ; cf. The other shape If shape it
might be call'd that shape had none Distinguishable {Paradise Lost, ii.
667).
HYPERION— NOTES 493
The meek ethereal Hours (i. 216) ; c/. th' ethereal Powers {Paradise
Lost, bI Sll).
Soft delicious warmth (ii. 266) ; cf. soft delicious Air {Paradise Lost,
ii. 400) ; soft Ethereal warmth {Paradise Lost, ii. 601).
Breath of mom {Hyp. i. 2) ; {Paradise Lost, iv. 641).
Season due (i. 266) ; {Lycidas, 7).
Repetition of " this " : —
Am I to leave this haven of my rest,
This cradle of my glory, this soft clime (i. 235, 236).
Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime ? . . {Pa/radise Lost, i. 242).
In thousand hugest phantasies (ii. 13) cf. a thousand phantasies
{Comus, 205).
(The uncommon superlative " hugest " is also Miltonic.)
Locks not oozy (ii. 170) ; his oozy locks {Lycidas).
Some comfort yet (i. 21) ; cf. som solace yet {Comus, 348).
More striking passages of the same kind {e.g. ii. 54, ii. 75, ii. 36) are
reserved for treatment in the notes. ^
It was largely due to this excessive Miltonism that Keats ahandoned ;
the poem {vide letters quoted, p. Ii) and set ahout its reconstruction in i
the form of a vision, but his friends seem to have been enthusiastic in its I
praise and to have recognised its supreme poetic worth. Hunt, reviewing I
the 1820 volume in the Indicator, spoke of it as "a fragment — a gigantic I
one, like a ruin in the desert, or the bones of the mastodon. It is truly a)
piece with its subject, which is the downfall of the elder gods.'' The
only dispassionate contemporary review of which we have knowledge is
that of Jeffrey in the Edinburgh of August 1820. It is chiefly devoted to
a criticism of Endymion, which Jeffrey had not noticed before, and only
speaks, at the close, of Hyperion as " containing passages of some force
and grandeur " but, he adds, " it is sufficiently obvious that the subject
is too far removed from all sources of human interest to be successfully
treated by any modem author. Mr. Keats has unquestionably a very
beautiful imagination, and a great familiarity with the finest diction of
English poetry ; but he must learn not to misuse or misapply these
advantages j and neither to waste the good gifts of nature and study on
intractable themes, nor to luxuriate too recklessly on such as are more
suitable." (For a reply to this criticism, vide EML, p. 153.) Byron was
furious at this praise of the Edinburgh and makes several offensive
references to it in his correspondence (Sept. -Dec. 1820), e.g. "of the
praises of that dirty little blackguard Keates in the Edinburgh, I shall
observe as Johnson did when Sheridan the actor got a pension ; ' what,
has he got a pension ? then it is time I should give up mine ! ' Nobody
could be prouder of the praises of the Edinburgh than I was, or more
alive to its censure. ... At present all the men they have ever praised
are degraded by their insane article. Why don't they review ' Solomon's
Guide to Health ' ? It is better sense and as much poetry as Johnny Keates. '
{Letters and Journals, ed. Prothero, v. 120.)
494 JOHN KEATS
But in spite of this he recognised the genius of Hyperion. In Don
Juan. (zi. 60) he attempted to compromise matters, and to sneer and praise
at the same time. ...
" John Keats, who was killed off by one critique
I Just as he really promised something great
If not intelligible, without Greek
Contrived to talk about the gods of late,
Much as they might have been supposed to speak.
Poor fellow ! His was an untoward fate ;
'Tis strange the mind, that very iiery particle,
Should let itself be snuffed out by an article."
In a letter to Murray (Aug. 1821, Prothero, v. 331) he admitted that
" his Hyperion is a fine monument and will keep his name " and a few
months later wrote in a manuscript note to his earlier attack on Keats (vide
note to Sleep and Poetry, 230), " His fragment on Hyperion seems actually
inspired by the Titans and is as sublime as ^schylus ". Shelley, whom
neither vanity nor jealousy ever touched, always recognised the greatness
of the poem, which was to him the finest of all Keats's work. "If
Hyperion be not grand poetry, vJme has been produced by our contempo-
raries," he writes to Peacock (15th Feb., 1821) whilst in his unpublished
letter to the Quarterly Review he remarks : " The g^eat proportion of this
piece is surely in the very highest style of pOetry ". Medwin states that
Shellby ''considered the scenery and drawing of Saturn dethroned and
the fallen Titans, surpassed those of Satan and his rebellious angels in
Paradise Lost — possessing more human interest, and that the whole poem
was supported throughout with a colossal grandeur equal to the subject"
(Dowden, Life of Shelley, ii. 109).
For the importance of Hyperion in the development of Keats's mind
and thought, ef. General Introduction, and Introduction to the Fall of
Hyperion.
Until quite recently the only MS. of Hyperion known to be extant'was
that to be found in the Woodhouse Commonplace Book, into which it was
copied by one of Woodhouse's clerks; But in October last (1904) the British
Museum purchased from Miss Bird, sister of Dr. George' Bird the physician
and friend of Leigh Hunt, the autograph MS. of the poem. It is clear
that when Keats started upon this MS. he intended it to be a fair copy,
and it was only discarded because of the numerous alterations which he
made when be came to view his work a second time, and the act of writing
rekindled in him with even greater intensity the inspiration in which the
poem had first been composed. For a full account of the MS. and ite
cancelled passages readers are referred to my Introduction and Notes to
the Facsimile of the Autograph MS. of Hyperion, published by the Clarendon
Press ; all the more important readings in it are quoted in the following
notes. It was from this MS. that the transcript in the Woodhouse Common-
place Book was taken.
HYPERION, BK. I.— NOTES 496
Book I
1. For the relation of the picture of the dejected Saturn with which
the poem opens to Chapman's translation of Iliad, viii. 426, vide Gieneral
Introduetion, p. xlvi.
3. Eve's one stair : evening MS. cancelled, the substitution of a vivid
picture for mere statement.
8. Not so much Ufe as on a summer's day
Robs not one light seed from the feather' d grass.
This passage affords us one of < the most interesting examples of gradual
development to perfection. Originally it ran : —
Not so much life as what an eagle's wing
Would spread upon a field of green-ear'd corn,
"what an eagle's" was then deleted in favour of "a young vulture's"
—hardly an improvement — and so the passage was left. Then at a later
time, when Keats came to read through what he had written, the two
lines were crossed through and their place taken by the following, written
across the right-hand side of the page : —
Not so much life as on a summer's day
Bobs not at all the dandelion's fleece.
This was left unaltered in the MS., and reappears in Woodhouse. But
Keats was dissatisfied with it, and the felicitous reading of the text was
added on the proof-sheets.'
16. Stray'd : stay'd MS., Woodhouse.
17-19. The MS. first read :—
And slept without a motion : since that time
His old right hand lay nerveless on the ground
Unseepter'd, and his white-hrowd eyes were clos'd ;
and reached its present form through several changes. Thus "on the
ground " was first cancelled for " dead supine," and " white-browed " gave
place to " ancient " before the inspiration came which prompted the most
vital word in the whole passage — " realmless ".
18. nerveless, listless, dead.: — A collocation of adjectives whose cadence
Keats had caught from his favourite, Chatterton — cf. Excellent Ballad of
Charitie, 23, withered, sapless, dead. 38. lost, dispended, drowned. Keats
malces use of it in two other places — Endymion iv. 764, lovelorn, silent,
wan. St. Agnes' Eve, ii., meagre, barefoot, wan.
21. Between lines 21 and 22 the MS. and Woodhouse supply four can-
celled lines : —
Thus the old Eagle drowsy with great grief,
Sat moulting his weak plumage, never more
' In reality the change .made its first appearance in Tie Fall of Hyperion, written
in November, 1819. Critics are always ready to point out the general inferiority of the
reconstructed poem ; they do not reaUse that four of the most felicitous changes from
'ii& jffyperion of the Woodhmise Commonplace Book to tlie printed text of 1820 are
anticipated in The Pall of Hyperion. Besides this passage we may note the substitution
of " gradual " for " sudden " in line 76 and the changes in lines 189 and 200.
496 JOHN KEATS
To be restored or soar against the sun ;
While his three sons upon Olympus stood.
23. there came one : — Thea, wife of Hyperion {vide 1. 9fi).
28. By her in stature the tall Amazon
Had stood a pigmy's height : —
Placed by her side the tallest Amazon
Had stood a little child MS. cancelled.
The idea of comparing Thea's height with the stature of the Pigmy wag
doubtless suggested by Paradise Lost, i. 780, where the devils are repre-
sented as
" now less than smallest dwarfs . . . like that Pigmean race," etc.
It is important to notice that the Miltonic touch thus given to the pas-
sage was a correction to the MS.
30. stay'd Ixion's wheel : eased Ixion's toil MS., Woodhouse.
35-37. Mr. W. T. Arnold and Mr. Buxton Forman point out the debt
in this passage to Lander's Gebir, i. 66-60 : —
There was a brightening paleness in his face
Such as Diana, rising o'er the rocks
Shower'd o'er the lonely Latmian ; on his brow
Sorrow there was, yet nought was there severe.
The Miltonic grandeur of Landor^s blank verse would naturally attract
Keats at this period, whilst the reference to the Endymion legend would
tend to make his memory retentive of this passage.
46. She laid and to the level of his ear : She laid and to the level of
his hollow ear MS. with two hypermetric syllables. This had apparently
escaped Keats's notice, but Woodhouse has underlined it in pencil, and
put a -f against it in the margin. The mistake was easily rectified by the
omission of the word " hollow ".
48. tone : tune MS., Woodhouse.
<^ 62. poor old King: — When it is remembered that Keats's sonnet re-
I cording the profound impression made upon him by re-reading King Lear
' (vide p. 277) was written at a time when Hyperion was already in his mind,
: it is easy to believe that he was more or less consciously influenced by
I Shakespeare in his conception of the character of Saturn, whose kingdom,
, and the powers of mind necessary to rule it, have passed away from him
in age. It is noticeable that the epithet old is applied to Lear, at least
\ twenty times, with deeply tragic reiteration ; and his weakness, whether
i it is viewed with contempt, or pity, or love, or referred to by Lear himself
Vjn his utter misery, is always alluded to as the weakness of age. Goneril
alludes to it with a sneer (i. 3. 16-19), Regan taunts him with it (ii. 4. 148) -
and Gloucester twice in the same speech applies to him the epithet poor old
(iii. 7- 67, 62), whilst Lear calls himself a poor old man and constantly harps
upon it. (C/. also ii. 4. 156, 194, 238 ; iii. 4. 20, etc.) It is noteworthy
also that Saturn replies to Thea (lines 98-102) by questions as to his own
identity which recall strikingly the language and mood of Lear (i. 4.
246-60) :—
HYPERION, BK. I.^NOTES 497
Doth any here kaow me ? This is not Lear :
Doth Lear walk thus ? speak thus ? Where are his eyes ?
Either his motion weakens, his discernings
Are lethargied — Ha ! waking ? 'Tis not so.
Who is it that can tell me who I am ?
61. reluctant: — Mrj Forman quotes as a parallel to this passage Paradise
Lost, i. 171-177. The Miltonic use of the word reluctant suggests Paradise
Lost, vi. 66-69 :—
. . . Clouds began
To darken all the Hill, and smoak to rowl
In duskie wreathes, reluctant flames, the signe
Of wrauth awak't.
On which Keats comments, in his Notes to Milton, "' Reluctant' with its
original and modem meaning combined and woven together, with all its
shades and signification has a powerful effect ".
63. Unpractised: impetuous MS. cancelled.
67. That unbelief has not a space to breathe. Followed in the MS. by
a line afterwards cancelled : —
Or a brief dream to find its way to heaven.
72-8. Those green-rob'd senators, etc. : — This exquisite interpretation of
the trees, whose age suggests their connection with the mystery of the
past, is essentially characteristic of the manner in which the influence of
Nature and of romance was blended in the mind of Keats. Cf. Fall of
Hyperion, ii, 6, of the wind which
blows legend-laden through the trees.
' So in an early sonnet (xvii. p. 39)
breezes than are blown
Through its tall woods with high romances blent.
We find a close parallel to the idea in a half-sportive passage in the
letters of Gray, where he speaks *)f the "most-venerable beeches . . .
that like most other ancient people, are always dreaming out their old
stories to the winds : —
and as they bow their hoary tops, relate
In murmuring sounds the dark decrees of fate :
While visions, as poetic eyes avow.
Cling to each leaf and swarm on every bough ".
These lines were first written in the MS. thus : —
The oaks stand charmed by the earnest stars
And through all night without a stir they rest.
Save from one sudden momentary gust
Which comes upon the silence and dies off.
As if the sea of air had but one wave.
The heaviness of the double monosyllabic ending to line 76 seems to have
struck Keats at once, for " they rest " is struck out in favour of " remain ".
Then he changes the order to
And through all night remain without a stir.
32
498 JOHN KEATS
Later comes the happy thought of developing the human idea already
suggested in the word " senators ". He wishes to impress upon us the still-
ness of the scene, and even politicians are not reposeful enough unless they
are asleep. The night is " tranced," and the influence of " the earnest
stars " is upon the whole face of Nature. It is not therefore a senseless
sleep, but one of magic dreams. So " dream " is substituted for " stand " ;
but this does not help the second line, which is the weakest. Clearly the
idea of dreaming must be reserved for the second line, and the inspiration
comes : —
Dream, and so dream all night without a stir.
But if this is to stand, the previous line must once more be altered ; and
Keats changes the construction of his sentence, and coins a compound
adjective, grammatically indefensible perhaps, but peculiarly effective for
all that, in its suggestions of the potency and the all-pervading influence
of the charm which has been laid upon the dreaming oalcs.
The change in the two adjectives of line 76 still further improves the
passage. The substitution of " solitary " for " momentary " is a gain both
in sound and sense ; so too is the substitution of " gradual " for " sudden,"
which, however, was not made in the MS., but only added as a pencil
correction in Woodhouse.
81. falling : fallen MS.
86. in cathedral cavern : — Keats had been much impressed during his
Scotch tour in the previous summer (1818) with the beauty of Fingal's
Cave, and had already celebrated it in a poem. Staff a {q.v.), wherein
he spoke of it as The Cathedral of the Sea. He is here drawing upon
his recollections of it. In his letter to Thomas Keats (26th July) in which
he sends him the poem on Staffa, he speaks in a manner suggestive of these
lines. " Suppose now the Giants who rebelled against Jove had taken a
whole mass of black columns and bound them together like bunches of
matches — and then with immense axes had made a cavern in the body of
these columns — of course the roof and the floor must be composed of the
broken ends of these columns — such is Fingal's Cave except that the sea has
done the work of excavation and is continually washing there. . . . For
solemnity and grandeur it far surpasses the finest cathedral."
90. His faded eyes and saw his kingdom gone. Keats first wrote in
the MS. ;—
His eyes and saw his royal kingdom gone ;
but as he copied he recognised the tautology of " royal kingdom,'' and
decided to give the epithet to "eyes ". First he tried "feint-blue," but
deleted it in favour of "faded," which suggests more forcibly Saturn's
loss of royal power, and is doubtless an unconscious reminiscence of the
" faded cheek " of Satan (Paradise Lost, i. 602).
92. and then spake : and he said MS. cancelled.
98. Look up, and tell me, etc. : — vide note to i. 52.
102. front of Sattim : — Followed in MS. and Woodhouse by the follow-
ing line : —
HYPERION, PK. I.— NOTES 499
What dost think?
Am I that same ? O Chaos !
106-112. This is one of the passages taken by Mr. W. T. Arnold to
prove Keats's close study of Lempri^re. Of Saturn, Lempridre says " he
employed himself in civilising the barbarous manners of the people of Italy
and in teaching them agriculture and the useful and liberal arts. His reign
was so mild and popular that mankind have called it the golden age, to inti-
mate the happiness and tranquillity which the earth then enjoyed ". But
there is nothing here with which Keats was not familiar in Chapman's trans-
lation of Hesiod's Georgia and in Sandyg's Ovid. In Chapman we read : —
When first both gods and men had one time's birth
The gods of diverse languaged men on earth
A golden world produced, that did sustain
Old Saturn's rule when he in heaven did reig^ :
And then lived men, like gods in pleasure here
Indued with minds secure ; from toils, griefs, clear.
Thus lived they long and died as seized in sleep
All good things served them ; fruits did ever keep
Their free fields crowned, that all abundance bore
All which all equal shared, and none wished more.
Similarly Ovid, Met. i. (Sandys), founded in all probability on this
in iirme content
And harmlesse ease, their happy days were spent
The yet free Earth did of her own accord
Untorne with ploughs all sorts of fruit afford.
'Twas always Spring, warm Zephyrus sweetly blew
On smiling flowers, which without setting grew,
and more in the same strain, whilst in his commentary Sandys translates
another similar passage from Hesiod's Theogony. The tone of these passages
is much closer to Keats than is LempriSre, in whom, it may be remarked,
there is no reference to Saturn's influence over the weather, which Ovid
has emphasised.
111. acts : arts MS., a not impossible reading. The lines which follow
are thus written in the MS. : —
Must do to ease itself, but too hot grown
Doth ease its heart of love in, just as tears
Leave a calm pleasure in the human breast
O Thea I must burn — my Spirit gasps.
The poet cancelled all these lines except that part which stands in our
text, and then added " I am gone " below, to complete the line.
116. Spot: bit MS., Woodhouse.
126. Be of ripe progress, etc. First written in the MS. : —
Be going on — Saturn must still be king
but altered to the reading of the text.
500 JOHN KEATS
134. where is : am I MS. ca/ncelUd.
139. and heard not : not hearing MS. cancelled.
147. The rebel three :—3u.jAteT, Neptune and Pluto. Cf. speech of
Neptune, Chapman's Iliad, xv. 174, 175: —
Three brothers bom are we
To Saturn, Rhea brought us forth, this Jupiter and I
And Pluto, god of undergrounds.
164. shade : gloom MS. cancelled.
156. that yielded like the mist : which to them gave like air MS. altered
to "that gave to them like mist ". So Woodhimse.
166. Hyperion : — Mr. W. T. Arnold notes that Hyperion was not really
the god of the Sun " but strictly speaking the father of Helios, the Sun ".
But his statement is incorrect, and even if it had not been so, there would
have been plenty of precedent for Keats in Elizabethan poetry. Cf.
Shakespeare, Titus Andronims, v. 2. 56: —
Even from Hyperion's rising in the East
and Timon of Athens, iv. 3. 184: —
. . . heaven whereon Hyperion's quickening fire doth shine.
169-73. as among us mortals etc. : — A reminiscence of Paradise Lost,
i. 598 (a passage selected in Keats's Notes for special comment) where a
natural portent is described which " \ri\3a.fear ofehaageperpkxes Monarchs ".
Keats remarks upon it : " How noble and collected an indignation against
Kings ! " The rest of the passage, in its connection of the bell and the
gloom bird, suggests the words of the terror-stricken Lady Macbeth
(Macbeth, ii. 2. 3, 4) :—
It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman
Which gives the stem'st good night.
The reference here and in Keats may be to the practice of sending the
town bellman to a condemned man on the night before his execution to
warn him that his time was come, or to a custom of ringing the church
bell when a person was dying, in order to obtain prayers for the passing
soul. The idea seems to have impressed Keats, for he makes two other
forcible allusions to it : —
A poor, weak, palsy-stricken churchyard thing,
Whose passing-bell may ere the midnight toll.
(St. Agnes' Eve, xviii.)
and
but a moment's thought is passion's passing bell,
{Lamia, ii. 39.)
174. prophesyings of the midnight lamp : — Mr. W. T. Arnold thinks this
to be a reminiscence of Vergil, Georg. i. 390-92.
Ne nocturna quidem carpentes pensa puellae
Nescivere hiemem, testa cum ardente viderent
Scintillare oleum et putris concrescere fungos.
We know that Keats read Vergil in the original at school ; but that he
was not scholar enough to appreciate the language is evident from the
HYPERION, BK. I.-^NOTES 501
fact tbat he who " looked upon fine phrases like a lover " and constantly
drew upon his predecessors, should have made no attempt to reproduce this
greatest phrase-maker of literature. It seems far more probable, there-
fore, though I have as yet been unable to trace it, that in this passage
Keats is indebted not to Vergil, but a Vergilian echo to be found in some
scholarly Elizabethan. (
176. Bvi horrors, portion' d to a giant nerve : But warnings, portion'd to
his giant sense MS. altered to text.
176. Oft made Hyperion ache ; Oft [made his Chin] pressed his curly
Chin upon his Breast MS. cancelled.
178. Andtoiich'd with shade of bronzed obelisks. First written in MS. —
With chequered black of bronzed obelisks.
186. Not heard before by Gods or wondering men : Not heard before by
either Grods or Men MS. altered in order to make more perfect the char-
acteristic Miltonic repetition.
189. Savoitr of poisonous brass, etc. : a nauseous-feel of brass and metal
sick MS. changed to "poison," and so Woodhouse: — The alteration is
among the most felicitous of Keats's changes. " Feel," used as a noun,
takes us back to the most vulgar phase in Keats's poetic development.
190. And so, when harbour'd in the sleepy west : So that when he had
harbour'd in the West MS. cancelled. The change, both here and in
line 192, which originally was : —
Instead of rest upon exalted couch,
adds vividness to the picture and enforces the contrast between the past
and present condition of Hyperion. The words " full completion " in the
next line represent a change in meaning from the earlier draft ; for before
them in our MS. stands the cancelled word " gradual ". In the Woodhouse
MS. Keats has written in pencil wherefore, the reading which he adopted
in the parallel line of the Fall of Hyperion (ii. 36).
198-200. Amaz'daindfuUoffea/r; Uhe anxious men
Who on wide plains gather in panting troops,
When earthquakes jar their battlements and towers.
This passage at first ran : —
In fear and sad amaze, like men at gaze
Who on a wide plain gather in sad troops
When an earthquake hath shook their city towers.
Then Keats substitutes " surprise " for " amaze ". But the word " sur-
prise " is ludicrously mild for men whose city towers are shaken with an
earthquake, and " Amaz'd and full of fear " is adopted as a beginning. The
return of " amaz'd " into the line now makes it necessary to get rid of "at
gaze," and it goes out first in favour of " trooped," which is found at once
to be impossible because of "sad troops" in the next line, and then
" anxioos " is substituted. In the next line he deletes the " a," intending,
doubtless, though forgetting, to add an " s " to " plain ". Then, to give
the extra syllable now required, he alters "sad" to "saddened," but
deletes it and writes the vivid epithet " panting ".
502 JOHN KEATS
The change in line 200 was a happy inspiration not found in the MS.,
but added as a correction in Woodhouse.
203. Hyperion leaving twilight m the rear : He of the Sun just lighted
from the Air MS. cancelled.
204-12. Came slope upon, etc. : — One of the most characteristically
Miltonic passages in the poem, both in the use of words (slope, inlet) and
in construction (as was wont, save what, gave of). Cf. Introduction to the
poem. After 20S MS. and Woodhouse give the line : —
Most like a rosebud to a faery's lute,
and in place of the " And " of 209 read " Yes, ".
217. fla/red : went MS. cancelled.
218-22. From stately nave to nave, from vault to vault.
Through bowers of fragrant and enwreathed light,
And diamond-paved lustrous long arcades.
Until he reached the main great cupola.
There standing fierce beneath, he stamped his foot.
These lines were first written in the MS. : —
From gorgeous vault to vault, from space to space
Until he reached the great main Copula
And there he stood beneath, he stampt his foot.
It is noticeable here how in the growing intensity of vision the second
draft adds colour and detail to a picture at first vague and ill-defined.
223. basements deep : deep foundations MS. cancelled.
233. see : mark MS. cancelled.
235. Am I to leave ihis haven of my rest,
This cradle of my glory, this soft cUme,
This calm luxuriance of blissful light ?
The phraseology and cadence of this passage owe something to Paradise
Lost, i. 242-5.
Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,
Said then the lost Arch Angel, this the seat
That we must change for Heav'n, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light ?
Satan's bitter indignation at the change of clime and loss of light which has
befallen him suggested to Keats Hyperion's prophetic sense of a like change.
243. Even here, into my centre of repose : Even here into my sanctuary
of repose MS. first altered to " in my old sanctuary of repose," and then
to the reading of the text.
246. Tellus and her briny robes ! Cf. End. iii. 701 : —
Ocean bows to thee
And Tellus feels his forehead's cumbrous load.
267. mirror'd : glassy MS. corrected to " miroured," which Wood-
house had some difficulty in deciphering, for he puts a + against the line.
268. A mist arose, etc. : — This mist brings forcibly to the mind Paru'
dise Lost, ix. 180-82, where Milton tells of Satan how
HYPERION, BK. I.— NOTES 503
Like a black mist low creeping, he held on
His midnight search, where soonest he might finde
The Serpent.
It is interesting to notice that this is among the passages selected by
Keats in his Notes on Milton for admiring comment. Mr. Forman thinks
that the description of Hyperion's palace which follows was " inspired by
the noble brief description of the palace of the Sun with which book ii. of
Ovid's Metamorphoses opens," but I am unable to trace any resemblance.
258. scummy : stagnant MS. cancelled — a vivid touch.
267. burst them wide
Suddenly on the Ocean's chilly streams
The planet orb etc.
burst them wide
And sudden on the Ocean's chilly streams.
The planet orb etc. MS.
This passage was misinterpreted by Woodhouse's clerk, who altered the
punctuation to " wide : And, sudden, . . . streams. The planet orb " etc.,
giving a sense which Keats had never intended. Keats realised the
ambiguity later on and returned in the text to his own punctuation,
altering however " and sudden " to " suddenly ".
273-87. But ever and anon the glancing spheres, etc. : — Justly described
by! Mr. Arnold as the most Miltonic passage in the poem. This is
noticeable in the words, the ring of the verse, the sentence and paragraph
structure, the use of simile, the inversion of adjectives and the repetition
of phrase. But notice also the essentially human touch which Keats gives
to the passage by his use of the adjectives muffling and sweet shaped. It is
interesting to observe that in the Woodhouse MS. the passage hieroglyphics
old . . . centuries has been queried, apparently by Keats himself — probably
because, at that time, he felt it to be too Miltonic.
But it is important to notice that all the changes from the earliest
version of the passage to its final form are towards Miltonism. In place
of lines 269-85 Keats first wrote only seven lines. Thus : —
The planet orb of fire whereon he rode
Each day from east to west the heavens through
Spun at his round in blackest curtaining
Not therefore hidden up and muffled quite
For ever and anon the glancing spheres
Glow'd through and still upon the sable shroud
Made sweet shap'd lightning : Wings this splendent orb, etc.
Apparently Keats first attempted to improve the passage as it stood,
altering " blackest curtaining " first to " darkest curtaining '' and then to
" curtaining of clouds," and, two lines further on, " For " to " But ".
In the next line, which already showed a felse start, "shot through,"
"upon their" became first "within" then "about the". The recon-
struction must have occupied Keats on another occasion, for it is written
504 JOHN KEATS
on the preceding verso; and the additions are all remarkable for their
reminiscence of Miltonic word, phrase and cadence. As it stands it shows
few corrections, which suggests that Keats may have experimented with
it on a rough sheet before copying it in. In line 272, however, " hid "
was only decided upon after Keats had tried both " dim " and " veiled,"
and in line 274 "zones" was first written after "arcs ".
Line 276 passed through the intermediary stage "glared through and
struck throughout the muffling dark,'' and of 281 the earlier version ran
Now lost with all their wisdom and import.
287. Rose : came MS. cancelled.
296. here 'tis told : it is writ MS. cancelled.
296. Those silver wings, etc. First written in MS. :—
Those silver wings of the Sun were full out8p[r]ead
Ready to sail their orb ; the Porches wide
Were opened on the dusk domain of night.
In the next line "bright" is a correction of '^enraged" and in 300
" hard " a correction of " stern ". .
304. He stretch' d himself in grief and radiance faint. A vivid substitute
for the tame and unmetrical reading cancelled in the MS. : —
He laid himself supine and in radiance faint.
306. the Heaven. . . . Look'd down on him with pity, etc^ MS. : — Keats
makes a noteworthy change in the legend in the feeling of Coelus for his
children. Hesiod, and after hvm the other classical mythologists^ re-
present him as vowing vengeance on his children for the wrong they
have done him. He
told them all with a prophetic mind
The hours of his revenge were sure behind. (Theog. 320).
317- beauteous life : Life and Beauty MS. cancelled.
323. tumbled: hurled MS.eancelkd.
331. Unruffled : Passionless MS. cancelled,
334. / see them, etc. Above is a cancelled line in the MS. : —
In widest speculation I do see.
351. Lifted: — A dramatic change for the first reading of the MS.
"opened". "Opened," was merely the obvious word ; "lifted" suggests
vividly the weariness of the dejected god.
363. And still they were the same bright patient stars : — This beautiful
line was the result of two corrections. Keats wrote first
And still they all were the same patient stars,
then.
And still he saw they were . . .
but the inspiration came to him before he went further with his second
attempt.
BOOK II
This book is headed " Canto 2nd," a fact not, I think, without some
significance in its support of my theory {vide page 488) that when Keats
HYPERION, BK. II.— NOTES 505
was engaged on the poem he had already given up his notion of making it
a formal epic in ten hooks.
The opening lines show some hesitation. Keats hegan first —
Upon that very point of winged time
That saw Hyperion,
probably intending to finish " slide into the air ". Then he alters " that "
in the first line to "the" and restarts his second line " Hyperion slid ".
This again is cancelled and the passage rewritten as in the text. The word
" beat," however, is crossed out in favour of " move ". Yet " beat " found
its way into the Woodhouse book either with or without the consent of
Keats, and so into the text.
4. Cybele identical with Ops (ii. 113) and Rhea — the wife of Saturn and
queen of the Titans.
4. the bruised Titans : her bruised children MS. cancelled.
5, 6. iifhere no insulting light Could glimmer. So Satan describes Hell
as
The seat of desolation, void of light
Save what the glimmering of these livid flames
Casts pale and dreadful. {Paradise Lost, i. 181-83.)
7. the solid roar Of thunderous waterfalls and torrents hearse: — The
Boise of the water had impressed Keats at Staffa. " At the extremity of
Fingal's cave," he writes, "there is a small perforation into another cave
at which the waters meeting and buffeting each other there is sometimes
produced a report as of a cannon."
17. Couches of rugged stone, etc. : — The MS. shows a false start, " Rough
stones," and continues "Couches of rugged stone and edge pf slate".
It is altered to text after some hesitation.
19, 20. Coeus, and Gyges, and Briareus, Typhon, and Dolor, and Por-
ph^rion : — In the Woodhouse MS., opposite these lines, and apparently in
the hand of Keats himself, are written the words
" Big-biawn'd ^gieon mounted on a whale "
and below " Mgseon p. 26, S.O. Typhon or Typhoeus 90. Cobus 108 "-
Reference to these pages in the 1640 edition of Sandys's Ovid gives us in
each case the clue to amain source ofKeats's knowledge of the Titans.
On p. 25 we find the line above quoted, with the marginal note " a giant
drowned in the iEgseon Sea for assisting the Titans and taken into the
number of the sea gods by Tethys" (he is identical with Briareus); on
p. 90 a marginal note on Typhon " the son of Tellus and Tantarus also
called Typhoeus," and on p. 108, again in a note, Coeus is spoken of as
" one of the Titans ". C/. also Hesiod, Theogony 206-11 (Cooke) :—
Coeus his birth
From them derives, and Creus, sons of Earth
Hyperion and Japhet, brothers, join
Thea and Rhea of this ancient line
Descend : and Themis boasts the source divine
506 JOHN KEATS
And thou Mnemosyne and Phcebe crowned
With gold, and Tethys for her charms renowned.
Gyges and Briareus and Cottus (49) were bom to Uranus and 6e
(Heaven and Earth) of a later brood, and were in reality giants as
distinguished from Titans. (Hesiod, Theogony (Cooke), 237). They were
imprisoned by their father Typhon, by some identified with Typhoeus,
by others with Enceladus. Keats follows the former, among whom is
Sandys, for he does not use the name Typhoeus ; but it is noticeable that
he transfers to Enceladus stories associated with the name of Typhon
(ii. 66 note).
Dolor : — ^There was no Titan or giant of antiquity corresponding with
this name and its presence here has never been explained. But in the
Auctores Mythographi Latmi (containing Hyginus) (ed. Van Staverm,
Leydm, 1742), at the top of page 3, we read " ex ^there et Terra, Dolor,
Dolus, Ira," etc. (the Titans following two lines later). Mr. Colvin has
proved that this book was in Keats's possession in 1819 and that from page
4 (really pp. 3 and 4) he took his idea in the Fall of Hyperion of identifying
Mnemosyne with Moneta. There is no reason to suppose that he had not
seen the book in 1818, " ex ^there et Terra" would naturally suggest to
his mind Uranus and Ge, and the abstract noun would become in his
imagination a living Titan, especially as the Titans are themselves
mentioned in the same paragraph. Porphyrion is not mentioned by
Hesiod, but appears first in Pindar [rov ovSe Mop^vpiav \a6cv {Pyth. viii.
15)]. He occurs also in Horace (iii. Ode 4) and is mentioned on pp. 1
and 2 of Hyginus. Keats perhaps took him from the list given in
Lempridre.
It is important to notice that line 20, with its two far-sought Titans, was
probably an afterthought, added because Keats is conscious of the effect
gained by a list of charmed names in Milton ; for it is written on the
preceding verso of the MS. So, too, lines 21, 23-28 and 31 are all written
on the verso, and their addition gives to the passage a Miltonic richness of
effect. Line 26 gave Keats some difficulty and the MS. bears traces of two
earlier drafts of it : —
Locked up like metal veins was crampt and screw'd.
Locked up like metal veins with cramp and screw.
In 27 " heaving " was first " labouring " and in 28 " gurge of boiling
pulse" was "whelming gurge of pulse".
29. Mnemosyne : — The mother of the Muses by Jupiter {Hesiod).
30. Phoibe : — Daughter of Uranus and Ge {Hesiod), the mother of Leto
by Coeus, and hence grandmother of the moon-goddess who bore her name.
Keats may have identified her with the moon-goddess intentionally, or he
may have been misled by the passage in Ovid, Met. (Sandys) i. 9, 10
No Titcm yet the world with light adornes
Nor waxing Phcebe fills her wained homes
into thinking that the moon Phoebe was a Titan.
HYPERION, BK. II.— NOTES 507
32. But for the main, etc. : — Originally written " The others [rest] here
found grief and respite sad " — hardly the meaning required by the context.
34-39. This marvellous simile, so instinct with the spirit of Keats, was
suggested by the Druid Stones near Keswick. Cf. letter to Thos. Keats
(Keswick, 29th June, 1818), " We set forth about a mile and a half on
the Penrith road, to see the Druid Temple. We had a fag up hill, rather
too near dinner time, which was rendered void by the gratification of see-
ing these aged stones on a gentle rise in the midst of the mountains, which
at that time darkened all around except at the first opening of the Vale of
St. John." It is worth noticing that Keats himself saw the stones at
"shut of eve". It is not impossible that Keats's description was also
affected by his recollection of the Excursion, iii. 50 : —
Upon a semicirque of turf clad ground
The hidden nook discovered to their view
A mass of rock. . . . These several stones
Stood near, of smaller size, and not unlike
To monumental pillars, and from these
Some little space disjoined, a pair were seen
That with united shoulders bore aloft
A fragment like an altar.
36. at shut of eve : — The phrase which Keats uses again in Sonnet xxix.
He owes it in all probability to a reminiscence of Milton. Cf. Lamia,
i. 139 note, ii. 107.
38. throughout night : — A close to the line only reached after first
"through long night" and then "the long night" had been tried and
found wanting.
41. CreUs : Croeus Woodhouse. Cf. ii. 19 note.
49. Cottus : — Hesiod, Theogony, 237, " Cottus terrible to name " ; men-
tioned by Hesiod with Briareus and Gyges as of " later birth " than the
other Titans.
50. As though in pain : Pained he seem'd MS. cancelled.
63. Asia daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, married to lapetus and
mother of Prometheus. She is generally identified with Clymene (76),
and so Hesiod, Theogony ; but Keats makes of them two persons and gives
to Asia a new parentage upon which, as upon Dolor in ii. 19, critics who
have discussed the sources of Keats's Titans have refrained from com-
menting. Keats probably met the name, as the late Prof. York Powell
pointed out to me, in the Arabian Nights, with which he was very familiar.
In the Mahommedan faith, Kaf was a fabulous mountain which "sur-
rounded the earth as a ring does the finger," it was " the starry girdle of
the world " (Burton, 1001 Nights, i. 77. 122) and a not infrequent threat
of the magician was that be could transport "the stones of a city behind
the mountain Kaf and the circumambient ocean ". Keats, his imagination
fired by legends of the East as by those of Greece and Rome, conceives of
the Titan Asia as having this parentage.
508 JOHN KEATS
64. Who cost hm mother Tellus hemer pangs .-—an echo of Paradise l^ost,
iv. 271, '* which cost Ceres all that pain " a passage which particularly im-
pressed Keats. Cf. Lamia, i. 63 note.
60. By Oxus or in Ganges' sacred isles : From Tigris uoto Ganges and
far north MS. cancelled — then " By TigHs or in Ganges shaded isles ".
Lastly " Tigris " becomes " Oxus," but " shaded " is left in the MS. and
reappears in Woodhouse.
61. as Hope Vipon her emchor learn : — The simile of Hope has been ob-
jected to as unclassical, but if it is unclassical it is so accidentally rather
than in spirit, and Keats in all probability owed it, in common with most
of his unimpeachable classicisms, to an !Elizabeth»!i source. Cy. Faerie
Queene, i. 10. 14.
Upon her arme a silver anchor lay
Whereon she leaned ever, as befell.
66. Enceladus the strongest and fiercest of the giants, usually indenti-
iied with Typhon. Keats makes of them two persons (c/. 1. 20) but he
attributes here to Enceladus the prowess associated in Ovid with the name
of Typhon. Cf. Sandys, Ovid, Met. vi. (quoted in part in Woodhouse) :—
Typhon from earth's gloomy entrails rais'd
Struck all their powers with feare; who fled amazed
Till Egypt's scorched soyle the weary hides
And wealthy Nile, who in seven channels glides
That hither earth born Typhon them pursued
; When as the gods concealing shapes indued.
Jove tum'd himselfe, she said, into a Ram ;
From whence the homes of Lybian Hammon came
Bacchus a goat, Apollo was a crow,
Phoebe a cat, Jove's wife a cow of snow ;
Venus a fish, a stork did Hermes hide.
(For the significance of lines 70, 71 in relation to the scheme of the
poem, cf. Introduction, p. 488).
The name Enceladus does not occur in Hesiod, but was known to Keats
from a passage in Vergil's Aeneid, iii. 678 (which he had already utilised in
Endymiion) and in Spenser, who describes his death in the later war of the
Titans at the hand of Bellona {Faerie Queene, ii. 9. 22). The character
of Enceladus may be compared with that of IMoloch in Paradise Lost, but
it was doubtless filled out by the suggestions of the mythological gloss
in Sandys, pp. 96, 97. " Typhon is the type of Ambition. ... He is said
to have reached Heaven with his hands, in regard to his aspiring
thoughts ; to have feete unwearied with trouble as expressing his in-
dustry in accommodating all thinges to his own desigues ; to have flaming
eyes ; as full of wrath and violence ; the tongues of serpents ; in that
insolent in language, apt to detract, sounding his owne glory on the
infamy of others. . . . But better this horrid figure of Typhon agrees
with rebellion. ... By such rebellious not seldom princes are chased out
HYPERION, BK. II.— NOTES 509
of their countries inforced to hide themselves in some obscure angle ; as
here the Gods pursued by Typhon, fly into Egypt ; concealing themselves
in the shapes of unreasonable creatures.''
73. Atlas .''^-Son of lapetus and Asia or Clymene.
74. Phorcus, the sire of Gorgons : — Cf. Faerie Queene, iv. 11. 13.
The father of that fatal brood
By whom those old h«roes won such fame.
75. Tethys : — Wife of Oceanus, often referred to in Spenser. The tender
and yielding character given to Clymene was perhaps due to the association
of the name with the Clymene of Ovid, Met. ii., i.e. the mother of Phaeton
and wife of Apollo. Her " tangled hair " is a reminiscence of Lycidas.
To sport with Amaryllis in the shade
Or with the tangles of Neasra's hair,
itself a reminiscence of Peele's David and Bathseba : —
Here comes my lover tripping like a roe
And brings my longings tangled in her hair.
77. Themis : vide note to ii. 9.
79. night confounds : — A phrase recollected from the famous passage in
Chapman's Iliad (viii. 420-24 ; vide Introduction, p. xlvi) where the poet
describes the abode of the Titans.^
83. chaunt : tell MS. cancelled.
86. Above a sombre cliff : and now was slowly come MS. cancelled —
then " Above a [clifted] gnarled cliff" which is altered to text.
96. but most of all despair : — In the description of the complexity of
Saturn's emotion, Keats almost inevitably draws upon the descriptions of
Satan in Pavadise Lost {cf. Paradise Lost, iv. 114, 115).
passion dimm'd his face
Thrice chang'd with pale, ire, envie and despair.
Cf. also vi. 787 " hope conceiving from despair " and xi. 301.
112. some wailed : some sat up MS. cancelled.
134. starry Uranus with finger : starr'd Uranus with his finger,
MS., Woodhottse. The final reading is a correction of a false quantity in
the draft.
144. loud warring : engaging MS. cancelled.
163. Oceanus : — The one Titan according to ancient authority who had
not joined in war against the Olympians. His peaceful acquiescence in his
fate made him to Keats the mouthpiece of the "eternal truth" of which
the poem is the expression. With the last part of his speech should be
compared the beautiful reference to Oceanus in Endymion, iii. 994, which
suggests that already at that period Keats had pondered upon the subject
of Hyperion.
165. astonied : astonished MS. corrected above, and showing that the
corrections were made at a time when Keats desired to be as Miltonic as
possible, i.e., before he had given up the poem as too MUtonic.
169. in his watery shades : beneath watry glooms MS. cancelled.
510 JOHN KEATS
173. who, passion-stung : whom passion stings MS. cancelled.
191. From chaos, etc. : — This great passage in which Oceanus describes
the evolution of the world from chaos gave Keats some trouble, but it is
diflScult from the writing of the MS. to tell what his first conception was.
Our MS. begins : —
Darkness was first, and then a Light there was ;
From Chaos came the Heavens and the Earth
The first grand Parent —
interesting as showing a clear dependence on Milton. Then Keats starts
once more : —
From Chaos and parental darkness came
Light, 'twas the first of all (the fruits ?)
This was cancelled for the reading of the text. The next line first ran : —
That sullen ferment, grown unto its height,
and in line 194 we have a false start, " Was at strange boil " (for " broil " }).
217. Say, doth the dull soil : Strife indeed there was MS. altered to
(1) say, shall the [lifel] senseless soil, (2) the reading of the text
263. was breathed from a land : came breathing from inland MS. can-
celled.
266. soft delicious warmth : — This Miltonism came to Keats as he was
writing our MS. He began " delight " (delightful .') but put his pen
through the "t " and added " cious".
308. from supreme contempt : from contempt of that mild speech MS.
altered because it was hypermetric, "Of that mild speech" being re-
written as a start to the next line, but afterwards discarded.
310. Or to the over foolish giant, gods ? : Or to the over foolish, Giant-
Gods } MS. Mr. Forman, with fine critical acumen, had already antici-
pated this as the correct reading. It is at once more musical and more
effective. "Giant-gods" is a term applied by Keats to the Titans in a
passage rejected from lines 367-71 {vide infra).
313. piled : pour'd MS., Woodhouse.
325. lifted: arose MS. cancelled. A line follows "and standing stood,
continuing thus " which we are not surprised to find cancelled.
341. The winged thing. Victory : — A phrase possibly suggested by a
statue, but more likely another reminiscence of Milton. Wlien the Son
of God appeared to drive forth the rebel angels
at his right hand victorie
Sate eagle winged (Paradise Lost, vi. 762).
At the same time, "winged victory" is a common classical phrase and would
be well known to Keats in Chapman's Homer.
355. sweeps : turns MS. cancelled — a great gain in vividness.
357-71. Till suddenly a splendour . , . short Numidian curl: — This
great passage, like the climax of book i., reached its full poetic height
from an earlier inadequate form, and in the process underwent so much
alteration that Keats crossed through his first copy in the MS. and re-
HYPERION, BK. II.— NOTES 511
wrote it, to judge by the writing, on a later occasion. It first ran
thus: —
Till suddenly a full-blown Splendour fill'd
Those native spaces of oblivion
And every g[l]ulph and every chasm old
And every height and every sullen depth
Voiceless, or fill'd with hoarse tormented streams ;
And all the everlasting cataracts
And all the headlong torrents far and near
And all the Caverns soft with moss and weed
Or dazzling with bright and barren gems ;
And all the giant-Gods. It was Hyperion ;
He stood upon a granite peak aloof
With goldeti hair of short numidian curl.
Rich as the colchian fleece.
Three changes were, apparently, introduced into the text at once ; "and
every chasm old " in the third line was altered to " was seen and chasm
old," the ninth line was altered to " Or blazoned with clear spar and
barren gems " to get rid of the cockney pronunciation of " dazzling " as a
trisyllable, and the comparison of Hyperion's hair to the golden fleece was
cancelled. The reconstruction of the passage is carried out in such a way
as to make the situation which it describes at once more familiar and more
vivid to the imagination, as an actual sunrise among the. mountains^
For this reason the reference to the giant-gods, in the earlier version the
climax of a long sentence, is omitted, in order that the emphasis laid upon
their presence may not violate the universal truth of the picture, whilst
lines 9 and 10 are cancelled, as by their very tender beauty detracting
from the vast splendour of the scene. At the same time Keats dwells
upon the dramatic significance of the situation — the last appearance of
Hyperion as the god of day — by adding lines which express the misery of
the fallen Titans. It is noticeable that the changes introduced into the
description of Hyperion (371, 372) are in the direction of Miltonism.
374. Memnon : — ^The son of Tithonus and Aurora slain by Achilles.
Sandys in his commentary on Ovid, Met. xiii. 578, says that he was " sup-
posed to be an .Ethiopian in regard of his complexion" and discusses the
reason for the dark skins of the Eastern races — which perhaps suggested
to Keats the pregnant epithet " dusking" ; though he may have had in view
Paradise Regained, iv. 76, "dusk faces with white silken Turbants wreath'd ".
Sandys goes on to explain, " And neere Egyptian Thebes in the Grove of
Serapis, he had his miraculous statue : sitting and consisting of a hard
darke marble : made with such admirable art, that when the rising Sunne
cast his beames thereon, it would render a mournefiil sound ; and salute
as it were his approaching mother ".
386. bulk : shade MS. cancelled.
512 JOHN KEATS
Book III
The opening lines) have an additional pathos when it is remembered
that they were written soon after the death of Tom Keats, bjr whose
bedside the poet had been watching for three months. Perhaps lines 124-30
are a reminiscence of this, as is the Ode to the Nightingale, 3,
where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies.
2. Amazed: Perplexed MS. cancelled.
3. O leave them, Muse ! O leave them to their woes ! O leave them
Muse ! for they have succour none MS. cancelled.
6. Thy lips : These anthemed lips MS. cancelled.
7. Leave them, O Muse : Leave them — ^for many MS. cancelled.
8. fallen : lonely MS, cancelled ; mateless MS. cancelled.
10. piously : deftly MS. cancelled. Probably Keats had some other
word than "Delphic" in the line of his first draft, e.g., "Aeolian," which
would scan with " deftly ".
12. In aid soft warble from the Dorian flute : — The delicate music of
these lines recalls Paradise Lost, i. 549-61, to whose "sad sweet melody"
Keats had called attention in his Notes to Milton :-r- ■
Anon they move
In perfect Phalanx to the Dorian mood
Of Flutes and soft Recorders.
13. 'tis for: thou singst MS. cancelled.
14. Flush everything, etc. Keats starts two lines here before he decides
definitely how to proceed : —
Let a warm rosy hue . . .
. And the corn haunting poppy . . .
For " vermeil " Keats first wrote " rosy ".
19. faint-lipped : red-lipped MS. cancelled.
22. Blush keenly : blush as she did MS. cancelled.
27. hazels : — Copied by Woodhouse's clerk as " Hyle's " and thus ex-
plained by Mr. Buxton Forman: "Probably Keats left the 'a' out of
' Hazle ' — a quite possible spelling for him ; and the copyist took the
' z ' for a ' y '." A glance at the facsimile will show this conjecture to be
correct. In the MS. Woodhouse has marked the line in pencil as doubtful.
29, 30. Where was he, when, etc. : — The question here recalls Lyddas, 60
Where were ye nymphs when the remorseless deep }
33. wandered : roamed MS. cancelled.
41. boughs: — Keats first wrote "shade" and then "oaks" before he
decided upon the reading of the text.
42, He Usten'd, and he wept, etp. :-^Leigh Hunt, followed by other
critics, has censured this conception of Apollo. " It strikes us that there is
something too efieminate and human in the way in which Apollo receives
the exaltation that his wisdom is giving him. He weeps and wonders some-
what too fondly ; but his powers gather nobly on him as he proceeds." If
HYPERION, BK III.— NOTES 51S
the wisdom which Apollo gains were merely knowledge the criticism would
be unanswerable, but it is evident that Keats means to include in it far
more than this, and to suggest that the great poet of light and song
reaches his supremacy not merely by knowledge but by anguish and by
a distress of heart which makes him " feel the giant agon'y of the world,'
and gives him an understanding of human suffering. Keats had dwelt
upon this idea in Slee^ and Poetry, and he draws it out still more pointedly
in his Fall of Hyperion, and it is hardly likely that his conception here
would be completely different. It is far more probable that he developed
the idea more obviously in his revision {Pall of Hyp. i. 147-149) because
he felt that his treatment of it in the first version had been too vague.
44. Thus with half-shut, suffused eyes he stood : So kept his [he Y] with
his eyes suffused half-shut MS. corrected.
50. How cam'st thou over the unfooted sea ? How camest thou over the
pathless sea ? MS. corrected to text.
62. Mov'd : Walked MS. canulled.
63. o'er: by MS. cancelled.
66. i» cool mid forest : in the m(id forest ?) MS. cancelled.
66. about : along MS. cancelled.
57. These glassy solitudes, and seen the flowers : These solitudes and
seen the grass and flowers MS. cancelled.
62. hast dreamed : dreamst MS. cancelled.
63. Didst find a lyre all golden by thy side : Didst find a golden lyre by
thy side MS. altered in order to avoid the awkward pronunciation of
"lyre" as a dissyllable — a fault to which Mr. Bridges has called attention
as characteristic of Keats.
64. Touch' d : swept MS. cancelled; whose strings : the which MS.
cancelled.
100. To any one particular beauteous star: — Cf. All's Well that Ends
Well, i. 1. 96.
'Twere all one
That I should love a bright particular star.
114. rebellious : loud voices MS. cancelled.
116. Creations and destroyings all at once : Creations, visage of destroy-
isgs and calm peace MS. cancelled.
118. deify me : and like some MS. cancelled.
121. While his enkindled eyes, etc. : —
While level glanced beneath his temples soft
His eyes were steadfast on Mnemosyne MS. cancelled.
The lines that follow gave Keats considerable trouble. He began 123
"Upon Mnemosyne," and only added "Trembling with light" in the
margin. For the next line he first wrote, "and while through all his
limbs [cancelled] frame " — then " and wild commotion throughout " — ^then
" and his while " [cancelled] — then at last, " Soon wild commotions," etc.
The next line he began " All his white," and then followed : —
33
614 JOHN KEATS
Roseate and pained as any ravished nymph [cancelled]
Into a hue more roseate than a sweet pain
Gives to a Nymph new-r(avished) when her tears
altered to : —
Gives to a ravish'd nymph when her warm tears
Gush luscious with no sob. Or more severe
More, etc.
So Woodhouse. The first three lines, however, are cancelled with a pencil
and "And" written for "More" in the fourth line. The text reads
"Most".
126. Most like the struggle at the gate of death: — Mr. Arnold compares
with Gebir, vii. 240.
He seems to struggle from the grasp of death.
131. His very hair : Even his hair MS. cancelled. In the next line the
word "graceful" is inserted above "undulation," but cancelled.
136. Apollo shrieked : — Above " Apollo " is written the cancelled
" Phoebus ". The line originally concluded, " he was the God ! ", the
next line beginning "And Godlike," altered in our MS. to "from all
his limbs".
136. Celestial: And Godlike MS. cancelled. Woodhouse adds in
pencil, on what authority we know not : —
Glory dawu'd, he was a god.
FALL OF HYPERION— NOTES 515
POSTHUMOUS AND FUGITIVE POEMS
THE FALL OF HYPERION
A Vision
Thu Fall of Hyperion was first printed by Lord Houghton in Bibliographical
and Historical Miscellanies of the Philobiblion Society (vol. iii. 1866). He
republished it in the 1867 edition of the Life and Letters. He had referred
to it in 1848 as a recast, but in 1856 he raised a doubt as to which version
was the earlier, and in 1867 published The Vision with the words " I have
no doubt that it was the first draft". This view was unhesitatingly
accepted by subsequent critics, all of whom printed The Vision as the first
version until, in 1887, Mr. Colvin (EML, pp. 187, 232) finally showed that
view to, be untenable, not only by overwhelming internal evidence, but
also by reference to the remark of Brown in the Houghton Papers, " in the
evening (of Nov. and Dec. 1819) he was deeply engaged in remodelling
the fragment of Hyperion into the form of a vision," a view supported by
Dr. Richard Garnett who remembered a statement to the same effect in a
lost MS. of Woodhouse's.
In October of the present year (1904) Lord Crewe discovered the lost
Woodhouse transcript of The Fall of Hyperion, and by his kind permission
I am allowed to make use of it in the present edition. A full account of
it has already been given in the introduction to the Transliteration of the
MS. published by the Clarendon Press and edited by myself, and for full
details with regard to it students are referred to that work. The tran-
script was made by Woodhouse's clerks in 1833-4 and was carefully cor-
rected by Woodhouse himself, so that it is evidently an exact reproduction
of the autograph MS. ; and as the autograph is still missing, it is the first
authority for the text of the poem. A study of the transcript not only
shows that the version hitherto printed is incorrect in several places, mostly
due to inaccuracy in copying for press and in proof-reading, but that it
ygsj)mitted a passage of over twenty lines which is of the highest import-
ance to the argument of the poem^ The discovery of the transcript came
too late to allow me to alter the text of the present edition, but all the
corrections and additions which it supplies are recorded in the following
notes.
This attempt to reconstruct Hyperion in the form of a vision revealed
and interpreted to the poet by Moneta, a goddess of the fallen race of
Titans, was the last work of Keats before his poetic powers deserted him.
It occupied the last few months of 1B19, and already, as critics have often
516 JOHN KEATS
pointed out, gave evidence of declining power. But it does not follow
because Keats was at this time unequal to the task he set himself, that he
would have been unsuccessful if he had beep able to attempt it when he
was in full possession of his poetic energies. VThe romantic form which he
has now chosen, if not so obviously adapted to the subject, is at least more
natural to the poet himself, and more in keeping with the general char-
acter of his other work. It was probably the consciousness of this that
led him to make the change. It has been suggested that the influence of
Dante was lars^ely responsible for it, but it must be remembered that
Keats's study of Dante occupied his time in the summer of 1818 when he
was upon his Scotch tour, and would thus have been more likely to affect
the first version of the poem than to have suggested a reconstruction.'
This is sufficiently explained by the reasons which Keats himself gives for
leaving Hyperion as a fragment — its excessive Miltonism, together with
the feeling which grew upon him as he wrote that in a pure objective poem,
such as he had chosen, he would not be able to interpret with sufficient
clearness his own conception of the significance of the legends with which
he dealt. There is no indication that his views as to that sig^ficance had
undergone any change, but his feeling with regard to it had become
intenser and he decided to work it out with more elaboration. Hence a
careful study of the first 250 lines of the Vision will give us a clearer
understanding not merely of the Fall of Hyperion, but of the greater
fragment of which it is the revision. Allowance must be made, as Mr.
Colvin has pointed out, for the growing note of despair, for the fact
that whereas before Keats had felt the^ goal to he within his ultimate
reach he now belittles his own endeavours to attain it; but if he
realises more intensely than ever the pains which are the inevitable
accompaniment of the sensitive poetic temperament, he has never pre-
sented more vividly those ideal emotions which are its ample com-
pensation. The opening allegory, of great importance to the proper
understanding of Keats's whole conception of life may, perhaps, be inter-
preted as follows : —
It is clear that in the garden, the temple, and the shrine, are presented
to us those three stages in the poet's development towards the attainment
of his ideal which Keats had dwelt upon in Sleep and Poetry (1816) and in
the letter to Reynolds (1818) {vide notes, p. 406). The garden is the garden
of Nature and Art, as Nature and Art make their first appeal to the sensi-
tive temperament. Its resources are infinite and it offers them without
stint to those who are capable of enjoying them. The poet eats his fill
and his feast brings upon him a thirst for a draught of something deeper
1 A distinction should be drawn between such influence of Dante as could come
through a translation, and sch as could only be due to the direct study of the original
Of this latter and more subtle kind of influence, affecting the style and phraseology of
the poet, the first and only examples, as Mr. Bridges points out, are to be found in the
Fall of Hyperion. The lines to which he draws auention in this connection are i. 6,
97-99 (especially 99), and 145, 146.
FALL OF HYPERION— NOTES 517
and diviner which he finds in a cool vessel beside him. (This corresponds,
perhaps, to what Shelley has termed " Intellectual Beauty ".) To this draught
he owes his whole future development ; for by it he is drawn, he knows
not how, into another world. His mind is awakened, and his feelings of
mere sensuous delight are changed into a profound and often melancholy
sense of the infinity and mystery of the world about him. The place where
he finds himself is in a sense the temple of knowledge^ but it contains far
more than the word knowledge usually implies, for it holds within it the
beauty and the experience of all time, and yet it beckons rather to the future
than to the past. The East from which the light had once come is " shut
against the sunrise evermore " ; in the West is the altar to which the poet
must bend his steps, and as he approaches the altar he gains some pro-
phetic insight into the highest joys of poetry and is refreshed, so that for
the moment he forgets how far he is from attaining the goal. At the foot
of the shrine is the figure of Saturn, majestic though fallen, a type of what
the past can teach the future, whilst the fate of Saturn, soon to be un-
folded, is significant of those essential laws of progress which govern the
universe and themselves give a unity of all existence. And the priestess
interpreter who ministers at the shrine, the " sole goddess of the desola- '
tion " of the past, is Moneta. Formerly she was known as Mnemosyne,
the goddess of memory, the mother of the Muses, by whose inspiration
Apollo, the father of song, had gained divinity, but now she is called by
a name which suggests that to her powers of inspiration must be added
the power to admonish and to guide. With her first words she warns the
poet that he must ascend the steps that lead to his ideal life before it is
too late. To wander aimlessly among the wonders of the temple is little
better than feasting in the garden : he must concentrate himself upon
some intense imaginative effort. As he hears this warning and looks
about him he becomes conscious of its essential truth. His awakened
sense of wonder, his thirst for knowledge, his widened experience of life,
have all tended to paralyse his creative faculties, so that it becomes ever
harder for him to exercise them. Only by a supreme efi^ort does he put
bis imaginative sympathies to some definite result, and so gain the lowest
stair. And having reached it he learns that further progress cannot be
made by imaginative sympathy alone ; the selfish life of artistic isolation
will profit him nothing, he must henceforth live in the world about him,
making its sorrows his sorrows. Even so, he must realise the superiority
of the practical life over the life of the dreamer ; and though by reason of
his temperament such a, life can never be his, he must reverence it at its
true worth.
How is this to be understood i It is true, indeed, that the great poets
have " usurped the height " ; but wherein have they escaped this sweeping
denunciation of the imaginative mind ? wherein, except in degree, do they
differ from their weaker brethren ? The text as hitherto printed, gives no
answer ; it simply leaves us with this antithesis between the practical and
518 JOHN KEATS
the visionary temper, whieh may be just but is certainly not the anti-
thesis required by the argument. The necessary conclusion is supplied
by this passage found in the MS. between lines 186 and 187, but rejected
by Woodhouse,' wherein the poet, at the same time, indeed, as he admits
his own unworthiness, pleads the cause of his art, and receives no hesi-
tating reply : —
" Majestic shadow, tell me : sure not all
Those melodies sung into the World's ear
Are useless : sure a poet is a sage :
A humanist. Physician to all Men.
That I am none I feel, as Vultures feel
They are no birds when Eagles are abroad
What am I then : thou spakest of my Tribe :
What Tribe .'' " The tall shade v6iled in drooping white
Then spake, so much more earnest, that the breath
Moved the thin linen folds that drooping hung
About a golden censer from the hand
Pendent — " Art thou not of the dreamer Tribe .'
The Poet and the dreamer are distinct
Diverse, sheer opposite, antipodes.
The one pours out a balm upon the World
The other vexes it." Then shouted I
Spite of myself, and with a Fythia's spleen
" Apollo ! faded ! O far-flown Apollo !
Where is thy misty pestilence ' to creep
' Woodhouse has cancelled the lines with a pencil mark, and added a marginal
note, " Keats seems to have intended to erase this and the next twenty-one lines," and
the remark has this justification, that the lines are not as a whole up to the poetic level
of the rest ; moreover, four of them are employed again a little further on in the poem.
But Keats did not erase them (when he rejected a passage he did it with no uncertain
stroke of the pen), and, as it seems to me, he would not have done so. He would un-
doubtedly have rewritten them, cancelled some and expanded others. Woodhouse's
very uncertainty suggests that Keats never revised the poem, and as he gave up all
idea of publishing it he probably never wrote a fair copy ; but the evidence as it stands
does not, assuredly, give us the right to reject the lines, particularly as they supply a
necessary climax to the argument of the introductory allegory, which has hitherto been
presented imcomplete.
^The " misty pestilence " of Apollo may have been suggested to Keats by the first
book of the Iliad, but the reference is far more likely to be due to a somewhat blurred
reminiscence of a passage in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, which he knew well in
Chapman's translation. Here he read how Apollo slew the Pythoness who inhabited
Parnassus and poured his rays upon the carcase : —
then seized upon
Her horrid heap with putrefaction
Hyperion's lovely powers ; from whence her name
Took sound of Python, and heaven's sovereign flame
Was surnamed Pythias, since the sharp-eyed Sun
Affected so with putrefaction
The hellish monster.
The mention in the lines immediately preceding of Typhon, " the abhorred affiright and
bane of mortals," as under the charge of the Pythoness, and the reference to the sun as
Hyperion, would tend to impress the passage upon the mind of one who had long
FALL OF HYPERION— NOTES 519
Into the dwellings, through the door crannies
Of all mock lyrists,' large self- worshippers
And careless Hectorers in proud bad verse ^
Though I breathe death with them it will be life
To see them sprawl before me into graves.''
As poetry these lines may not be very valuable, but there can be no
question of their importance to the argument of the poem. If the ima-
ginative poet reaches the highest development of which the human mind
is capable, the climax of this introductory dream must inevitably be de-
voted to a revelation of his true nature, and the practical unimaginative
man must not be left in complete possession of the field. And these lines,
though as they stand they are clearly inadequate, serve well enough as a
bald expression of an idea which would be glorified in such a revision of
the poem as Hyperion underwent between the first and second drafts, and
such as this poem would surely have undergone had it not been thrown
aside in sickness and despair. But for all its crudity the passage is emin-
ently suggestive, and supplies a valuable commentary, by no means at
variance with his other utterances, upon Keats's conception of the poetic
art. The object of the singer, he tells us, is to pour out a balm upon the
world, not by luring men away from it to a fanciful land of dreams,; but
by seeing things as they are, and by concentrating his imaginative powers
upon reality. Only then, after the character of the true poet has been
made clear in it;s relation both with the man of action and with the mere
dreamer, does Moneta unfold to him the Vision which contains within
it the lesson of all the ages, as Oceanus revealed it to his fallen brethren ;
and from this Keats catches a glimpse of that lasrt: stage in his develop-
ment after which he is striving,, wherein his strenuous devotion to Beauty
will have raised him above the limitations of ordinary life, and he will
have gained that sublime serenity by which he will be able
to bear all naked truths
And to envisage circumstance, all calm.
Mr. Robert Bridges has pointed out that the cihanges made in those
passages which were incorporated from Hyperion are chiefly due to the
desire to avoid excessive Miltonisms, and certain mannerisms of Keats's
own earlier style ; but it will be noticed that the influence of Milton had
struck far too deep to be easily shaken o£F, and if many Miltonisms are
removed many are retained, and even new ones introduced. An attempt
will be made to suggest reasons for the alterations as they occur — those
already pointed out by Mr. Bridges are distinguished by the initials RB.
The Fail of Hyperion : A Vision. The MS. describes the poem as " A
Dream '.
" brooded over " the subject of the Titans. The " Pythia " is the priestess of Apollo's
temple whom Keats conceives as overcome with anger as she views the desecration of
the art which Has been entrusted to her care.
' " Mock lyrists," etc. , an obvious attack upon Byron. C/. note to Sleep and Poetry,
234.
520 JOHN KEATS
22-24. The brackets are inserted by Woodhouse in the MS. in pencil.
24. Twining : Turning MS. A far more natural reading.
29. a feast of summer fruits : — A reference to the repast prepared by
Eve for Raphael in Paradise Lost (v. 321-349). The " arbour with a droop-
ing roof" (26) "not far from roses" (24) "of trellis vines, and bells, and
larger blooms" (26) recalls Adam's coole Bowre (Paradise Lost, v. 300)
which Milton compares with " Pomona's Arbour . . . with flourets deck't
and fragrant smells" (v. 378); cf. especially with lines 29-34 and 62, 53,
" fragrant husks and berries crush'd,"
fruit of all kindes, in coate,
Rough, or smooth rin'd, or bearded husk, or shell
She gathers, Tribute large, and on the board
Heaps with unsparing hand ; for drink the Grape
She crushes, inoffensive moust, and meathes
From many a berrie, and from sweet kernels prest
She tempers dulcet creams, nor these to hold
Wants her fit vessels pure, then strews the ground
With Rose and Odours from the shrub unfum'd.
{Paradise Lost, v. 341-49).
It will be noticed that in recalling the situation described by Milton
Keats has in a large measure resumed its language.
For i^a fabled horn (36) cf. Endymion ii. 448 and note.
48. soon fading; — Woodhouse notes that the original reading was
"death-doing". This throws some light upon the meaning of an obscure
passage.
65. sank : sunk MS. A correction by H of a common error of Keats's.
60. curved: carved MS., which again seems more natural than the
reading of the text.
75. the moth could not corrupt : — Cf. St. Matthew, vi. 19.
76. so, in some, distinct : so, in some distinct MS., on which Woodhouse
notes in pencil qy. correct. Mr. Colvin has suggested to me that " some "
may be miswritten for " zone," which would make excellent sense.
77. 80. imageries: — This peculiar use of the plural abstract coupled
with the curious combination of " effects " is a notable feature in the style
of Keats's later poems. In the Eve of St. Mark (66) we have " daz'd with
saintly imageries " and a passage descriptive of the illumination in an old
manuscript volume (25-37) which for its strange combination may be com-
pared with these in the Vision. We may compare too stanza L of the
Cap and Bells, written at the same time as the Vision. Cf. Appendix C,
under Chapman.
83. The embossed roof, the silent massy range Of columns : — Cf. II
Penseroso, 166-68.
To walk the studious Cloysters pale.
And love the high embowed Roof,
With antick Pillars massy proof.
FALL OF HYPERION— NOTES 521
96. One ministering: — "Following a clue which he had found in a
Latin book of mythology he had lately bought, he now identifies this
Greek Mnemosyne, the mother of the Muses^ with the Roman Moneta ;
and (being possibly aware that the temple of Juno Moneta on the Capitol
at Rome was not far from that of Saturn) makes his Mnemosyne Moneta
the priestess and guardian of Saturn's temple " (Colvin, EML, p. 186). The
passage which, as Mr. Colvin states, is to be found on pp. 3, 4 of the
Mythographi Latini, in the notes to Hyginus, runs " Ilia est Mnemosyne
Hesiodo et ApoUodoro. Vidit et Turnebus, cum scriberet Moneta
Hygino est, quae Mnemosyne k Graecis vocatur. . . . JAvrjiiri appellatur
Anthol. i. viii. 1 Memoria. . . . Indeapoetis Jovis et Minervae esseeasfilias
constitutum est. . . . Nimirum Minervam quidam memoriam esse dixerunt.
Arnob, p. 118. Unde ipsum nomen Minerva, quasi quaedam Meminerva,
formatum est . . . Certe Moneta eadem est, quae Mnemosyne, nam auctor
infra dicet matrem esse Musarum Monetam quae a Findaro. . . . Mnemosyne
dicitur . . . Junonem Monetom a Romaniscultamvelpuerinorunt" (because
she warned the Romaas of the approach of the Gauls to the Capitol by
the cackling of her sacred geese).
97. As in mid-day : When in midway MS. "Midday" is probably
what Keats meant, but there is no need to change "When" to "As".
Cf. p. 563.
136. As once fair angels on a ladder flew From the green turf to heaven : —
Genesis, xxviii. 12. But it seems far more likely that Keats was thinking
rather of the allusion to Jacob's ladder in Paradise Lost (iii. 510) where
Sataa is represented coming upon the stairs which lead from Heaven to
Earth.
The Stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw
Angels ascending and descending, hands
Of Guardians bright, when he from Esau fled
To Padan-Aram in the field of Luz,
Dreaming by night under the open Skie,
And waking cri'd, This is the Gate of Heav'n.
The poet; like Satan in Paradise Lost, is on " the lower stair ".
158. more : — Woodhouse notes that " more " here means eo magis. It
is certainly more forcible if so interpreted, but Keats is not likely to have
intended it.
161. Those: They MS.
167. do : [do] MS. The word is indeed unnecessary, and sense and
metre are alike better without it.
176. Only the dreamer venoms all his days, etc. : — For this conception of
the poetic temperament cf. a letter to Miss Jeffrey (9th June, 1819),
contrasting Shakespeare with Ariosto. Ariosto " was a. noble poet of
Romance ; not a miserable and mighty poet of the human heart. The
middle age of Shakespeare was all clouded over ; his days were not more
happy than Hamlet's who is perhaps more like Shakespeare in his common
everyday life than any other of his characters."
522 JOHN KEATS
186. Afiker this line comes in the MS. the passage rejected by Wood-
house and already quoted and discussed in the introduction to this poem.
202, 203. supreme, Sole goddess, of this desolation : supreme Sole priestess
of his desolation MS. This divergence cannot have been the work of a
professional copyist.
214. languorous : lang^'rous MS., as in Sonnet xxix.. The day is gone,
etc. And so, by turns : And so by turns AfiS.
242. Soft, mitigated : Soft mitigated MS. Keats's intention here was
obviously to write one of his characteristic compound adjectives. The
inserted comma obscures his meaning, and malces the passage far less
effective.
246. But in blank splendout beamed, : But . in blank splendor, beamed
MS. Here, by restoring the punctuation intended by Keats, the music
and the force of the line are much improved.
262. brow : brain MS. The mistake has arisen from the eye of the
copyist falling upon the last word of the previous line.
263. environed : — The MS. reading of the word is illegible. It looks
like "enwouned," and being unable to suggest anything better I am
obliged to accept the reading of the text. But I do not believe that Keats
wrote " environed ".
270-72 Hyperion, i. 1-3.
286-306. Hyperion, i. 7-26 : — The expansion of the first sentence gets
rid of two ugly repetitions of sound in the firat version " no stir of air was
there" and life and light; the change of "voiceless" to "noiseless" has
no MS. authority. The change of " the " (292) for the original " his " and
the expansion of 296-98 from Hyperion, i. 16, 17, were both necessary to
the altered scheme, but incalculably weaken the effect.
316-63. Hyperion, i. 37-88.
317- venom'd for " vanward " {Hyperion, i. 39) : — A change with no
MS. authority — a printer's error.
324. his ear : his hollow ear MS. The line is thus hypermetric and it
was altered by H as Keats had altered the analogous line in Hyperion.
328. in this Uke accenting; /toif '/raii. ■-^-Originally "in these like
accents ; O how frail," the change made to get rid of the exclamation— a
characteristic fault of Keats's early work. So in 332 " wherefore thus "
for " O wherefore " (RB). (So in the Ode on a Grecian Urn the words
" yet do not grieve " were written and first published " O do not grieve ").
"And for what" (330) originally "though wherefore" (i. 62) is probably
altered to escape repetition of "wherefore" in 332; "poor lost" from
" poor old " to avoid a commonplace phrase (RB). But cf. note to Hyp.,
i. 612.) At the same time it must ba noticed that the only really bad feature
of the passage, the vulgar use of "like" (328) remains in both versions,
337. thy hoary for " thine hoary " (ii, 69) to avoid unnecessary archaism ;
similarly " spoke " for "spake ". " Captious at " (338) for " conscious of"
i. 60) to give a fuller and more definite meaning.
FALL OF HYPERION— NOTES 52S
341. scourges and bums : — An undoubted improvement on " scorches
and burns" (i. 63) avoiding the tautologjr and strengthening the effect
both by the addition of the new idea and by the emphasis of the assonance,
but it is an alteration which has no MS. authority.
342-47. Remodelled and curtailed from i. 64-71, chiefly in order to avoid
three exclamations (cf. note on 328). But it is noticeable that in getting
rid of one of them Keats falls into the obvious Miltonism ' ' me thoughtless "
(RB).
348. As when upon a tranced summer-night, etc. :^It is impossible not
to regret the loss of ''those green-robed senators of mighty woods" and
difficult to suggest a reason for it, unless it was, perhaps, that Keats
thought the line too fanciful for its place here. Still more unfortunate is
the substitution of " noise " (350) for " stir " (i. 76). The' change of 362
from i. 77, " which comes upon the sUence, and dies off" is easier to under-
stand, delicately suggestive as it is, by its peculiar cadence and inversion
of normal accentuation, of the rise and fall of the wind. " Swelling upon
the silence, d^ing off".
366. prest for "touch'd " to avoid the unusual use of the word. So for
" couchant on " Keats substitutes in 362 the more natural " bending to ".
The alteration of 357 from i. 82 is not successful. One can understand
his objection to the first version, but the second, with its introduction of
the " curls," is worse. The change of " mat " to " met," however, has no
MS. authority.
368-70 are changed from i. 83, 84 to avoid the excessive Miltonic in-
version— hence the unfortunate " shedded," but one must note that the
use of " intense " which follows is itself Miltonic.
385. of the: in the MS.
386. Spoke: spake MS.
387. moanings : musings MS. The error in. the printed list came,
doubtless, from the copyist's eye catching sight of " moan" in the next
line.
388. Keats has completely altered the tone of Saturn's speech, making
his words far more querulous and weak. He dwells upon the " pain of
feebleness " (405) and it is especially noticeable that when he prophesies
at the close of the speech that " there shall be Beautiful things made new "
he does not as in the first version add the words " I will give command ".
And whereas in the first version Thea receives his words with a sort of
hope the whole picture in the Vision is one of despair. As poetry the
second version is hardly comparable with the first and it is difficult to see
how it makes clearer the general tenor of the poem, except in so far as
it emphasises the point made in the introduction to Hyperion that the
power of the Titans was in reality already passed away, and that no further
war between them and the Olympians was possible. From the point of
view of style it is to be noted that the lines coutaising the boldest licence
in the use of language (i. 117-20) are omitted, and that the "gold clouds
524 JOHN KEATS
metropolitan " (a phrase which has a distinctly Miltonic ring, though the
word "metropolitan." is prohably drawn from Wordsworth) becomes the
more natural and perhaps more highly poetical " gold peaks of heaven's
high piled clouds " ; " weak as the reed " (404) is another phrase drawn
from the Bible.
391. upon: above MS.
402. an aching palsy : a shaking palsy MS.
412. there shall be : let there be MS. The reading of Hyperion is
" there shall be," and it looks as though the copyist had erred through
his recollection of the line as it occurred in the earlier poem.
418. that unison : that pleasant unison MS., hypermetric.
Canto II
1-3. The book opens with a distinct reminiscence of the words of
Raphael to Adam, Paradise Lost, v. 571-74: —
what surmounts the reach
Of human sense, I shall delineate so.
By lik'ning spiritual to corporal forms.
As may express them best.
7-end corresponds with Hyp. i. 158-217. The reading in Une 12 of
"in their doom " for "in sharp pain " emphasises again the hopelessness of
the Titan's situation, " eagle-brood " (13) for " mammoth-brood " is altered
perhaps to avoid the use of an unnecessarily rare word, and in 18
"upon the earth dire prodigies" stands in place of the Miltonic "among
us mortals omens drear".
The substitution of " insecure " for " unsecure " has no MS. authority,
nor has the change of " flushed " to " flash ". The latter case is important,
for whereas " Flush " gives a superb picture of the clouds upon the dawn
of a stormy day, and by adding a human touch to the picture makes the
scene more real to the imagination, " flash " is both feeble and untrue.
It should be noted that the essentially Miltonic passage which follows
here in the first version (i. 182-85) is omitted in the Vision.
20. Not a: Nor at M5., which makes better sense. For "hated" MS.
reads "Even". Line 23 is not found in the MS. and must have been
copied into the Fall of Hyperion from a memory of the passage in Hyperion.
26. shining : glowing MS., as in Hyperion.
35. Wherefore, substituted for the weaker "and so".
52. paved so MS. ; paned H.
44. Who on a wide plain gather in sad troops : — Originally " who on
wide plains gather in panting troops " ; the substitution of " sad " for
" panting " is a loss in vividness. Keats may have felt his earlier epithet
less applicable to the dejected Titans with whom he is instituting the com-
parison.
49. is sloping : — A change to avoid the Miltonism of " slope " (Hyp. I
204). It is noticeable that the next few lines of the first version, essenti-
ally Miltonic in construction, are omitted in the Vision.
EVE OF ST. MARK— NOTES 525
The Eve op St. Mark (first publ. H 1848). First conceived by Keats
and probably begun in Jan. 1819, i.e. when he was engaged upon the com-
panion poem, the Eve of St. Agnes. For in the Journal Letter, dated 19th
February, he says, "In my next packet, I shall send you my Pot of Basil,
St. Agnes' Eve, and if I should have finished it, a little thing called the
Eve of St. Mark. You see what fine Mother RadclifFe names I have — it is
not my fault — I do not search for them." Under the date 20th September,
he writes from Winchester to his brother. "The great beauty of poetry
is that it makes everything, every place, interesting. The palatine Venice
and the abbotine Winchester are equally interesting. Some time since
I be^an a poem called the Eve of St. Mark, quite in the spirit of town
quietude. I think it will give you the sensation of walking about
an old country town in a coolish evening. I know not whether I shall
finish it ; I will give it as far as I have gone." Then follows the poem.
The poem was regarded by D. G. Rossetti, as together with La Belle Dame
sans Merci " in manner the choicest and chastest of Keats's work " and on the
fly leaf at the end of his copy of the poems he wrote the following note : —
" The Eve of St. Mark : — ^The following is no doubt the superstition in
accordance with which Keats intended to develop this poem. It was much
akin to the belief connected with the Eve of St. Agnes : It was believed
that if a person, on St. Mark's Eve, placed himself near the church porch
when twilight was thickening, he would behold the apparitions of those
persons in the parish who were to be seized with any severe disease that
year, go into the church. If they remained there, it signified their death ;
if they came out again, it portended their recovery ; and the longer or the
shorter the time they remained in the building, the severer or less danger-
ous their illness. Infants, under age to walk, rolled in." — From The
Unseen World, p. 72 (Masters, 1853). " It seems that on account of the
superstition to be embodied, Keats must have laid the scene of his poem
near a cathedral " (article by G. Milner in Manchester Quarterly, 1883 —
On some Marginalia made by Dante G. Rossetti in a copy of Keats's poems).
It is curious to notice that Keats introduces the legend of St. Mark's
Eve into his burlesque fairy story the Cap and Bells. In that poem the
fairy king's earthly lover is named Bertha, she lives at Canterbury (zliii.) :
the magician produces a sample of her handiwork with the same kind of
conventional pattern as appears on the screen described in Bertha's chamber
in the Eve of St. Mark, and he provides the king with " an old and legend-
leaved book, mysterious to behold" (Ivii.) which contains the charms by
means of which he is to bear her off (Iviii.) ; moreover, the book is to be
laid on Bertha's table, and "'twill help your purpose dearly" (lis.);
presumably it contains the legend of St. Mark. His adventure, too, can
only be successful upon
April the twenty-fourth, — this coming day.
Now breathing its new bloom upon the skies.
Will end in St. Mark's Eve ; — you must away.
For on that eve alone can you the maid convey. (Ivi.)
526 JOHN KEATS
The Eve of St. Agnes, as has been shown, bears slight traces of the
influence of Christabel, and there can be no doubt that here Keats owed
something to this poeiA in his use of metre, employing it, as Mr.
Bridges has pointed out, with that " sort of latitude advocated by Cole-
ridge ". In his treatment of the subject he is entirely independent of any
model, and nowhere has he excelled in delicacy and vivid suggestiveness
the description in the opening lines. The picture of the streets of the
Cathedral city in the evening affords an interesting comparison with the
different, but equally successful, picture of the streets of Corinth at night,
written about the same time {Lamia, i. 360-61). In both the shuffling feet
are heard on the pavements, in both companies of people are seen gather-
ing at the entries, and the whole effect of thronged thoroughfares is
given in a few significant touches. Here the effect is heightened by
reason of the contrast it affords with the indoor scene of the lonely Bertha
poring over her magic book, which, as Mr. Colvin says " in its insistent
delight in vivid colour and minuteness of far sought suggestive and
picturesque detail, is perfectly in the spirit of Rossetti " and "anticipates
in a remarkable degree the feeling and method of the modern pre-
Raphaelite schools" (EML, p. 165). It is unnecessary to expose in detail
the philological inaccuracy of Keats's attempt to reproduce the language
of the Middle Ages ; he had probably no more knowledge of early English
than Chatterton, and the style of lines 99-114 may be due to Chatter-
ton's influence.
The BM MS. gives two cancelled openings to the poein — " It was on
a twice holiday " and "Twice holy was the Sabbath day bell ".
68. Abroad, etc. Originally written " Both abroad and in the room "
and followed by two cancelled lines : —
The Maiden lost in dizzy maze
Turned to the fire and made a blaze.
La Belle Dame sans Mehci. Was included in the Journal Letter to
George Keats dated Feb.^May, 1819, and headed Wednesday evening 28th
April. The manner in which it is written and corrected points to its being
a first draft, composed at that time-Xit was first published in the Indicator
of May, 1820, with a short prefatory essay by Leigh Hunt stating that it was
suggested by the title of a poem. La Belle Dame sans Mercy, once supposed
to be a translation by Chaucer of a dialogue by Alain Chartier, the court
poet of Charles II. of France. The note prefixed to the poem, that M.
Aleyn " framed this dialogue between a gentleman and a gentlewoman,
who finding no mercy at her hand dieth for sorrow " (vide Chalmen, Bt^Ush
Poets, i. 618) may have given a further hint to Keats, but he could have
found nothing suggestive in the poem itself, which is not only monotonous
but totally devoid of real feeling. In idea and atmosphere ^eats's poem
is closer to Spenser's description of Phsdria {Faerie Queene, ii. 6. 3, 14,
7):-
LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI— NOTES 627
a Ladie fresh and faire^
Making aweet solace to her selfe alone ;
vho meets Cymochles and leads him away
to a shady dale
And laid him downe upon a grassie plaine ;
And her sweet selfe without dread, or disdane,
She set beside, laying his head disarm'd
In her loose lap, it softly to sustaine.
Where soone he slumbred, fearing not be harm'd,
The whiles with a love lay she thus him sweetly charm'd.
Sometimes her head she foiidly would aguize
With gaudie girlonds, or fresh flowrets dight
About her necke, or rings of rushes plight.
But while Keats may owe something to this passage his conception is
invested with a sense of tragedy which Spenser had no desire to convey.
In this a striking parallel may be noted with Pericles {cf. especially Belle
Dame, stanzas 10 and 11) where Pericles is about to stake his life to win
the king's daughter, and Antiochus bids him take warning by the princes
who have already lost their lives : —
Yon sometime famous Prin<jes,, like thyself
Drawn by report, adventurous by desire,
Tell thee with speechless tongues, and semblance pale
That without covering save yon field of stars
Here they stand martyrs, slain in Cupid's wars.
And with dead cheeks advise thee to desist
For going on death's net, whom none resist (i. 1. 34-40).
In his use of the ballad metre Keats is following the example and has
something of the spirit of Coleridge, though his use of a short fourth line
heavily accentuated, admirably expressing the weird tragedy of the whole,
is his own development. One more interesting reminiscence of a prede-
cessor may be noted. William Browne, whose felicity of actual description
had attracted Keats in his earlier years, was peculiarly successful in
expressing his delight in the song of the birds (jiide Brit. Past., i. 3. 195-
220 and ii. 3. 709-732, etc.) and in writing an elegy on the death of a
friend he can lament his loss in no more feeling way than in this invoca-
tion to Nature : —
Slide soft, ye silver floods
And every Spring,
Within the shady woods
Let no bird sing ! {Brit. Past., ii. 1. 242).
Keats completes his picture of the desolation of his lyric tragedy with
the same idea and in the same cadence " and no birds sing ". Keats and
Browne have not seldom been compared ; but the essential difference in
the genius of the two poets could hardly be realised better than in a com-
parison of the use to which each of them puts this simple phrase.
528 JOHN KEATS
The first version of the poem is given side by side with the final version
as printed in the Indicator because I agree with several critics in regarding
it as decidedly superior. The poem thus seems to afford the one example,
if we leave out of count the case of Hyperion, of alterations for the worse
made by Keats in the text of his poems. This is especially true as it
applies to the first line of the poem. " Knight at arms " gives us at once
a definite conception of the main character, whilst his hapless state, which
is all that a " wretched wight " suggests, is already sufficiently attested in
the question " what ails thee } " and is developed throughout the poem.
"Wretched wight" on the Other hand, brings no distinct image before
the mind, being equally applicable for example to a distressed maiden or
to a beggar. Hardly more successful are the changes in stanzas 8 and 9.
These were probably due to a feeling that the "kisses four" would rouse
ridicule in the reader, and Keats's remark which he appended to the poem
on sending it to his brother and sister lends some support to this view.
"Why four kisses — you will say — why four, because I wish to restrain the
headlong impetuosity of my Muse — she would fain have said " score "
without hurting the rhyme^— but we must temper the imagination, as the
Critics say, with Judgment. I was obliged to choose an even number
that both eyes might have fair play, and to speak truly I think two a piece
quite sufficient. Suppose I had said seven there would have been threp
and a half a-piece, a very awkward affairj and well got out off on my side."
But because, disengaging himself from the mood in which he had composed
the poem, he can jest about this line, it does not in the least follow that he
thought it could justly be condemned, nor that it would seem ridicu-
lous to a reader in complete sympathy with the spirit of the whole poem.
That Keats made the alteration in a moment of less intense imaginative
realisation of his theme is sufficiently attested by the fact that the line
substituted " so kissed to sleep " is undoubtedly the weakest in the whole
poem. Moreover the change in the next stanza, which follows as a necessary
result, does not give the same sense of the subtle power of the enchantress
over her fated lover.
The MS. of the poem, as given in the Journal Letter, shows the follow-
ing original readings : —
3. a lilly : deaths lilly.
a fading rose : death's fading rose.
Fast withereth : withereth ; "fast" added in small hand.
4. Meads : WH4b.
7. manna : honoy.
8. and sigh' d full sore : and there she oighcd.
11. With horrid warning gaped wide : All t>omHo . . . wide agape.
12. sojourn : withoF.
Woodhouse gives the first version, properly punctuated, but in 9. 3 has
"dream'd" for "dreamt," and in 10. 4 "Hath thee" for "Thee hath".
H follows Woodhouse,
ODES, ETC.— NOTES 529
ODES, ETC.
To Maia. First published H 1848 ; and written on May Day 1818. It
was sent in a letter to Reynolds two days afterwards, prefaced by the words,
" With respect to the affections and Poetry you must know by a sympathy
my thoughts that way, and I daresay these few lines will he but a ratification.
1 wrote them on May Day and intend to finish the Ode all in good time."
But fragment as it may be of a fuller unwritten poem it is yet coOtplete in
itself, and blends with subtle art two sources of the poet's happiest inspir-
ation— the spirit of Greece as he understood it and the peacefiil beauty of
Nature, And, as is often the case, the whole essence of the poem seems
to pass into the exquisite use of the commonest words. The epithet " old "
is rarely used by Keats without some sense of yearning after the beauty
and the glory of primeval life. Thus in Endymion he delights in the "oM
piety " of Pan's worshippers (i. ISO) and is himself in a sense brought into
closer touch with the life of the past as with them he watches " the sun-rise
and its glory old " (i. 106) ; and so here it is the old vigour of the Greek
bard for which he longs, his use of the epithet at once suggesting the
absence of that vigotir from the poets of his own day, and its association
with the life on which he loved to dwell. With as full and as subtle a
suggestiveness he touches, in his allusion to the " quiet primrose," upon the
mysteries of Nature's healing power. His love for the simplest flowers and
the manner in which he presents them is in itself a sufficient answer to the
critics who see little hut exuberance and the love of luxury in the poetry
of Keats ; and this passage forcibly calls to the mind the beautiful lines
written to James Rice some time later, when his fatal illness was already
upon him. " How astonishingly does the chance of leaving the world
impress a sense of its natural beauties upon us ! Like poor Falataff,
though I do not Babble, I think of green fields ; I muse with the greatest
affection on every flower I have known from my infitncy — thus shapes and
colours are as new to me as if I had just created them with a superhuman
fancy. It is because they are connected with the most thoughtless and
the happiest moments Of our lives. I have seen foreign flowers in hot-
houses of the most beautiful nature, but I do not care a straw for them.
The simple flowers of our Spring are what I want to see again" (16th
Feb. 1820).
Ode on Indolence (first published H 1848t). In the Feb. -May Journal
Letter to Geprge and Georgiana K,eats is a passage under the date 19th
March which suggests by its parallelism of phrase and idea that this Ode
had either just been finished or was about to be written. " This morning
I am in a sort of temper, indolent and supremely careless. I long after a
stanza or two/'/f Thomson's Castle of Indolence — my passions are all asleep,
&om my having slumbered till nearly eleven, and weakened the animal fibre
all over me, to a delightful sensation, about three degrees on this side of
34
530 JOHN KEATS
faintnesB. If I had teeth of pearl and the breath of lilies I should call it
languor, but as I am I must call it laziness. In this state of effeminacy
the fibres of the brain are relaxed in common with the rest of the body,
and to such a happy degree that pleasure has no show of enticement and
pain no unbearable power. Neither Poetry, nor Ambition, nor Love have
any alertness of countenance as they pass by me ; they seem rather like
figures on a Greek Vase — a man and two women whom no one but myself
could distinguish in their disguisement. This is the only happiness, and
is a rare instance of the advantage of the body overpowering the Mind."
Its whole tone is eminently characteristic of one side of Keats's genius
and as such may be compared with the famous letter to Bailey (22ud Nov.
1817, vide Introduction, p. xxzviii.) and with the lines on the thrush (p. 268).
But that it was only a passing mood is amply proved by his extraordinary
mental activity at this period. The Ode on Indolence has not the sustained
beauty of the other Odes written at this period but, if we except the bathos
of vi. 3, 4, it reaches a high level of artistic workmanship. It is noticeable
how throughout it harps upon phrases and images employed in the contem-
porary Odes to the Nightingale and the Grecian Urn and Psyche, and per-
haps for this reason was omitted from the 1820 edition. In a letter to Miss
Jeffrey of Teignmouth, dated 9th June, is an interesting reference to the
Ode on Indolence which repeats, curiously enough, as though Keats were
satisfied with it, the one passage of the poem which we would willingly
see altered. " I have been very idle lately, very averse to writing : both
from the over pressing idea of our dead poets, and from abatement of my
love of fame. I hope I am a little more of a philosopher than I was, con-
sequently a little less of a versifying pet-lamb. You will judge of my 1819
temper when I tell you that the thing I most enjoyed this year has been
writing an Ode to Indolence." But later and perhaps juster critics than
himself will always judge of his " 1819 temper " by his composition in that
year of The Eve of St. Agnes, Lamia, The Eve of St. Mark, La Belle Dame
sans Merci and the majority of his finest Sonnets.
I. 8. first seen shades : — The Aldine editions read " first green shades "
but probably upon no authority, and as H 1848 has "seen," "green"
may be regarded as a printer's error.
Ode to Fannv. First published H 1848, and probably written in
the spring of 1819. Keats first met Fanny Brawne late in 1818 at the
house of his friend Dilke. Writing in December to his brother and sister
in America he describes her as "beautiful and elegant, graceful, silly,
fashionable and strange — we have a tiff now and then — and she behaves
a little better, or I must have sheered off " ; and further, writing a few days
later " Shall I give you Miss Brawne ? She is about my height — with a
fine style of countenance of the lengthened sort — she wants sentiment in
every feature-^she manages to make her hair look well — her nostrils are
fine— though a little painful — her mouth is bad and good — her profile is
better than her full face which indeed is not full but pale and thin without
ODES, ETC.— NOTES 531
showing a,nj bone. Her shape is graceful a^d so are her movements —
her arms are good, her hands badish — her feet tolerable — she is not seven-
teen— but she is ignorant — monstrous in her behaviour — flying out in all
directions, calling people such names — that I was foi:ced lately to make
use of the word Minx — this is not I think from any innate vice but from
a penchant she has for acting stylishly. ... I am however tired of such
style and shall decline any more of it." It is evident that Keats was not
at this time in love with Miss Brawne, and the slight reference to her in
the letter of 24th February, 1819, points to the same fiict, though it is
equally evident that he was more fascinated by her than he cared to admit.
But soon after this the engagement must have taken place. The above
quotation affords a commentary on the emotion expressed in the poem,
and throws some light on the really tragic side of Keats's passion. The
next poem {To ) and the sonnets addressed to Fanny (p. 287) throw
still more. Possessed of these, we have no need and should have no
inclination to dwell on the agony of the love letters. On page 297
of Keats's edition of the Anatomy of Melancholie, now in the collection
of Sir Charles D iike, the poet has underlined the following passage which
as Mr. Forman points out, is the source of the expressions used in the
third stanza — " They cannot look off whom they love : they will impregnare
earn ipsis oculis, deflowre her with their eyes : be still gazing, staring,
stealing faces, smiling, glancing at her "-^the continuation of the passage
(not quoted by Mr. Forman) may have suggested line 2 of the stanzas
—"as Apollo on Leucothoe, the Moon on her Endymion, when she
stood still in Caria, and at Latmos caused her chariot to be stayed".
Further on we have a passage of which Mr. Forman gives us Keats's
annotation — a companion to the well known song of Ben Jonson — "so
will she by him — drink to him with her eyes, nay drink him up, devour
him, swallow him" (pt. iii. sect. ii. mem. iii. subs. i.). The Anatomy
of Melancholie, which Keats seems at this time to have been studying very
closely, and especially the third book. Of Love and Love Melancholy, can
hardly have been healthy reading for him in his present frame of mind,
and its good-humoured jests at the expense of lovers must have " scalded
him like tears ". Only a few pages before the passage above quoted, under
the head of "artificial allurements" to passion (iii. ii. ii. iv.) Burton
had discussed dancing as " none of the least," and it was in all probability
the news that Miss Brawne was going to a dance, working upon the
memory of this passage, that called forth the poem. Certainly stanzas 5
and 6 are the cynical indifference of Burton translated into the language
of passion.
In the collection of Lord Crewe is preserved a fragmentary autograph
MS. of the poem, containing stanzas 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7- This has only just
come to light.
III. The MS. supplies a false start to this stanza — " My temples with
hot jealous pulses beat".
632 JOHN KEATS
VI. The MS. gives the following false starts to this stanza : —
I know it ! yet sweet Fanny I would feign
Knoll for a mercy on my lonely hours.
I know it : yet sweet Fanny I would feign
Cry your soft mercy for a . . .
The latter part of the stanza runs thus in the MS. : —
Nor when away you roam.
Dare keep its wretched home.
Love, Love alone, has pains severe and many :
When loneliest keep me free
From torturing jealousy.
This reading certainly improves the sense and is more vivid ; the reading
of the text is probably due to an error of Lord Houghton's in copying for
press.
To — ■- First published H 1848, and there dated October 1849 ; vide
note to preceding poem.
Lines. This living hand, etc. This beautiful fragment was found by
Mr. Forman in the margin of a page of the manuscript of the Co^ and
Bells and was firat published by him in 1898. The lines are given here by
his courteous permission. It is evident both from the place where they
were found and from their general character that they were written not
earlier than the winter of 1819. It seems almost certain that they were,
as Mr. Forman supposes, addressed to Fanny Brawne ; they are expressive
of that same passionate unrest which is the prevailing note of the two
previous Odes, and they suggest, at least, that Keats might have been
saved much anguish of heart if he had set his affections on one who had
realised more fuUy the dignity of her lot.
SONGS AND LYRICS (p. 266).
On . First published H 1848 with date 1817.
Lines. Unfelt, unheard, unseen. First published H 1848 with date 1817.
12. Love doth know no fulness, nor no bounds. First written "that every
Joy and Grief and Feeling drowns ". Mr. Forman refers to the line which
Keats has substituted as a '' quotation from Shakespeare," but it is not to
be found in Shakespeare, and I have been unable to trace it in any other
poet.
Where's the Poet ? First published H 1848. This conception of the
poet's character was a favourite one with Keats — cf. the letter to Wood-
house, 27th Oct. 1818, quoted in the Introduction, p. lix.
Welcome joy, and welcome sorrow, etc. First published H 1848. No
date is given, but the poem is hardly likely to have been written before
the last few months of 1817, as Keats only began his detailed study of
SONGS AND LYRICS— NOTES 533
Paradise Lost about September of that year, and the inaccuracy of the
quotation shows that it must be g^ven from memory. The passage occurs
in Bk. ii. 898-903.
For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four Champions fierce
Strive here for Maistrie, and to Battel bring
Thir embryon Atoms ; they around the flag
Of each his faction, in thir several Clanns,
Light-arm'd or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift or slow.
Swarm populous, unnumber'd as the Sands. . . .
8. are H, HBF ; burn BM.
14. shipwreck'd H, HBF ; storm wrecked BM.
On a Lock of Milton's Hair. First published H 1848 : sent by Keats
in a letter dated 23rd Jan., 1818, to Bailey, the friend who had first roused
his enthusiasm for Paradise Lost in the previous autumn. Keats writes —
" I was at Hunt's the other day, and he surprised me with a real authenti-
cated lock of Milton's hair. I know you would like what I wrote thereon,
so here it is — as they say of a Sheep in a Nursery book : — " After the poem
he adds — "This I did at Hunt's request — perhaps I should have done
something better alone and at home ".
What the Thrush said. First published H 1848. The lines were sent
in a letter to Reynolds written from Hampstead in Feb. 1818, and intro-
duced as follows : —
"My dear Reynolds, — I had an idea that a man might pass a very
pleasant life in this manner — Let him on a certain day read a certain Page
of full Poesy or distilled Prose, and let him wander with it, and muse upon
it, and prophesy upon it, and dream upon it^ until it becomes stale — but
when will it do so } Never. When Man has arrived at a certain ripeness
in intellect any one grand and spiritual passage serves him as a starting-post
towards all 'the two-and-thirty Palaces '. How happy is such a voyage of
conception, what delicious diligent Indolence. . . . Nor will this sparing
touch of noble Books be any irreverence to their Writers — for perhaps the
honours paid by Man to Man are trifles in comparison to the Benefit done
by great Works to the " Spirit and pulse " of good by their mere passive
existence. Memory should not be called Knowledge. Many have original
minds who do not think it — they are led away by Custom. Now it appears
to me that almost any man may like the spider spin from inwards his own
airy Citadel — the points of leaves and twigs on which the spider begins her
work are few, and she fills the air with a beautiful circuiting. Man should
be content with as few points to tip with the fine Web of his Soul, and
weave a tapestry empyrean full of symbols for his spiritual eye, of softness
for his spiritual touch, of space for his wandering, of distinctness for his
luxury. ... It has been an old comparison for our urging on — the Bee-
hive ; however it seems to me that we should rather be the flow'er than the
534 JOHN KEATS
Bee — for it is a false notion that more is gained by receiving than giving —
no, the receiver and the giver are equal in their benefits. The flower, I
doubt not, receives a fair guerdon from the Bee — its leaves blush deeper in
the next spring. . . . Now it is more noble to sit like Jove than to &j like
Mercury — let us not therefore go hurrying about and collecting honey,
bee-like buzzing here and there impatiently from a knowledge of what is to
be aimed at ; but let us open our leaves like a flower and be passive and
receptive — budding patiently under the eye of Apollo and taking hints
from every noble insect that favours us with a visit — sap will be given us
for meat and dew for drink. I was led into these thoughts, my dear
Reynolds, by the beauty of the morning operating on a sense of Idleness—
I have not read any Books — the morning said I was right — I had no idea
but of the morning and the thrush said I was right— seeming to say "
After the poem he adds, " Now I am sensible all this is a mere sophistica-
tion (however it may neighbour to any truths), to excuse my own in-
dolence. So I will not deceive myself that Man should be equal with
Jove — but think himself very well off as a sort of scullion-Mercury or even
a humble-bee."
These lines and the letter which contains them are a beautiful expres-
sion of one source of Keats's inspiration, the "wise passiveness" of
Wordsworth, and the feeling which underlies them bears comparison with
the Ode on Indolence {q.v. and notes) whilst it reaches its consummation in
the Ode to Autumn. That passage in the letter which speaks of the effect
of the great thoughts of his predecessors is suggestive of a truth peculiarly
applicable to Keats. Mr. Forman calls attention to the manner in which
Keats has reproduced in his poem a thrush-like repetition of sound, and
compares Browning, Home Thoughts from Abroad : —
That's the wise thrush ; he sings each song twice over
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture !
Faery Songs. First published H 1848, with date 1818.
Daisy's Song. This and the two following poems (first published H
1848, with date 1818) are usually given under the title Extracts from an
Opera, together with three others. But as they are all in reality quite
independent, it seems better to print these three among the poems, and
to relegate the others, which are quite worthless, to the Appendix. Dante
Gabriel Rossetti noted that the song "The stranger lighted from his
steed " reminds one somewhat of Blake's The Will and the Way (HBF.).
The connection seems very remote ; for The Will and the Way is written
in a satiric vein in which Blake is rarely successful and which, moreover,
is totally at variance with Keats's intention here. A far closer parallel
may be traced between " The stranger lighted from his steed " and Blake's
Love's Secret, especially the last stanza of that poem ; —
SONGS AND LYRICS— NOTES 535
Soon after she was gone from me,
A traveller came by.
Silently, invisibly :
He took her with a sigh.
The Daisy's Song contains similarly a curious suggestion of Blake both
in the general simplicity of statement and in a kind of inspired discon-
nectedness which can only be justified by its indubitable success. In the
same way the general variety of cadence throughout the song recalls
Blake's characteristic manner. There is nothing else in Keats at all
resembling these two songs ; it seems highly probable that they were
written after the perusal of Blake.
Asleep! O sleep a little while. The phrase sudden adoration, perhaps
the only noticeable touch in these lines, is a fine reminiscence of Milton.
. . . noble grace that dash't brute violence
With sudden adoration, and blank aw {Comus, 451, 452).
Where be ye going. First published H 1848 without stanza 2, and in
1853 in an inaccurate form in Taylor's Life of Haydon (i. 363). The correct
text was first given by Mr. Forman in his 1883 edition, where he notes
that Rossetti pointed out that the first verse is undoubtedly a remini-
scence from one of the songs in (Chatterton's) Mlla : —
Mie husband. Lord Thomas, a forrester boulde.
As ever close pynne or the baskette.
Does as cherysauncys from Elynour houlde
I have ytte as soon as I ask ytte.
Keats's stanzas were sent to Haydon from Teignmouth in a letter dated
14th March, 1818.
Mes Mebbilies. First published in Hood's Magazine for 1844 under
the title Old Meg, and afterwards included in H 1848, in a letter written
to Tom Keats from Auchencairn, near Dumfries, 3rd July, 1818. Keats
had sent the poem to his sister Fanny on the previous day. " The pedes-
trians," says Lord Houghton, "passed by Sol way Firth through that
delightful part of Kirkcudbrightshire, the scene of Guy Mannering.
Keats had never read the novel, but was much struck with the character
of Meg Merrilies as delineated to him by Brown. He seemed at once to
realise the creation of the novelist, and suddenly stopping in the pathway,
at a point where a profusion of honeysuckles, wild rose, and fox glove
mingled with the bramble and broom that filled up the spaces between
the shattered rocks, he cried out, ' Without a shadow of doubt on that
spot old Meg Merrilies often boiled her kettle '."
7. chip hat HBF, following Hood's Magazine; ship hat H.
Stappa. First published H 1848 ; included in a letter to Tom Keats
written from Dun an cuUen (Derrynaculan near Cruach-Doire-nan Cruilean,
[S.C.],) Island of Mull, on 23rd July, 1818. It is prefaced by a description
536 JOHN KEATS
of Staffa, quoted in the note on Hyperion, i. 86. Lord Houghton printed
it, as other editors of the poem Bince> without the six lines which in the
original letter followed line 49 : —
'Tis now free to stupid face,
To cutters, and to Fashion Imats,
To cravats and to petticoats : —
The great sea shall war it down.
For its fame shall not he blown
At each farthing Quadrille dance.
It is probably to these lines, and not to the whole poem, as Lord
Houghton would imply, that Keats refers when he adds in his letter —
" J am sorry J am so indolent as to write such stuff as this. It can't be
helped." The poem as it stands in the text, if we except the unfortunate
line 18, is a singularly felicitous example of the manner in which natural
beauty and poetic reminiscence blended in their inspiration of Keats's best
work. In his wonder at the majesty of Staffa, which he has tried in vain
to describe in prose, it seems to him the very ''Cathedral of the sea," and
as its pontiff priest he conjures up Lycidas, whose bones perchance were
hurled "beyond the stormy Hebrides" (Lycidas, 166).
A Prophecy. First published H 1848 : was included in the Journal
Letter of Keats to his brother George, dated 29th Oct. 1818. The poet, dis-
cussing the fate of the different nations, is led, naturally enough, to consider
the future of his brother's new home and disputes the view taken by his
friend Dilke "that America will be the country to take up the human
intellect where England leaves off ". "I differ there with him greatly. A
country like the United States whose greatest men are Franklins and
Washingtons will never do that. They are great men doubtless, but how
are they to be compared to those our countrymen Milton and the two
Sidneys .''... Those Americans are great, but they are not sublime men
— the humanity of the United States can never reach the sublime. ..."
And feeling that the real need for America is the development of her imagina^
tion he goes on, " If I had a prayer to make for any great good, next to
Tom's recovery, it should be that one of your children should be the first
American poet. I have a great mind to make a prophecy. They say
prophecies work out their own fulfilment." Then follows the poem.
A Song. In a drear-^ghted December. First published, says Mr, Forman,
in Galignani's edition of Shelley, Keats, and Coleridge (1829), and assigned
by Woodhouse to October or December, 1818.
21. To know the change and feel it. Thefeelof notto feel it(WoodAoMS«
MS. Book). The alteration is among the most fortunate examples of Keats's
power to detect the faults of his earlier manner and to remove them from
his work where they showed any signs of recurrence.
23. steel HBF following Woodhouse ; steal H,
EPISTLE TO REYNOLDS— NOTES 537
Hush, Hush ! Tread Softly ! First published H 1848.
I HAD A Dove. First published H 1848. It is to be found in one of the
Journal Letters to America under the date 2nd Jan. 1819, prefaced by
the words, " It is my intention to wait a few years before I publish any
minor poems — and then I hope to have a volume of some written — and
which those people will relish, who cannot bear the burthen of a long
poem. In my journal I intend to copy the poems I write the day they are
written. There is just room, I see, in this page to copy a little thing I
wrote off to some music as it was playing.''
SoNe OF Four Fairies. First published H 1848. It was sent to George
KeatB in the Journal Letter of Feb.-May, 1819, and from the remark in
the previous letter (quoted in last note) we should infer that the poem
had been recently composed. It contains some charming fancies, but was
evidently carelessly written and exhibits faults both in language and taste
which will llead all readers to concur with the opinion of Rossetti who
regarded it as " unworthy of Keats at this period "-
9. FaintUss fan MS. letter ; faintly fan H ; ever beat MS. letter can-
celled.
32. buried H ; shaded MS. letter.
46. Beyond the nimble-wheeled quest H ; Far beyond the search and
quest MS. letter.
Epistle to John Hamilton Reynolds. First published H 1848.
Written and sent to Reynolds on 25th March, 1818, with the following
preface — " My dear Reynolds, — In hopes of cheering you through a minute
or two, I was determined will he nill he to send you some lines, so you
will excuse the unconnected subject and careless verse. You know, I am
sure, Claude's Enchanted Castle, and I wish you may be pleased with my
remembrance of it."
John Hamilton Reynolds (1796-1852) met Keats in 1816 at Leigh
Hunt's cottage, and soon became one of his warmest friends. Of all the
company that Keats met at Hampstgad, Reynolds seems to have had the
most genuine poetic talent, the keenest powers of criticism, and the
greatest sympathy with the intellectual interests of his friend. Like
Keats, he had been much inilue'nced by Wordsworth, though he was
always alive to his master's defects ; he saw far deeper into the secrets
of art than Hunt, and he had more subtlety of mind, more humour and
more discrimination than Haydon. We are not surprised, therefore, to
find that when Keats wishes to discuss the profounder problems of life
and art his letters are generally addressed to Reynolds. When he is
deep in Shakespeare study it is Reynolds he asks " whenever you write
say a word or two ... on Shakespeare " (April, 1819), it is to Reynolds
he sends a doubtful passage in Endymion for his verdict, it is Reynolds
538 JOHN KEATS
whose condemnation causes him to reject the first Preface to Endymion
{q.v. Introduction to Endymion, p. 418 <. Judging from the correspond-
ence we should infer that the friendship reached its height in the early
months of 1818. Then it was that Keats wrote his two criticisms of
Wordsworth (quoted pp. 406, 482), and sent him among other poems
included in the letters When I have fears, the Robin Hood poem, the
Lints on the Mermaid, the Thrush and the Ode to Maia. At the same
time he was engaged upon Isabella, written at Reynolds's request to be
contributed to a joint volume produced by the two friends (vide Introduc-
tion to Isabella).
The Epistle, in spite of certain obvious lapses in taste, the meaningless
caprice of the opening paragraph with the unnecessary banality of line 11
and the vulgar pronunciation of perhaps as p'raps in line 14 (c/. Sleep and
Poetry, 33) all due in a measure to the rapidity of its production, marlcs a
great advance in style and treatment of subject upon the earlier epistles.
The heroic couplet is well controlled throughout, enjambement is sparingly
and effectively eihployed, and there are no double endings to the lines.
20. the pontiff knife . .. . flows: — An interesting anticipation of the 0<ie
on a Grecian Urn, and in line 77 we have another anticipation of the
same poem : —
Things cannot to the will
Be settled, but they tease us out of thought.
The picture in lines 23-25 suggests Endymion, ii. 78-82.
26 Enchanted Castle:— Mr. Colvin (Letters of Keats, 91) writes: "The
famous picture now belonging to Lady Wantage, and exhibited at Bur-
lington House in 1888. Whether Keats ever saw the original is doubtful
(it was not shown at the British Institution in his time), but he must have
been familiar with the subject as engraved by Vivards and Woollett,
and its suggestive power worked in his mind until it yielded at last the
distilled poetic essence of the ' magic casement ' passage in the Ode to
a Nightingale." With a knowledge of Keats's intense admiration for
Hazlitt's critical powers (cf. End. ii. 198 note) it is interesting to quote
the following criticism of Claude : " Claude's landscapes are perfect
abstractions, visible images of things ; they speak the visible language of
nature truly, they resemble a mirror or a microscope. To the eye only,
they are more perfect than any other landscapes that ever were or will
be painted ; they give more of nature as cognisable by one sense alone ;
but they lay an equal stress on all visible impressions. They do not
interpret one sense by another ; they do not distinguish the character of
different objects as we are taught, and can only be taught to distinguish
them — by their effect on the different senses; that is, his eye wanted
imagination, it did not strongly sympathise with his other faculties. He
saw the atmosphere but he did not feel it. He painted the trunk of a
tree or a rock in the foreground as smooth — with as complete an abstrac-
tion of the gross tangible impression — as any other part of the picture.
His trees are perfectly beautiful, but quite immovable ; they have a look
EPISTLE TO REYNOLDS— NOTES 639
of enchantment. In shortj his landscapes are unequalled imitations of
nature^ released from its suhjection to the elements, as if all objects were
become a delightful fairy vision, and the eye had rarefied and refined
away the other senses." Hazlitt " On Gusto," The Round Table, 1817-
42. Santon : — A kind of dervish or priest, regarded as a saint, cf. Byron,
Childe Harold, ii. 56. "Slaves, flunuchs. Soldiers, Guests and Santons
wait".
46. Lapland Witch :—Cf. Paradise Lost, ii. 662-6 :—
Nor uglier follow the Night-Hag, when call'd
In secret, riding through the Air she comes
Lur'd with the smell of infant blood, to dance
With Lapland Witches, while the labouring Moon
Eclipses at thir charms.
82-85. It is a flaw, . . .Nightingale : — For Keats's feeling on the anta-
gonism between reason and emotion cf. Lamia, ii. 230 and note and Intro-
duction, p. xli. And the natural result of this shrinking from thought is
that emotion itself, unsupported by reason, is liable to violent and
capricious changes ; hence the "horrid mood " which follows.
&I. Of an eternal fierce destruction : — Keats returns to the problem of
Nature's cruelty in a letter written a year later, and shows himself far
more able to grapple with it. "... I perceive how far I am from any
humble standard of disinterestedness. Yet this feeling ought to be
carried to its highest pitch, as there is no fear of its ever injuring society
— which it would do, I fear, pushed to an extremity. For in wild Nature
the Hawk would lose his Breakfast of Robins and the Robin his of Worms —
the Lion must starve as well as the Swallow. The greater part of Men
make their way with the same instinctiveness, the same unwandering eye
from their purposes, the same animal eagerness as the Hawk. The Hawk
wants a Mate, so does the Man — look at them both, they set about it and
procure one in the same manner. They want both a nest and they both
set about one in the same manner. The noble animal Man for his amuse-
ment smokes his pipe— the Hawk balances about the clouds — that is the
only difference of their leisures. This it is that makes the Amusement of
Life — to a speculative Mind^-I go among the Fields and catch a glimpse of
a Stoat or a fieldmouse peeping out of the withered grass — the creature
hath a purpose, and its eyes are bright with it. I go amongst the
buildings of a city and I see a man hurrying along — to what? The
creature has a purpose and his eyes are bright with it. But then, as
Wordsworth says, 'we have all one human heart '. There is an
electric fire in human nature tending to purify — so that among these
human creatures there is continually some birth of new heroism. The
pity is, that we must wonder at it, as we should at finding a pearl in
rubbish " {To George and Georgiana Keats, 19th Mar. 1819).
106. Moods of one's mind : — A reminiscence of the title given by
Wordsworth to some poems in the 1807 volumes.
540 JOHN KEATS
SONNETS
I. O ! how I kve, etc. First publiBhed H 1848^ and dated 1816.
II. After dark vapaurs, etc. First published in the Examiner, 23rd Feb.
1817. Woadhouse, in his copy of the 1817 volume, to which he has added
this Sonnet, has dated it 31st Jan. 1817. The use of the word "feel" aud
the reference to Sappho iff. Sleep mpd Poetry, 381) both point to the influence
isi Leigh Hunt.
6. relieved of HBF ; relieving of Exammer ; relieved from H.
12. sleeping H ; smiling Examin&r, HBF.
III. This pleasant tale, etc. First published in the iS^vawftner, 6th March,
1817, and written during the previous month. Charles Cowden Clarke ia
his Recollections of Writers thus recalls the circumstances of its composition :
" Another example of his promptly suggestive imagination, and uncommon
facility in giving it utterance, occurred one day upon returning home and
finding me asleep on the sofa, with a volume of Chaucer open at The
Flowre and the 'Leafe. After expressing to me his admiration of the poem,
which he had been reading, he gave me the fine testimony of that opinion
in pointing to the sonnet he had written at the close of it, which was an
extempore effusion, and without the alteration of a single word. It lies
before me now, signed ' J. K., Feb. 1817.' If my memory do not betray
me, the charming out-door fancy scene was Keats's first introduction to
Chaucer."
It is unfortunate that the charming allusion to the Babes in the Wood,
in the concluding couplet, is marred by a false rhyme, but it is at least
highly probable that both the allusion and the false rhyme are due to the
influence of Wordsworth's The Redbreast and the Butterfly, to be found in
the 1807 volumes which Keats knew especially well.
IV. V. To Haydon. These sonnets were first printed in the Examitur,
9th March, 1817. For Keats's relations with Haydon, vide note p. 399.
Haydon was delighted with the sonnet and wrote a letter of thanks in his
usual extravagant vein. But Keats did not owe his knowledge of the Elgin
Marbles to Haydon alone. It is interesting to notice that Severn also
claimed the honour of having introduced him to them, and was " proud
of having taken Keats to see them and of having pointed out their
beauty" (Life and Letters of Joseph Severn, William Sharp, 1892).
12, 13. With brainless idiotism, etc. H. The Examiner reads : —
With browless idiotism — o'erwise phlegm
Thou hadst beheld the Hesperean shine.
VI. On a Picture op Leander. First published in The Gem, a Literary
Annual, edited by Thomas Hood, 1829. No date is attached to it, but it is
followed in Lord Houghton's Aldine edition by the sonnet On the Sea,
which he dates (wrongly ; vide note to next poem) August, 1817, so that
SONNETS— NOTES 641
it was probably written shortly before this. The picture which inspired
the sonnet is unknown ; perhaps it was also the inspiration of the reference
in Endymion, iii. 97, composed only a little later.
VII. On the Sea. First published H 1848 where it is dated August, 1817.
But Keats had composed it some months before, for he sent it in a letter
to Reynolds written from Carisbrook on 17th April. We learn from that
letter that it was inspired partly by Shakespeare and partly by the sight
of the sea at Shanklin on the day before. " Yesterday I went to Shanklin
. . . (it) is a most beautiful place — sloping wood and meadow ground reach
round the Chine, which is a clift between the cliffs of the depth of nearly
300 feet at least. This cleft is filled with trees and bushes in the narrow
part, and as it widens becomes bare, if it were not for primroses at one
side, which spread to the very verge of the Sea, and some fishermen's huts
on the other, perched midway on the Balustrades of beautiful green
Hedges along their steps down to the sands. But the sea. Jack, the sea —
the little Waterfall — then the white cliff— then St. Catherine's Hill — ' the
sheep in the meadows, the cows in the corn \ . . . From want of regular
rest I have been rather narvous — and the passage in Law — ' Do you not
hear the sea?' has haunted me intensely." Then follows the Sonnet.
Later In the letter he adds, " I find I cannot exist without Poetry — without
eternal Poetry. — half a day will not do — the whole of it — I began with a
little, but habit has made me a Leviathan. I had become all in a Tremble
from not having written anything of late — the Sonnet over leaf did me
good. I slept the better last night for it — this Morning, however, I am
nearly as bad again."
For other passages illustrative of Keats's peculiar feeling for the sea
and his power of expressing it cf. Bp. to Geo. Keats, 131-38 ; Skep and
Poetry, 375-80 ; Endymion, ii. 16, 17, 348-60 ; iii. 70, 71, 82-90, 625 ;
Ejf. to Reynolds, 88-92 ; Hyperion, iii. 40 ; Fall of Hyperion, i. 430-36 ; and
his last Sonnet, Bright star, etc.
7. Be moved for days. Woodhouse records another reading of this
line:— "Be lightly moved."
VIII. On Leigh Hunfs Poem, The Story of Rimini. First printed in
H 1848 and there dated 1817. On The Story of Rimini and its influence
upon Keats vide Introduction, pp. xxiii-xxvii.
IX. On sitting down to read King Lear once again. First published
H 1848 ; included in a letter written by the poet to his brothers George
and Tom Keats on 23rd January, 1818, where it is introduced by the
words : — " I think a little change has taken place in my intellect lately —
I cannot bear to be uninterested or unemployed, I, who for so long a time
have been addicted to passiveness. Nothing is finer for the purposes of
great productions than a very gradual ripening of the intellectual powers.
As an instance of this — observe — I sat down yesterday to read King Lear
once again ; the thing appeared to demand the prologue of a sonnet. I
542 JOHN KEATS
wrote it, and began to read— ^(I know you would like to see it)." In a
letter to Bailey, written upon the same day, he makes a similar allusion
to it. " I sat down to read King Lear yesterday, and felt the greatness of
the thing up to the writing of a sonnet preparatory thereto". "The
golden tongued Romance " is almost certainly the Faerie Queene, and the
contrast expressive of the supremacy which Shakespeare had held over
his mind for the past year (c/. Introduction, p. xxziii).
2. of MS., HBF ; if Letter, H.
4. pages MS., HBF ; volume Letter, H.
6. damnation MS., HBF ; Hell torment Letter, H.
X. When I have fears that I may cease to be, etc. First printed H 1848>
Sent to Reynolds in a letter dated 31st January, 1818 as " My last sonnet".
,'It is the first example of Keats's employment of the Shakespearian form
- (but cf. note to xii. post) and with the exception of the Sonnet on Chap-
, man's Homer far finer than any he had yet written — among the best,
-indeed, that he ever wrote.
It is interesting to notice that the conception embodied in those two
superbly imaginative lines.
When I behold upon the night's starr'd face.
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance
took deep root in his mind ; for in a letter written to Reynolds three
weeks later he develops it and speaks of " weaving a tapestry empyrean
full of symbols for his spiritual eye ". The passage is quoted in the note
to What the Thrush said (p. 633).
XL To THE Nile. First published H 1848. On 16th February, 1818,
Keats wrote to his brothers from Hampstead telling them " The Wednes-
day before last, Shelley, Hunt and I, wrote each a sonnet on the river
Nile : some day you shall read them all ". Shelley's sonnet, not published
till 1876 (before which it was generally thought that Shelley's sonnet
on Ozymandias was the one here alluded to) was as follows : —
Month after month the gathered rains descend.
Drenching yon secret .Ethiopian dells,
And from the desart's ice-girt pinnacles.
Where Frost and Heat in strange embraces blend
On Atlas, fields of moist snow half depend.
Girt there with blasts and meteors. Tempest dwells
By Nile's aerial urn, with rapid spells
Urging those waters to their mighty end.
O'er Egypt's land of Memory floods are level.
And they are thine O Nile ! — and well thou knowest
That soul-gustaining airs and blasts of evil.
And fruits and poisons spring where'er thou flowest.
Beware, O Man ! for knowledge must to thee
Like the great flood to Egypt, ever be.
SONNETS— NOTES 543
Leigh Hunt's sonnet, published in his Foliage, 1818, ran : —
It flows through old hush'd ^gypt and its sands.
Like some grave mighty thought threading a dream ;
And times and things, as in that vision, seem
Keeping along it their eternal stands, —
Caves, pillars, pyramids, the shepherd bands
That roam'd through the young world, the glory extreme
Of high Sesostris, and that southern beam.
The laughing queen that caught the world's great hands.
Then comes a mightier silence, stem and strong.
As of a world left empty of its throng.
And the void weighs on us ; and then we wake,
And hear the fruitful stream lapsing along
'Twixt villages, and think how we shall take
Our own calm journey on for human sake.
Leigh Hunt's sonnet is probably the best that he ever wrote, that of
Keats is especially interesting as showing how essentially his love of
Nature is associated with his own country. Cf. Introduction, p. Ixiii.
6, 7. Art thou so fruitful ? etc. : —
Art thou so beautiful, or a wan smile
Pleasant but to those men, who sick with toil ( Woodhouse MS.).
XII. To Spenser. First published H 1848. In the Aldine edition of
1876 Lord Houghton added another version, with no variations of any
importance, but with a note appended, " I am enabled by the kindness
of Mr. W. A. Longmore, nephew of Mr. J. H. Reynolds, to give an
exact transcript of this sonnet as written and given to his mother by the
poet, at his father's house in Little Britain. The poem is dated, in Mrs.
Longmore's hand, 6th Feb. 1818, but it seems to me impossible that it
can have been other than an early production and of the especially
Spenserian time." The tone of the poem seems at first sight to bear out
what Lord Houghton says, and accordingly he has been followed by Mr.
Forman and other editors. But they are probably mistaken. The form
of the sonnet amply corroborates the date which Mrs. Longmore has given,
which, apart from internal evidence, there would be no reason for disput-
ing. Of the sixty-one sonnets written by Keats thirty -nine follow the Petrar-
chan scheme of rhyming (octave fixed ABBA ABBA ; sestet running on
two or three rhymes but not ending in a couplet), three are debased or loose
Petrarchan (octave correct; sestet ending in a couplet) and sixteen are
Shakespearian (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG) ; the remaining three are experi-
ments. In the last six months of 1817 Keats, as far as we know, wrote no
sonnets ; indeed, the last dated sonnet of that year is On the Sea (l7th
April) and the sonnet on The Story of Riniini, merely dated within the
year 1817, is from its subject far more likely to belong to the earlier
months, when Hunt's influence was far stronger, than to the latter part of
the year. In October and November Keats made his first serious study of
544 JOHN KEATS
< Shakespeare's poems and this not merely had a marked effect upon his
mind, but completely destroyed his allegiance to the Italian sonnet. For
leaving out of count this sonnet to Spenser we find that before he wrote
When I have fears, etc., on Slst Jan. 1818, he had written no Shakespearian
sonnet at all, and that after he wrote it he only reverted to the Italian
form, pure or debased, in the sonnet to the Nile, which wag part of a com-
petition and naturally, therefore^ written in the more approved form, as
were both Shelley's and Hunt's : in a Sonnet to Ailsa Rock : in a very weak
sonnet on Burns, and in a burlesque On hearing the bagpipes. Of the
sonnets written in 1818 before When I have feavs, i.e. after the pause in
Keats's sonnet activity, one, the sonnet To a Cat is obviously written as
a direct parody of Milton {vide note, p. 557) and therefore can hardly be
taken into account, the other On sitting down to read King Lear is in de-
based Petrarchan form though with more of the Shakespearian manner than
is noticeable before in Keats. That is to say, from Jan. 1818 onwards,
after one attempt in the form to which he had up to the present faithfully
adhered, Keats practically accepted the Shakespearian form as most suited
to his genius, whilst before that period he entirely favoured the Petrarchan ;
and it seems strange, if the sonnet on Spenser were written as early as Lord
Houghton thinks, that the experiment in the Shakespearian form was not
repeated for more than two years, especially as it is far easier to write —
j^ slight inducement to Keats in his earliest years of poetic composition.
It should be added that, as the poem is evidently written to order, {vide
line 3) too much stress ought not to be laid upon its tone. The poet is
asked to write a little poem in the Spenserian manner, perhaps by Mrs.
Longmore herself, but far more likely by Leigh Hunt in whose company
we know him to have been the day before {of. "last eve" 1. 3 and last
sonnet note), and he replies, after a graceful compliment, that he cannot
write in the Spenserian manner in the winter {cf. the sonnet on Lear
written but a few days before where he bids the poet of the Faerie Queene
" leave melodising on this wintry day ") but will do his best " in the summer
days". Such a light and charming little poem might be written under
these circumstances at any period, and it should not be regarded as the
expression of an allegiance to Spenser as yet unaffected by other influences.
XIII. To . First published in Hood's Magazine for April, 1844.
Woodhoase attributes its composition to 4th Feb. 1818, and asserts
that it was addressed to " a lady whom he saw for some few moments at
Vauxhall ". In rhythm, in the peculiar effect gained by the repetition of
phrase, in emotional structure and the management of its crescendo it
is probably the most Shakespearian sonnet that Keats ever wrote, the
weakness in the twelfth line being its -only flaw ; so that few will be
inclined to quarrel with the statement of Mr. Robert Bridges that "it
, might have been written by Shakespeare ". It affords a striking example
of Keats's intense and almost intuitive artistic sympathy with the genius
SONNETS— NOTES 545
of Shakespeare, and was, probably, only the second sonnet written by him
in this form.
1. Time's sea, etc. H, HBF ; Life's sea hath been five times at its
slow ebb Hood^s Mag.
7. / cannot look H, HBF ; I never gaze Hood's Mag.
13, 14. Every delight, etc. H, HBF ;
Other delights with thy remembering
And sorrow to my darling joys doth bring. Hood^s Mag.
XIV. Answer to a Sonnet by J. H. Reynolds, etc. First published H
1848, and dated by Woodhouse 8th Feb. 1818. Reynolds's sonnet was
published in his Garden of Florence, 1821.
XV. O that a week could be an age, etc. : — First published H 1848, with
the heading To John Hamilton Reynolds, and generally attributed to Feb.-
March, 1818. But in the Woodhouse transcript of the Fall of Hyperion
and other poems, recently discovered, the sonnet is headed To J. if., which,
as Mr. Colvin reminded me, would undoubtedly refer not to Reynolds,
who always signed himself and was addressed/. H. R., but to James Rice,
known to Keats and to many of his circle as one of the wittiest and most
lovable of men. Keats was in correspondence with Rice at the time when
this sonnet is agreed to have been written, so that there is no improbability
in the matter, whilst it is quite easy to understand how Lord Houghton
might for the moment forget his existence, considering his unimportance,
as compared with Reynolds, in the literary life of Keats. No other MS. of
this poem is known to exist, and it is quite probable that Lord Houghton
printed from the Woodhouse transcript.
XVL The Human Seasons. First published in Hunf s Literary Pocket
Book for 1819. The poem was sent by Keats in a letter to Bailey written
at Teignmouth on 18th March, 1818, and introduced as follows : " You
know my thoughts on religion. I do not think myself more in the right
than other people, and that nothing in the world is proveable. I wish I
could enter into all your thoughts on the subject, merely for one short
ten minutes, and give you a page or two to your liking. I am sometimes
so very sceptical as to think Poetry itself a mere Jack o' Lantern to amuse
whoever may chance to be struck with its brilliance. As tradesmen say
everything is worth what it will fetch, so probably every mental pursuit
takes its reality and worth from the ardour of the pursuer — being itself a
Nothing. Ethereal things may at least be thus real, divided under three
heads — things real — ^things semireal — and nothings. Things real, such as
Existences of Sun, Moon and Stars — and passages of Shakespeare. Things
semireal, such as love, the Clouds etc., which require a greeting of the
spirit to make them wholly exist — and Nothings, which are made great
and dignified by an ardent pursuit — which, by the by, stamp the Burgundy
mark on the bottles of our minds, insomuch as they are able to ' consecrate
35
546 JOHN KEATS
whate'er tht^ look upon'. I have written a sonnet here of a somewhat
collateral nature — so don't imagine it an X propos des bottes." After the
sonnet he adds : " Aye, this may be carried— hut what am I talking of?
It is an old maxim of mine, and of course must be well known, that every
point of thought is the centre of an intellectual world. The two upper-
most thoughts in a man's mind are the two poles of his world — he revolves
on them ; and everything is Southward or Northward to him through their
means — we take but three steps from feathers to iron."
7. high Is so W; nigh His Lit. Pocket Book, HBF.
XVII. To HouER. First published H 1848, and said both by him and
by Woodhouse to have been written in 1818. Mr. Forman records that
Rossetti, influenced doubtless by the phrase " giant ignorance," in spite
of this evidence, thought that the sonnet must have preceded that 0»
Jwst looking into Chapman's Homer, but the use of the Shakespearian
form corroborates, if indeed any corroboration is necessary, the external
evidence above quoted.
7. spermy H ; spumy Woodhouse MS., HBP.
12. There is a triple sight in blindness keen : — In Keats's notes on
Milton, written probably about this time, he speculates upon the influence
of Milton's blindness on his imagination. " It can scarcely be conceived
how Milton's blindness might here aid the magnitude of his conceptions
as a bat in a large gothic, vault."
XVIII. On visiting the Tomb of Burns. First published H 1848. This
was the first poem written by Keats on his tour with Brown in Scotland,
and was sent to his brother Tom in a letter dated Dumfries, 1st July.
" You will see," he adds after copying the poem, '' by this sonnet that I
am at Dumfries. We have dined in Scotland. Bums's tomb is in the
Churchyard corner, not very much to my taste though on a scale large
enough to show that they wanted to honour him. Mrs. Burns lives in
this place ; most likely we shall see her to-morrow. This sonnet I have
written in a strange mood,, half-asleep. I know not how it is, the Clouds,
the Sky, the Houses, all seem anti-Grecian and anti-Charlemagnish." The
" strange mood, half-asleep," in which the sonnet was composed, is prob-
ably responsible for the obscurity of the sestet. It is characteristic of Keats
that as he stands beside the grave of Burns he is haunted by the reflections
of Hamlet on the influence of the mystery of death upon the human will : —
Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all.
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought (iii. 1. 83).
Such unhealthy reflections as arrested Hamlet's power of action clouded
Keats's apprehension of the "real of beauty". The significant reference
to Minos, the wise judge who for his wisdom and integrity on earth was
made a judge in the infernal regions, and retained his sanity even in the
presence of death, is probably due to the influence of Dante's Inferno,
where Mino^ is several times referred to. Gary's Dante was the only
SONNETS— NOTES 547
book which Keats took with him on hie Scotch tour. There is very little
evidence of Keats's feeling with regard to Bums's poetry, for apart from
the Epistle to Mathew (71), where his name is used " to hitch in a rhyme "
Keats does not allude to him before this. But it is probable that he knew
Bums in some detail, and the letter quoted in the note to Sonnet XX. points
to this. Moreover it is difficult to imagine where else e.g. he could have
found the Scotch form "lampit" for "limpet" which he uses in the
Epistle to Reynolds, and the Scotch doggerel rhymes which he wrote on his
Scotch tour for the amusement of his family, bad as they are, show some
slight traces of his acquaintance with Burns's dialect.
XIX. To AiiiSA Rock. First published in Hunt's Literary Pocket Book
for 1819 and written, Lord Houghton tells us, at the inn at Girvan reached
by Keats and Brown on 10th July. Writing to his brother Tom he says :
"When we left Cairn our Road lay half way up the sides of a green
mountainous shore, full of clefts of verdure and eternally varying — some-
times up and sometimes down, and over little Bridges going across green
chasms of moss, rock and trees winding about everywhere. After two or
three Miles of this we turned suddenly into a magnificent glen finely
wooded in parts — seven miles long — with a Mountain stream winding down
the midst — full of cottages in the most happy situations — the sides of the
hills covered with sheep — the effect of cattle lowing I never had so finely.
At the end we had a gradual ascent and got among the tops of the mountains
whence in a little time I descried in the Sea Ailsa Rock 940 feet high — it
was fifteen Miles distant and seemed close upon us. The effect of Ailsa
with the peculiar perspective of the Sea in connection with the ground we
stood on, and the misty rain then falling gave me a complete Idea of a
deluge. Ailsa struck me very suddenly — really I was a little alarmed."
XX. Written upon Ben Nevis : — Written early in August 1818, and first
published H 1848 with the following comment : " From Fort William Keats
mounted Ben Nevis. When on the summit a cloud enveloped him, and
sitting on the stones^ as it slowly wafted away, showing a tremendous
precipice into the valley below, he wrote these lines."
For the attitude of mind of which this sonnet is the expression, cf. the
letter to Bailey, quoted p. 645.
XXI. Written in the Cottage where Burns was born. First published
H 1848. The circumstances under which it was composed are described
in a letter to Tom Keats dated 13th July. "The bonny Doon is the
sweetest river I ever saw— overhung with fine trees as far as we could see.
We stood for some time on the Brig across it, over which Tarn O'Shanter
fled — we took a pinch of snuff on the Keystone — then we proceeded to the
'auld Kirk Alloway'. As we were looking at it a Farmer pointed the
spots where ' Mungo's Mither hang'd hersel' and ' drunken Charlie brake's
neck's bane '. Then we proceeded to th<5 Gqttage he was bom in — ^there
548 JOHN KEATS
was a board to that effect by the door side — it had the same effect as the
same sort of memorial at Stratford on Avon. We drank some Toddy to
Burns's Memory mth an old Man who knew Bums — damn him and dantn
his anecdotes — he was a great bore — it was impossible for a Southron to
understand above five words in a hundred. There was something good in
his description of Burns's melancholy the last time he saw him. I was
determined to write a sonnet in the Cottage — I did — but it was so bad I
cannot venture it here."
XXII. Fragment of a sonnet. First published H 1848. Sent in a
letter to Reynolds dated " about Sept. 22 " (SC) with the words :
" Here is a free translation of a Sonnet of Ronsard, which I think will
please you — I have the loan of his works — ^they have great beauties. . . .
I had not the original by me when I wrote it and did not recollect the
purport of the last lines." The sonnet which Keats was translating ran
as follows : —
Nature, ornant Cassandre, qui deuoit
De sa douceur forcer les plus rebelles.
La composa de cent beautez nouuelles,
Que Aha mille ans en espargne elle auoit : —
De touB les biens qu' Amour au Ciel couuoit
Comme un tresor cherement sous ses ailes,
Elle enrichit les graces immortelles
De son bel oeil qui les Dieux esmouuoit. —
Du Ciel k peine elle estoit descendue
Quand ie la vey, quand mon asme esperdue
En deuint foUe, et d'un si poignant trait,
Amour coula ses beautez en mes veines,
Qu' autres plaisirs ie nd sens que mes peines
Ny autre bien qu' adorer son portrait.
In all probability Keats never completed his version : anyhow no con-
cluding couplet of his has come down to us. Lord Houghton suggested
this conclusion : —
So that her image in my soul upgrew,
The only thing adorable and true.
3. Beauty's fairest dyes 'RBV. Beauty fairest dies H, MS.
XXIII. To Sleep. First published H 1848. It was copied into the
Journal Letter of Feb.-May, 1819, under the date 30th April, and was
probably composed shortly before this. A copy of Paradise Lost, given by
Keats to Mrs. Dilke, has the following version of the first twelve lines : —
O soft embalmer of the still Midnight
Shutting with careful fingers and benig^n
Our gloom-pleas'd eyes embowered from the light ;
As wearisome as darkness is divine.
O soothest Sleep, if so it please thee close
SONNETS— NOTES 549
Mjr willing eyes in midst of this thine hjrmn
Or wait the amen ere thy poppy throws
Its sweet death dews o'er every pulse and limh,
Then shut the hushed Casket of my soul,
And turn the key round in the oiled wards.
And let it rest until the morn has stole.
Bright tressed from the grey east's shuddering bourn.
And H quotes from an American Magazine, The Dial, of April 1843, a, stUl
earlier draft, agreeing in the main with the Dilke MS., but reading
3. "flush'd" foi- "pleas'd"; 4. "weariness in" tor "wearisome as";
8. " dark " for " death," and stopping short in liue 12 at the word " bright ".
Mr. Forman justly remarks upon " the highest poetic instinct " which led
Keats to transpose the tenth and ninth lines and place them at the close
of the poem, and it is interesting to observe that the finest line in the whole
"Enshaded in forgetfulness divine" only finds its place in the finished
version. In rhyme structure (ABAB, CDCD, BC, EFEF), the poem is an
experiment and hardly a fortunate one. The subject and treatment would
have lent themselves admirably to the stricter Italian form of sonnet, but
this Keats had given up, and he judged rightly in rejecting, as contrary
to the spirit of this poem, the Shakespearian form with its couplet ending.
XXIV. Why did I laugh to-night ?— First published H 1848. Enclosed
in that part of the Journal Letter to America of Feb.-May, 1819, which is
dated 19th March, and probably written,, therefore, on the 18th. It is
prefaced thus : " I am ever afraid that your anxiety for me will lead you
to fear for the violence of my temperament continually smothered down :
for that reason I did not intend to have seat you the following sonnet —
but look over the two last pages (the passage Keats particularly refers to
is quoted in the notes to the Epistle to Reynolds, p. 539) and ask yourselves
whether I have not that in me which will bear the buffets of the world.
It will be the best comment on the sonnet ; it will show you that it was
written with no Agony but that of ignorance ; with no thirst of anything
but Knowledge when pushed to the point though the first steps to it were
through my human passions — they went away and I wrote with my Mind
— and perhaps I must confess a little bit of my heart. . . ." After copying
the sonnet Keats adds : " I went to bed and enjoyed an uninterirupted
sleep. Sane I went to bed and sane I rose."
6. Say, wherefore MS. Letter ; I say, why H, HBF.
11. Yet would I H, HBF; yet could I MS. Letter. All critics have
called attention to the repetition of the idea and language of this line in
the Ode to the Nightingale composed within the next two months. " To
cease upon the midnight with no pain."
XXV. On a Dream. First published in the Indicator of 28th June,
1820, written in the first three weeks of April, 1819, and sent to George
Keats in tha Journal Letter dated 18th or 19th April, with, the following
560 JOHN KEATS
comment : " The fifth canto of Dante pleases me more and more — it i«
that one in which he meets with Paolo and Francesca. I had passed
many days in rather a low state of mind, and in the midst of them I
dreamt of being in that region of Hell. The dream was one of the most
delightful enjoyments I ever had in my life. I floated about the whirling
atmosphere, as it is described, with a beautiful figure, to whose lips mine
were joined as it seemed for an age —and in the midst of all this cold and
darkness I was warm — even flowery tree-tops sprang up, and we rested on
them sometimes with the lightness of a cloud, till the wind blew us away
again. I tried a sonnet upon it, there are fourteen lines, but nothing of
what I felt in it. O that I could dream it every night."
In an article On some MarginaUa in Rossetti's Keats Mr. George Milner
notes that Rossetti, remarking upon the false rhyme in line 4, pointed
out that the line is an echo of End. ii. 684, " so sad, so melancholy, so
bereft ". Keats had already alluded to the story of Hermes and Argus in
the Same poem : —
ravishments more keen
Than Hermes' pipe, when anxious he did lean
Over eclipsing eyes (End. ii. 876-77, vide note).
XXVI. On Fame. First published with the succeeding sonnet in H
1848. Written on 30th April, 1819, and enclosed under that date in the
Journal Letter to America.
XXVII. 1,^, As if a Naiad, etc. H :
As if a clear lake, meddling with itself
Should cloud its clearness with a muddy gloom. MS. Letter.
XXVIII. // by dull rhymes our English must be chain'd. First published
H 1848. Sent to America in the Journal Letter which contains the last
five sonnets, under ithe date 30th April. It is, as Keats points out, an
experiment in its rhyme structure. " I have been endeavouring," he
writes, " to discover a better Sonnet Stanza then we have. The legitimate
does not suit the language over well from the pouncing rhymes — ^the other
kind appears too elegiac — and the couplet at the end of it has seldom a
pleasing effect — I do not pretend to have succeeded — it will explain itself."
As Keats justly remarks, his attempt was not successful, and in his few
remaining sonnets he was content to follow Shakespeare.
XXIX. The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone! First published H
1848, where it is dated 1819. It belongs to the same period and has the
same subject as the lines To —— dated October (q.v, p. 2S3 and note.)
In the Woodhouse transcript recently discovered by Lord Crewe is a
MS. of this sonnet, the only one known to exist, and possibly that used
by Lord Houghton for his text. In line 3 Woodhouse reads " tranced "
for " light," far more in keeping with the spirit of the poem and more
characteristic of Keats, whilst the second and third quatrains are trans-
OTHO THE GREAT— NOTES 551
posed. A truly Shakespearian effect, always striven after by Keats in his"^
later sonnets (c/. note, p. 544), and often attained as no other poet has
attained it, is secured by the repetition of the word " Faded " when it is
reserved for the climax of the sonnet, and the general effect of the whole
is, I think, immeasurably enhanced. But whatever view is taken of Lord
Houghton's version, there can be no doubt as to the authenticity of that
preserved by Woodhouse. It is therefore appended here : —
The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone !
Sweet voice, sweet lips, soft hand, and softer breast,
Warm breath, tranced whisper, tender semi-tone.
Bright eyes, accomplish'd shape^ and lang'rous waist !
Vanish'd unseasonably at shut of eve.
When the dusk holiday — or holinight
Of fragrant curtain'd love begins to weave
The woof of darkness thick, for hid delight ;
Faded the flower and all its budded charms.
Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes.
Faded the shape of beauty from my arms.
Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise —
But, as I've read love's missal through to-day.
He'll let me sleep, seeing I fast and pray.
9. shut of eve : — Cf. Lamia, i. 139 note.
XXX. I cry your mercy — ^ity^—hve! — aye, love! First published H
1848, and probably written soon after the preceding sonnet.
XXXI. Written on a blank page in Shakespeare's Poems, etc. The last
poem written by Keats, dated by Mr. Colvin September 28, 1820 ; first
published H 1848. On his journey to Italy Keats was becalmed in the
English Channel, and landed with Severn on the Dorsetshire coast,
near Lulworth Cove. " For a. moment," says SevArn, " he became like
his former self. He was in a part that he already knew, and showed
me the splendid caverns and grottoes with a, poet's pride, as though
they had been his by birthright. When we returned to the ship he wrote
for me on a blank leaf in a Folio volume of Shakespeare, which he gave
me in memory of our voyage, the following magnificent sonnet."
H supplies as a variant reading fpr the last line —
Half-passionless, and so swoon on to death-
OTHO THE GREAT
First published H 1848 : written in the summer of 1819, the first act
being finished by 12th July, the next three by 15th August, and the
whole work by 23rd August. In December Keats was busy revising and
" brightening the interest of the play " (^Letter to Fanny Keats, 2nd Dec.
1819). The circumstances under which it was composed are thus de-
scribed in the Brown MS. (quoted by H 1876).
552 JOHN KEATS
" At Shanklin he undertook a difficult task ; I engaged to furnish him
with the title^ characters, and dramatic conduct of a tragedy, and he was
to enwrap it in poetry. The progress of this work was curious, for while
I sat opposite to him, he caught my description of each scene entire,
with the characters to be brought forward, the events, and everything
connected with it. Thus he went on, scene after scene, never knowing
nor inquiring into the scene which was to follow, until four acts were
completed. It was then he required to know at once all the events that
were to occupy the fifth act ; I explained them to him, but, after patient
hearing and some thought, he insisted that many incidents in it were too
humorous, or, as he termed them, too melodramatic. He wrote the fifth
act in accordance with his own views, and so contented was I with his
poetry that at the time, and for a long time after, I thought he was in the
right."
When all this U taken into consideration it will be seen that it is futile
to look for anything like dramatic unity, or a close relation between
language and characterisation. But the play has its fine passages,' and
the style and versification throughout bear testimony to a careful study
of the Elizabethan dramatists, and of Comus, that work of Milton's in
which he shows most clearly his own debt to his predecessors.
But Otho was the one work of Keats's of which, perhaps, its author
thought too highly. " Mine I am sure," he wrote to his brother in Sep-
tember, " is a tolerable tragedy ; it would have been a bank to me, if, just
as I had finished it, I had not heard of Kean's resolution to go to America.
That was the worst news I could have had. There is no actor can do the
principal character besides Keau.' At Co vent Garden there is a great
chance of its being damned. Were it to succeed there it would lift me
out of the mire ; I mean the mire of a bad reputation which is continually
rising against me. My name with the literary fashionables is vulgar. I
am a weaver-boy to them. A tragedy would lift me out of this mess."
In December he wrote to his sister : " It is accepted at Drury Lane with
a promise of bringing it out in the next season ; as that will be too long a
delay we have determined to get Elliston to bring it out this season or to
transfer it to Covent Garden. This Elliston will not like, as we have
every motive to believe that Keau has perceived how suitable the principal
character will be for him. My hopes of success in the literary world are
now btiLter than ever." But Keats seems to have been over sanguine on
this score, for Otho never made its appearance on the stage. We learn
from the Life and Letters of Severn that some years after Keats's death
Severn was anxious to have the play produced at a private theatre at
Rome. "There are here five Englishmen," he wrote to Brown (14th
March, 1854) " who have all been together at Cambridge. They are de-
voted admirers of Keats. . . . They have been acting — two of them are
1 Yet in another letter he writes : " 'Twould do one's heart good to see Macready
in Ludolph " (to Rice, Dec. 1819).
OTHO THE GREAT— NOTES 553
fint rate — ^and they made me join them in the fourth act of the Merchant of
Venice, as Gratiano, when I was so struck with one (Mr. O'Brien) as the
very man for Ludolph in Keats'g Otho. His voice and manner of reading
remind me most forcibly of Keats himself. When I mentioned to them the
tragedy, they were all on fire to see it. ... I assure you I think it would
be well done, and as they are all young men of rank, it would certainly be
a good report to its forthcoming. . . . Now I wonder what you will say
to all this. Is there any possibility that you throw cold water upon it ? "
Whether or not Brown did so is unknown, but the play was not produced.
I. i. 129. Lady I O, etc. HBF ; In H Lady stands, wrongly, at the
close of i. 128.
I. ii. 172. sugar-cates MS., HBF ; sugar cakes H.
I. iii. 62. edge o' the world : — A Shakespearian phrase. Cf. Ant. and
Cleo. ii. 2. 116-8 :—
if I knew
What hoop would make us stanch, from edge to edge
O' the world I would pursue it.
II. i. 22. the discoloured poisons of a fen : — It is significant that Ludolph
uses something of the same image to express his disgust at the courtiers of
Otho as Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Coriolanus with regard to the
people : —
whose breath I hate
As reek o' the rotten fens {Cor. iii. 3. 120).
II. i. 67. the thunder comes Sullen against the wind. Cf. Byron, Childe
Harold, iv. 98 :—
Yet Freedom ! yet thy banner, torn but flying.
Streams like a thunder cloud against the wind.
II. i. 133. the towers . . . new kiss'd the parted clouds ! : — An image in
all probability suggested by the picture in Hamlet (iii. 4. 69) of
the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill.
II. ii. 129. of you HBF, following MS. ; desunt in H.
III. i. 18. a spear, Sway'd by command, as corn is by the wind : — An un-
conscious reminiscence of Milton's superb description of the angelic host
which hem Satan round : —
With ported Spears, as thick as when a field
Of Ceres ripe for harvest waving bends
Her bearded Grove of ears, which way the wind
Swayes them ; the careful Plowman doubting stands
Least on the threshing floore his hopeful sheaves
Prove chaft {Paradise Lost, iv. 980-86.)
554 JOHN KEATS
The "eheaved" spears of King Stephen, i. 3. 3, probably owe their
epithet to the same passage.
III. ii. 20. soil MS., HBF ; sail H.
76. mad MS., HBF ; bad H.
88. more MS., HBF ; monk H.
125. like an mgel newly-shent, Who veils its snowy wings. Cj,
Eve of Sf. Agnes, xxv. 7 : —
She seemed a splendid angel, newly drest.
Save wings, for heaven.
III. ii. 160. tedious MS., HBF ; hideous H.
IV. i. 66. emptied of these folk : — A repetition of phrase from the Ode
on a Grecian Urn. 4. " What little town . . . is emptied of this folk, this
pious morn } "
82. the fabled fair Hesperian tree. A reminiscence in all probability of
Milton, Comus 393 :—
Beauty like the fair Hesperian Tree
Laden with blooming gold.
With a recollection also of the " Hesperian fables true," of Paradise Lost,
iv. 260.
In this same speech there are also to be noticed some probably uncon-
scious echoes of the lamentations of Richard II. at the loss of his kingdom.
Like Richard, Auranthe cries : —
" I could now sit upon the ground " (cf. Richard II., iii. 2. 155).
And just as Richard says
I'll give my jewels for a set of beads.
My gay apparel for an almsman's gown.
My figured goblets for a dish of wood.
My sceptre for a palmer's walking-staff (iii. 3. 147-151).
So Auranthe : —
Bring me some mourning weeds, that I may tire
Myself, as fits one wailing her own death.
And throw these jewels from my loathing sight. —
Fetch me a missal, and a string of beads. —
A cup of bitter'd water and a crust.
The exclamation " O the heavy day ! " used by the Duke of York,
in the same scene of Richard II., at the sight of his fallen master, is twice
employed by Auranthe in her speech.
IV. i. 85. melt in the visionary air : — Another line which recalls
Shakespeare. Qf, Tensest, iv. 1. 150, of the spirits who
Are melted into air, into thin air,
And like the baseless fabric of this vision
Leave not a rack behind.
KING STEPHEN— NOTES 565
IV. ii. 18. A uranthe I my Ufe ! etc. ; — This fine speech, apart from an
occasional weak line, is a magnificent example of the way in which Keats
was able to recall the Elizabethan manner. It is noticeable that again he
has recourse to Comus. Cf. with lines 36 and 37 Comus, 561-3 : —
Till an unusuaU stop of sudden silence
Gave respit to the drowsie frighted steeds
That draw the litter of close-curtain'd sleep.
V. L 24. melted into an : — Cf. note to iv. 1. 86.
ii. 49. Howling in vain, etc. : — A line that might have been written
by Webster or Marston.
iv. 3. 'Tts not in medicine, etc. A reminiscence of the well-known
passage in Macbeth : —
" Can'st thou not minister to a mind diseased ? "
V. 4. here MS. HBF ; hear H.
KING STEPHEN
A Dramatic Fragment. First published H 1848 ; the MS. dated Nov.
1819. Of the circumstances of its compositiqn Charles Brown (Houghton
MiS.) writes as follows: ''As soon as Keats had finished Otho the Great,
I pointed out to him a subject for an English historical tragedy in the
death of King Stephen, beginning with his defeat by the Empress Maud,
and ending with the death of his son Eustace. He was struck with the
variety of events and characters which must necessarily be introduced
into it, and I offered to give, as before, their dramatic conduct. The
play must open, I began, with the field of battle, when Stephen's forces
are retreating — ' Stop,' he cried, ' I have been too long in leading-strings ;
I will do all this myself.' He immediately set about it, and wrote two
or three scenes — about 170 lines." It is unfortunate that so little of this
play was written, for, as Mr. Colvin remarks (EML, p. 179), "the few
scenes he finished are not only marked by his characteristic splendour
and felicity of (ihrase : they are full of a spirit of heady action and the
stir of battle : qualities which he had not shown in any previous work,
and for which we might have doubted his capacity had not this fragment
been preserved. " No writing indeed has reproduced with greater success
the spirit which pervades the martial scenes in the early historica] plays
of Shakespeare.
I. ii. 10. sole and lone : — Mr. Forman compares Lamia, ii. 122, where
the phrase " sole . . . and lone " had already been used.
I. ii. 22. Pallas from the walls of Ilion : — This reference to the Iliad,
together with the allusion to Nestor in i. 3. 12, suggests that Keate was
still reading Chapman. Cf. Sonnet On first looking into Chapman's
, Homer, note, pp. 398, 399.
I. ii. 61. Mars MS. ; man H.
556 JOHN KEATS
I. iii. 3. BelUma :-r.Probabl7 with a thought of Macbeth who is described
as "Bellona's bridegroom lapped ill proof". The "sheaved spears"
owe their epithet to the simile in Milton, Paradise Lost, iv. 980. Cf. note
to Otho, iii. 1. 18.
APPENDIX— POSTHUMOUS AND FUGITIVE POEMS (II)
On Death. First printed by Mr. Forman in 1883 and reproduced here
by his permission. Assigned by George Keats to 1814.
To BvBON. H 1848 ; dated Dec. 1814. An extremely feeble sonnet,
only interesting as a record of Keats's early feeling for Byron (vide note,
Sleep and Poetry).
To Chattbrton. H 1848 ; dated probably 1814. Its interest is similar
to that of the previous sonnet to Byron. The word " amate " is attributed
to the influence of Spenser, but seeing that it is used several times by
Chatterton himself its presence here is more reasonably attributed to a
reading of Chatterton than of Spenser.
Ode and Hymn to A pollo. H 1848. The first of these poems is dated
Feb. 1815, the second stands next to it in the volume and obviously
belongs to the same period. Every one will agree with the margin notes
of Kossetti (quoted Manchester Quarterly, 1883) that the Ode is "very
poor and puffy " and the Hymn " wretched but for a sense of metre ".
They are interesting chiefly as a record of the passing influence of the
eighteenth century upon the form and diction of Keats. The Ode seems
a weak reminiscence of an Ode by Dryden or Gray, and the phrases
" adamantine lyres," " radiant fires," " renovated eyes," " laurelled peers,"
"tuneful thunders," "ravished heavens," "tremblingly expire," "ardent
numbers," " melt the soul," etc., all suggest a similar source.
Sonnet. To a Yotntg Lady, etc. H 1848. Probably written 181fi.
Sonnet. As from the darkening gloom a silver dove, etc. H 1876 ; written
1816.
Sonnet. Written in Disgust of Vulgar Superstition. Written Dec.
1816 ; a weak composition interesting only in its reminiscences of two
passages especially dear to Keats — "Lydiah airs" {L' Allegro 136) "and
hold high converse with the mighty dead ". (Thomson's Seasons, Winter,
432.)
On Oxford. A parody. Written at Oxford in September, 1817, and
sent in a letter to Reynolds with the remark : " Wordsworth sometimes,
though in a fine way, gives us sentences in the style of school exercises.
For instance.
The lake doth glitter
Small birds twitter, etc.
POSTHUMOUS AND FUGITIVE POEMS— NOTES 557
Now I think this is an excellent method of giving us a very clear de-
scription of an interesting place such as Oxford is."
Wordsworth's poem, here parodied, is entitled : Written in March
while resting on the Bridge at the Foot of Brother's Water. It first appeared
in the 1807 volumes, which Keats Icnew especially well.
Modern Love. First published H 1848, undated.
FsACMBNT OF THE Castlb Buildbr. First published H 1848, undated,
but immediately following Modern Love.
17. A viol-bow, strings torn, HBF ; A viol, bowstrings torn, H.
46. An interesting tribute to the art of Haydon.
To A Cat. First published in Hood's Comic ^»»ua2 for 1830. Wood-
house dated the sonnet 16th Jan. 1818, and recorded that it was addressed
to Mrs. Reynolds's cat. There can be little doubt that the lines are in-
tended as a parody of the Miltonic sonnet, the style of which is very
happily caught in the opening invocation, in the contraction of style, and
the general rhythm of the sentences.
Hbncb Burgundy, Claret, and Port. First published H 1848 ; sent
to Reynolds in a letter dated 31st Jan. 1818, with the words : " I cannot
write in prose ; it is a sunshiny day, and I cannot, so here goes ''. After
the verses he says : " My dear Reynolds, — You must forgive all this rant-
ing— but the fact is, I cannot write sense this morning". It is obvious,
therefore, that these lines are merely an impromptu ebullition of animal
spirits which Keats would never himselfhave reproduced among his serious
poems.
Extracts from an Opera. First published H 1848, with three others,
which are placed in this edition among the poems [vide note p. 534.)
Song. Spirit here that reignest. First published H 1848.
Herb all the Summer, etc. First published in a mutilated form in
Taylor's Life ^of Haydon (1863) with the letter in which it was enclosed ;
written in March, 1818, at Teignmouth whither Keats had gone to nurse
his brother Tom. Mr. Buxton Forman has pointed out that the lines are
full of accurate local colour, but they have little other value, and they
were obviously composed with no other object than to amuse his friend.
But he seems to have thought better of them than of most of his doggerel
impromptus, for he adds — " I know not if this rhyming fit has done any-
thing— it will be safe enough if worthy to put among my lyrics ".
Over the Hill and over the Dale. First published H 1848 in a
letter to Rice written by Keats from Teignmouth on 25th March, 1818.
Acrostic. This very weak composition, which, unfortunately, quite
belies the assertion of lines 6-9, was written in June, 1818, soon after Keats
558 JOHN KEATS
had bidden farewell to hig newly married brother and sister vrho vrere en
route for America. It was first published^ says Mr. Formau, in a New
York newspaper. The World, in June, 1877. The punctuation of lines 10-14
has been amended in order to make some kind of sense of the passage.
LiNBS WRITTEN IN THE HIGHLANDS, etc. First published in the Ex-
crnnner, 14th July, 1822 ; sent to Bailey in a letter from the island of Mull
dated 22nd July (1818).
Spenserian Stanza. First published H 1848, with the following
note : —
"The copy of Spenser which Keats had in daily use, contains the
following stanza, inserted at the close of canto ii. book v. His sympathies
were very much on the side of the revolutionary ' Gyant ' who ' undertook
for to repair ' the ' realms and nations run awry,' and to suppress ' tyrants
that make men subject to their law,' ' and lordings curbe that commons
over-aw,' while he grudged the legitimate victory, as he rejected the con-
servative philosophy, of the 'righteous Art^fall' and hig comrade, the
fierce defender of privilege and order. And he expressed, in this ex post
facto prophecy, his conviction of the ultimate triumph of freedom and
equality by the power of transmitted knowledge."
The lines are interesting as one of the few illustrations in the verse of
Keats of his democratic sympathies.
An Extempore. First published by Mr. Colvin in Macmillan's Magazine
for August, 1888. The lines form part of the Journal Letter of Feb.-May,
1819, and are evidently an extempore effusion merely written with the
object of amusing his brother and sister in America. It is difficult to say
whether any particular fairy story inspired them, but several passages
seem to have been suggested by different sources. The " Otaheitan " Mule
is probably due to the interest taken at tliis time in the travels of Sir Joseph
Banks, whilst the mule brings to Keats's mind Peter Bell, who uses the
same weapon — "a, new pealed sapling white as cream" with which to
chastise his ass. The close of the canto
there was nothing seen.
But the mule grazing on the herbage green
may be another sportive reminiscence of Wordsworth's "solitary doe"
who " quietly was feeding on the green herb ".
At lines 79, 80, we have two quotations from Shakespeare, "every
inch a King," King Lear, iv. 6. 109, and "Fortune's fool," Romeo and
Juliet, iii. 1. 141. Mr. Colvin has suggested to me that the picture with
which the fragment closes of the thievish monkies stealing the Ass's bridle
was probably suggested to Keats by an old print.
The lines have been printed here from the MS. letter, retaining its
curious spelling and lack of punctuation.
Spenserian Stanzas on Charles Armitaob Brown. First published
H 1848. Included in Feb.-May Journal Letter under the date 16th or
.POSTHUMOUS AND FUGITIVE POEMS— NOTES 559
17th April and prefaced with the words : " Brown this morning ia writing
acme Spenserian stanzas against Mrs., Miss Brawne and me ; so I shall amuse
myself with him a little : in the manner of Spenser ". After copying the
stanzas Keats adds : "This character would ensure him a situation in the
establishment of patient Griselda ". It will be remembered that Brown
was perhaps Keats's greatest friend during the last three or four years of
his life. His Scotch tour was taken in company with Brown, and he
went to live with Brown after the death of his brother Tom in December,
1818. Otho the Great was written in collaboration with him and much
of the material upon which Lord Houghton based his Life and Letters of
Keats was supplied to him by Brown, who had at one time intended to be
the poet's biographer.
A Party op Lovers. Included by Keats in the Journal Letter of
September, 1819, prefaced by the words: "I saw Haslam. He is very
much occupied with love and business, being one of Saunders' executors
and lover to a young woman. He showed me her portrait by Severn. I
think she is, though not very cunning, too cunning for him Nothing
strikes me so forcibly with a sense of the ridiculous as love. A man in
love I do think cuts the sorryest figure in the world. Even when I know
a poor fool to be really in pain about it I could burst out laughing in his
face. His pathetic visage becomes irresistible. Not that I take Haslam
as a pattern for lovers ; he is a very worthy man, and a good friend. His
love is very amusing. Somewhere in the Spectator is related an account
of a man inviting a party of stutterers and squinters to his table. It
would please me more to scrape together a party of lovers ; not to dinner —
no, to tea. There would be no fighting as among knights of old."
The Cap and Bells ; or, The Jealousies : A Faery Tale. Unfinished.
First published H 1848, though stanzas xxv.-xxix. had already appeared
in the Indicator of August, 1820, quoted in an article by Leigh Hunt " On
Coaches ". The poem was written in the autumn of 1819, in the morn-
ings ; the evenings being occupied with the reconstruction of Hyperion.
Of its composition Brown writes : " By chance our conversation turned
on the idea of a comic faery poem in the Spenser ktanza, and I was glad
to encourage it. He had not composed many stanzas before he proceeded
in it with spirit. It was to be published under the feigned authorship of
Lucy Vaughan Lloyd and to bear the title of the Cap and Bells, or, which
he preferred, the Jealousies. This occupied his mornings pleasantly. He
wrote it with the greatest facility ; in one instance I remember having
copied (for I copied as he wrote) as many as twelve stanzas before dinner "
{Houghton MSS. quoted EML, p. 183). As Mr. Colvin has pointed out
Keats "wasiled to undertake the work partly through the influence of
Brown who was a gi-eat student of Pulci and Boiardo and partly by the
dazzling example of Byron's success in Don Juan (EML, p. 184). The influ-
ence of this style is more particularly evident in such stanzas as xiv. and
560 JOHN KEATS
xxiv. Mr. Forman rightly points out that Keats ^'probably had a
satirical undercurrent of meaning : and it needs no great stretch of
imagination to nee in the illicit passion of Emperor Eliinan and his detes-
tation of his bride-elect, an oblique glance at the marital relations of
George IV. It is not difficult to suggest prototypes for some of the faery
land statesmen against whom Elfinan vows vengeance ; and there are many
particulars in which earthly incidents are too thickly strewn to leave one
in the settled belief that the poet's programme was wholly unearthly."
As late as June 1820 Keats wrote to Brown that he intended to go on with
Lucy Vaughcm Lloyd, as he calls the poem, but adds " I do not begin com-
position yet, being willing in case of a relapse, to have nothing to reproach
myself with ". But there is no evidence that he ever touched it after
December, 1819, or indeed wrote any poetry after that date except his last
sonnet. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to add how unsuitable is the Spenserian
stanza to the subject for which he here employs it, or how unsuitable
the subject and treatment are to the essential character of his own genius.
I. Ind. . . . Blflnan, etc. : — Keats is here indebted to the Faerie
Queene, ii. 10. 70-72, where Spenser tells how Prometheus created man
from beasts, stole fire from heaven to animate man, and called the first
man ''Elfe," i.e. quick. Elfe wandering in the garden of Adonis found
A goodly creature whom he deemed in mind
To be no earthly wight, but either Spright,
Or Angell, th' author of all woman kynd :
Therefor a Fay he her according hight, '
Of whom all Faeryes spring, and fetch their lignage right.
Their eldest son
Was Elfin; him all India obeyed.
And all that now America men call :
Next him was noble Elfinan.
From them were descended the Lords of Faery, Elferon, Oberon, and
later Gloriana. Hydaspes and Imius (stanza iij. etc. , however, are pro-
bably introduced through a reminiscence of the famous simile in Paradise
Lost : —
As when a Voltur on Imaus bred
Dislodging from a Region scarce of prey
To gorge the flesh of Lambs or yeanling kids
On Hills where Flocks are fed, flies toward the Springs
Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams (iii. 431-36.)
X. Panthea : — The name given by Spenser to the city of the Faeries.
Cf. Faerie Queene, ii. 19. 73.
But Elfant was of most renowned fame.
Who all of Christall did Panthea build.
XI. Of faeries stooping on their wings sublime : — Another Miltonic re-
miniscence, " in the air sublime Upon the wing " (Paradise Lost, ii. £28).
POSTHUMOUS AND FUGITIVE POEMS— NOTES 561
" Hee on the wings of Cherub rode sublime " (Paradise Lost, vi. 771, and
Paradise Regained, iv. 542).
XVII. the square-cut chancellor : — Mr. Buxton Forman points out that
" on the supposition of a glance at the royal matrimonial squabble, at its
height when Keats wrote this piece, the 'square cut chancellor' would be
Mr. Vausittart, . . . ' the tiptoe marquis ' might probably be the Marquis
of Lansdowne, whose refusal to sit on the Green Bag Committee in the
House of Lords was both ' moral ' and ' gallant '. . . ." Whilst Biancopancy
he cleverly explains as Mr. Whi thread (Bianco == white. Pane == bread).
" Mr. Samuel Whitbread," he adds, " was so well known as an adherent of
Queen Caroline, that he is said to have furnished her Majesty, from his
great wealth, with the necessary funds for carrying on her case."
XXVI. jarvey : — The old term used indiscriminately for a hackney
coach or its driver. It was this passage about the coach that Hunt pub-
lished in the Indicator.
XXVII. fiddle-faddle. Perhaps a reminiscence of Wordsworth's Idiot
Boy, 14 :—
Till she is tired, let Betty Foy
With girt and stirrup fiddle-faddle.
XXIX. Louted full low : — An obvious Spenserianism, as are the words
" blent " and " dreariment " in xliv.
XXXII. / wis : — Spelt by Keats in two words as though he had fallen
into the common error of mistaking it for the equivalent of " I know ".
XLIII. Bertha . . . at Canterbury : — On the Introduction of Bertha,
the heroine of the Eve of St. Ma/rk (vide note p. 62S). So too stanza 1.
LI. Cupid I, do thee defy ! .-—So HBF, following MS. ; Cupid, I do
thee defy H.
Somewhat in sadness, but pUas'd in the main : — Perhaps a parody of
Wordsworth's Resolution and Independence "cheerfully uttered with
demeanour kind, but stately in the main".
LVIII. where I wait for guerdon fit. HBF, MS. ; desunt in H.
LXL W hew.' HBF, MS; Where." H.
LXIII. Those nows, etc. : — Among Leigk Hunt's Essays is one entitled
"A 'Now,' descriptive of a hot day " in which Keats is supposed to have
collaborated.
LXVIII. 7. Farewell ! and if for ever, etc. : — A burlesque quotation
from Byron's famous " Fare thee well " to Lady Byron. On Keats's
feeling with regard to Byron and his poetry cf. Sleep and Poetry, 234, note.
LXXVIII. 5. favour 'gan HBF ; favour; 'gan H.
36
662 JOHN KEATS
ADDENDA: NOTES ON THE POEMS FOUND IN THE WOOD-
HOUSE TRANSCRIPT OF THE FALL OF HYPERION AND
OTHER POEMS
Fii/L FOB ME A BBiuMiNo Bowi/, etc. : — Dated in the MS., August 1814,
and never before published. It is thus, as far as we know, only preceded
among Keats's Juvenilia by the Imitation of Spenser. Of as little intrinsic
value as that poem, it is of equal interest in the light it throws upon the
influences that affected his early work. Just as in the Imitation of Spenser
we only see the Elizabethan master through the veil of his later imitators,
so here we have the influence of the early poems of Milton acting upon
Keats though he is only treating a conventional subject in a purely con-
ventional manner. The lines are interesting as certainly Keats's first
experiment in the measure which he learnt from Milton and Spenser,
and was afterwards to employ with conspicuous success in Fancy and the
Bve of St. Mark.
A Sons. — Stay, bubt-brbasted wabbleb stay: — First printed by H
among Keats's early poems, but omitted by Mr. Forman from his editions
of Keats because in a scrapbook "containing a mass of transcripts by
Greorge Keats from his brother's poetry, this poem is not only written in
George's hand, but signed 'G. K. ' instead of 'J. K.' and indeed it reads
more like one of the effusions which George is recorded to have produced
than an early poem by John" (HBF, I. xiv.). With. this evidence Mr.
Forman had no choice but to reject the lines, but their appearance in the
Woodhouse transcript puts a somewhat different complexion on the matter.
It is highly probable that Woodhouse obtained these poems from auto-
graph MSS. in the possession of Brown, and Brown is the last person who
could be expected to honour George Keats by the preservation of one of
his poems. This evidence, though not conclusive against the signature in
the scrapbook, is at least as weighty ; and I incline, though reluctantly, to
restore the lines to John.
Sonnet: On Peace: — Now first published and undated in the MS.
We can hardly be wrong in assigning it to 1814 or 1815, i.e., after
Napoleon's retirement to Elba or his defeat at Waterloo. The weakness
of the sonnet would lead us to favour the earlier date. Again we notice
a debt to the early poems of Milton in the allusion to the "mountain
nyniph sweet liberty" (c/. L' Allegro, 36) whilst a phrase here and there
suggests that Keats had already made the acquaintance of Wordsworth's
poems of 1807 (Sonnets Dedicated to Liberty).
To Emma:— First published by HBF, 1883, with "Georgiana" on
line 1 for " my dear Emma " and in line 11 " And there Georgiana " for
" There beauteous Emma ". The stanzas were addressed to Georgiana
ADDENDA— NOTES 563
Augusta Wylie, the future wife of George Keats. It will be remembered
that Emma or Emmeline, according to the exigencies of metre, wag the
name by which Wordsworth referred to his sister Dorothy, and there can
be little doubt that Keats is influenced by this fact when he veils the
identity of his future sister-in-law under the same nom de phme — ^an
amusing instance of his early acquaintance with a poet who was afterwards
to influence him so profoundly.
Additional Note on Pall op Hyperion, I. 97.
As in mid-day : So H 1856 ; When in midday H (Aldiite) ; As in mid-
way MS. I am indebted to Professor A. C. Bradley for pointing out to
me that there is no reason for altering the MS, reading, Keats conceives
of the east wind, on its way to the country it means to parch, suddenly
relenting and shifting into a south wind, ''This is just what happens
when, after a fierce anti-cyclone, the weather changes : » wind begins
in north-east or east, and veers round to south-east, then south, then
south-west and the rain comes. There seems no point in 'midday'
either, and if Keats had written 'midday' would he not have written
'at' instead of 'in'?" I do not feel that "midday" is pointless, for
changes of wind often occur about noon, but I feel that Professor Bradley
is undoubtedly right in his defence of the MS. reading, "Midway,"
moreover, is better, metrically, than "midday," which would naturally
be accented upon the fir.st syllable.
APPENDIX B
Chronological Table of the Lipb of John Keats
1795. (29th or Slst Oct.). John Keats born at the Swan and Hoop,
Finsbury Pavement, London.
1797. George Keats born.
1799. Thomas Keats born.
1801. Edward Keats born (died in infancy).
1803. Francis Mary Keats (Fanny) born. J. K. goes to the private school
kept by the Rev. J. Clarke at Enfield ; joined there a little
later by G. K. and in a few years by T. K.
1804. (AprU). K.'b father killed by a fall from his horse.
1805. K.'8 mother marries Will. Rawlings, stable keeper at the Swan and
Hoop.
1806. Mrs. Rawlings leaves her husband and takes her children to live
with their grandmother Mrs. Jennings, at Edmonton.
1809. J. K. acquires a passion for reading.
1810. (Feb.). Mrs. Rawlings dies of consumption (July). Mrs. Jen-
nings makes a will leaving £8,000 to her grandchildren,
appointing as their guardians Messrs. Abbey and Santell.
They remove J. K. from school at once, and apprentice him
to Mr. Hammond, an Edmonton surgeon.
1811. J. K. finishes (prose.'') translation of the Aeneid, begun at school ;
he pays frequent visits to the Clarkes to borrow books.
1812. The Hunts publish their libel on the Prince Regent in the
Examiner (March) — they are condemned to two years' im-
prisonment (Dec).
1812 (13.'') C. C. Clarke reads to J. K. the Epithalamium of Spenser,
and lends him the Faerie Queene. Imitation of Spenser. Hunt
publishes The Feast of the Poets with critical introduction and
notes, and is at work upon The Story of Rimini.
1814. J. K. breaks his apprenticeship with Hammond and goes to Liondon
to study medicine. He lodges at 8 Dean St., Borough. He
reads poetry indiscriminately, though chiefly, probably, the
poetry of the eighteenth century and of his contemporaries.
On Death, Sonnet to Byron and Chatterton.
1815. J. K. meets the Wylies, and through them Haslam and Severn.
He writes Sonnet on Hunt leaving prison and shows it to Clarke
APPENDIX B 566
(3rd Feb.). Clarke takes lodgings in Clerkenwell and arranges
frequent literary symposia with K. He introduces him to
Chapman's Homer. The sonnet On first looking into Chapman's
Homer (Spring). J. K. leaves Dean St. and lodges with two
fellow medical students at St. Thomas' St.
1816. Other poems belonging to this year: Hadst thou liv'd (Feb.).
Ode and Hymn to Apollo, To some Ladies, On receiving a curious
Shell, To Hope, Woman ! when I behold thee. Epistle to Mathew
(Nov.).
1816. Hunt's Story of Rimini published (March) ; Sonnet to Solitude
printed in Examiner (3rd May). Clarke shows Hunt some of
Keats's MSS. and is asked to bring him to Hampstead (before
end of May?). K. sees something of Hunt (but cf. note at
end of Chronological Table). Sonnet to Wells, To one who
has been long in city pent, Calidore, Induction. I stood tip-toe
begun (under title of Endymion).
J. K. joins his brother in lodgings in the Poultry (June, July) ; he
pays his (first }) visit to the sea, at Margate. Epistle and Sonnet
to G. K., Epistle to Clarke (Aug. Sept.).
Sept.-Dec. J. K. back in London ; sees a great deal of Hunt and
his friends ; is introduced to Haydon (3rd Nov. Sonnet to Hay-
don) and meets also at Hunt's and Haydon 's, Reynolds, Shelley,
Horace Smith, and Hazlitt. Ist Dec. Hunt's article on young
poets (Reynolds, Shelley and K.) appears, in Examiner: he
quotes the Chapman Sonnet. Poems of this time : Keen fitful
gusts, Give me a golden pen (Oct. Nov.), To my brothers
(18th Nov.), The church bells toll (24th Dec), The poetry of
earth (30th Dec). In December also Sonnet to G. A. W., to
Kosciusko, I stood tip-toe (finished), and Sleep and Poetry. During
the year also Oh ! how I love. As from the darkening gloom
(early i"). Had I a man's fair form, Happy is England ! (.?).
1817. Jan. After dark vapours (published Examiner, 23rd Feb.).
Feb. Sonnet written at end of Floure and Lefe (published Examiner,
16th March) and To Haydon on Elgin Marbles (published
Examiner, 9th March).
March. Dedication Sonnet written and 1817 volume published.
April. J. K., following advice of his brothers and Haydon, retires
to the country for study and self-development. He goes to
Isle of Wight, visits Shanklin (16th April, Sonnet on Sea) and
Carisbrook. He is deeply engrossed in Shakespeare study.
He begins Endymion.
May. J. K. moves to Margate, finishes Endymion, bk. i. ; joins
T. K. at Canterbury.
June-August. J. K. returns to London and with his brothers
resides at Well Walk, Hampstead. He enjoys the society of
his old London friends and is introduced to Diike, C. A.
566 JOHN KEATS
Brown and Bailey. He declines invitation to stay with Shelley
at Marlowe "that his imagination may have unfettered scope".
He finishes Bndymion, bk. ii.
1817. Sept.-Oct. (middle). J. K. visits Bailey at Oxford, is engaged in
reading Milton and Wordsworth and in writing EndynUon, bk.
iii. He makes an excursion with Bailey to Stratford-on-Avon.
The first Blackwood article On the Cockney School appears (Oct.)
attacking Hunt, but with sneering allusion to J. K.
Nov. J. K. pays a visit to Bunford Bridge, near Dorking, where
he studies Shakespeare's Poems and Sonnets and finishes
Endymion.
Dec. K. in London, writing dramatic criticisms for the Champion,
showing the influence of Hazlitt. He attends Hazlitt's Lectures
on the English Poets. He meets Wordsworth at Haydon's
"immortal dinner". Lamb also present (28th Dec). J. K.
throws himself with gusto into the social life of his friends.
To this year also belong sonnets On a Picture of Leander and On
Hunt's Story of Rimini and the lyrics Think not of it, and
Unfelt, unheard, unseen.
1818. Jan. -March. K. continues to see much of his friends and pays
several visits to Wordsworth. He writes many of his shorter
poems — To a Cat (16th Jan.), Chief of organic numbers (21st
Jan.), O golden-tongued Romance (23rd Jan.), Hence Burgundy,
Claret, and Port (31st Jan.), also in Jan. When I have fears;
Lines on Robin Hood (3rd Feb.), Sonnet to the Nile and Time's
sea (4th Feb.), To Spenser (6th Feb. ), Blue ! 'tis the life of heaven
(8th Feb.), O thou whose face hath felt the WinUr's Wind (19th
Feb. ), The Human Seasons. In the same year and probably in
the early part of it Where's the poet? and And what is love?
To-night I'll have my friar, Welcome joy, Extracts from an
Opera, and Sonnet to Homer.
March-May (middle). K. joins his brother Tom at Teignmouth,
writes Here all the summer and Where be ye going (14th March),
Epistle to Reynolds (25th March). He is employed in seeing
Endymion through the press, in writing Isabella and in reading
Milton. Ode to Maia (1st May). K. returns to Hampstead.
June-August G. K. marries Miss Wylie (6. A. W.) and starts for
America. K. accompanies them to Liverpool (22nd June) and
then starts a walking tour with Brown through the Lake
country to Scotland, through Dumfries and Galloway, along
the coast of Kirkcudbrightshire to Newton Stewart, thence to
Stranraei- and Portpatriok. Thence to Ireland for two days
and back to Stranraer, thence along the coast north to Ayr
passing in view of Ailsa Craig. From Ayr to Glasgow, Loch
Awe, Oban, Staffa, Fort William, Ben Kevis, Inverness (6th
Aug.). Advised by a doctor to give up further touring, he
APPENDIX B 567
leaves for London by boat (8th Aujj.) and reaches Hampstead
(18th August). Chief poems of the tour— 0» visiting the
Tomb of Burns (2nd July), Meg Merrilies (3rd July), To Ailsa
Rock (10th July), Staffa (26th July), Sonnet written upon
Ben Nevis (2nd Aug.) K.'s only book on the tour is Gary's
Dante.
1818. Aug. 19-Dec. K. at Hampstead. He meets Fanny Brawne at the
Dilkes — is in constant attendance by the bedside of Tom K.
Tom dies (first week of Deo.) and K. goes to live with Brown at
Wentworth Place. During this period be begins Hyperion and
writes Nature witheld Cassandra, 'Tis the witching hour of
night, In a drear-nighted December, Bards of Passion, To Fancy,
I had a dove. Hush, huih! tread softly! .... (The last is
probably at the very end of Dec.)
1819. Jan. K. at work on Hyperion and Eve of St. Agnes — he pays visits
to Chichester, where he plans the Eve of St. Mark, and to Bed-
hampton. Ode to Fanny (?).
Feb.-July (middle). K. at Hampstead. He writes Ode on Indoknce.
Sonnets — Why did I laugh and As Hermes once. Extempore
(16th April), Spenserian stanzas on Brown (16th, l7th April),
La Belle Dame sans Merci (28th April), Song of Four Fairies,
Ode on a Grecian Urn, Nightingale, Psyche and Melancholy
(April, May),, Sonnet to Sleep, On Fame (30th April) and On the
Sonnet.
July. K. stays with Rice at Shanklin. Brown joins them and
they write Otho the Great. K. also at work on Lamia.
August-October (middle). K. at Winchester (a few days in London
in Sept.) continues Lamia and Eve of St. Mark and begins
Stephen. He studies Italian, writes Pensive they sit and on
19th Sept. the Ode to Autumn.
Oct.-Dec. K. returns to London, at first for a few days to West-
minster, intending to earn a living by journalism, then back to
Brown's at Hampstead. His love passion becomes more absorb-
ing and he writes To , and Sonnets, The day is gone and /
cry your mercy. ... In Nov. -Dec. at work in mornings at the
Cap and Bells, in evenings at the recast of Hyperion — also
retouching Otho and preparing the 1820 volume for the press.
1820. G. K. pays a short visit to England (Jan.) K. has bad haemorrhage
in which he sees his death warrant (3rd Feb.). After con-
valescence he lodges at Kentish Town to be near Leigh Hunt
(May) — and is engaged in seeing 1820 volume through the
press. He has a relapse (22nd June) and goes to live with
Hunt in Mortimer Street.
July. 1820 volume published.
August. Favourable reviews by Hunt in Indicator and JeBiey in
Edinburgh Review. K. leaves Mortimer St. for the Brawnes
368 JOHN KEATS
(12th Aug.) ; he declines invitation from Shellsy to tpand th«
winter with him in Italy.
1820. Sept. K. sails with Severn in Maria Crowther for Naples (18th),
lands near Lulworth Cove and writes last Sonnet (28th Sept.),
reaches Naples (end of Oct.), Rome (Nov. middle), has.a bad
relapse (10th Dec).
1821. K. dies (23rd Feb.), is buried (27th Feb.).
Note on Date op Hunt's First Acquaintance with Keats
The exact date of Keats's first introduction to Hunt is important, as it
involves the question of the date of several poems in the 1817 volume, and
of the influences which are to be traced in them. Mr. Colvin, both in his
life of Keats and in his article {Diet. Nat. Biog.) gives it as early in 1816,
in which case Keats would be acquainted with Hunt before the " Solitude "
sonnet had appeared in the Examiner (6th May) and before he went to
Margate, where he wrote the Epistles to his brother and to C. C. Clarke.
In support of this view is the statement in Hunt's Autobiography that he
met Keats in the spring of 1816, and the general character of the poetry
belonging to this period points in the same direction. / stood tip-toe, e.g.
written, as all agree, under the inspiration of Hunt, is essentially sug-
gestive of early rather than of late summer, and is most naturally inter-
preted not as a distant reminiscence, but as a vivid recollection of
pleasures that he has just enjoyed. In like manner, the references to
Libertas in the Ep. to Geo. Keats (dated Aug. 1816) are more like remini-
scences of a conversation, introduced in delight at his acquaintance with
Hunt, than a mere second-hand reference, which has filtered through
Clarke ; whilst the reference to Hunt in the Ep. to Clarke suggests that
Clarke is enjoying a comradeship which he has himself experienced.
Professor Hoops, on the other hand {Keats's Jugend und Jugendgedichte),
contends that Hunt and Keats did not meet till October. He quotes as
evidence of his point Hunt's article in the Examiner of 1st Dec. where he
says : " He (Keats) had not published anything except in a Newspaper,
hut a set of his manuscripts were handed in the other day," and again in
his review of the 1817 volume where, after praising the volume, he
remarks : " From these and stronger evidences in the book itself the
reader will conclude that the author and critic are friends, and they are
so — made, however, in the first instance by nothing but his poetry, and at
no greater distance of time than the announcement above mentioned {i.e.
the sentence written in the Examiner Dec. 1816). We had published one
of his sonnets in our paper without knowing more of him than of any
other anonymous correspondent ; but at this period in question, a friend
brought us in one morning some copies of verses whict he said were from
the pen of a youth, etc. . . ." Professor Hoops further points out that the
sonnet Keen, fitful gusts was written " very shortly after Keats's installa-
tion at the cottage " (not as Mr. Forman says, " on the occasion of Keats's
APPENDIX B 569
initalktion at the Cottage "). But it is obviously a late autumu sonnet and
could not have been written before October, and Professor Hoops thinks
that / stood tip-toe might itself be written in late September.
This conclusion, which the internal evidence of the character of the
poems affected by it makes it difficult to accept, is not so plausible even on
external evidence as it may, appear at first sight. Professor Hoops is
probably right in thinking that Mr. Colvin's date is a little too early,
for Hunt could not, as he has shown, have known Keats at the beginning
of May, when the sonnet on Solitude made its appearance, but in his main
contention that the two men were acquainted during the summer, i.e.
before Keats went to Margate, Mr. Colvin is almost certainly correct.
There is no evidence which should prevent us from holding that they met
in late May or early June. Indeed the acceptance of the spnniet by the
Examiner on 5th May would naturally tend to press on a meeting for
which Clarke must long have been anxious. Clarke would probably lose
no time in taking his friend's manuscript to Hunt, and Hunt in his turn
would be eager at once to meet the poet of whose future he formed so
high an estimate. It is unnecessary to interpret literally, with Professor
Hoops, a loose journalistic phrase ''the other day." Hunt's only object
in using it is to point out that his friendship for Keats sprang from his
admiration for his poetry and not vice versd. Nor need Clarice's phrase
"very shortly after the installation at the cottage" be taken exactly.
Clarke, it must be remembered, was writing many years afterwards, and
. moreover it does not follow that Keats would be installed at Hampstead
immediately upon his introduction to Hunt. As corroboration of the view
that late May or early June is the right date may be quoted another
passage from Hunt's reminiscences where he tells us " we became intimate
on the spot. . . . No imaginative pleasure was left untouched by us, or
unenjoyed ; from the recollection of the bards and patriots of old, to the
luxury of a summer rain at our window, or the clicking of the coal in
winter time."
APPENDIX C
On the S0URCB8 OF Keats's Poetic Vocabulary
In summing up the distinctive features of Keats's accomplishments ag
a poet, Lord Houghton remarks that "above all his field of diction and
expression, extending so far beyond his knowledge of literature, is quite
inexplicable by the ordinary processes of mental education. If his English
reading had been more extensive,' his inexhaustible vocabulary of pictur-
esque and mimetic words could have been easily accounted for: but here
is a surgeon's apprentice with the ordinary culture of the middle
classes . . . reproducing his impressions (of antique life and thought) in
a phraseology as complete and unconventional as if he had mastered
the whole history and the frequent variations of the English tongue,
and elaborated a mode of utterance commensurate with his vast ideas."
This sentence puts in an admirable form the view with regard to
Keats's vocabulary which is still, perhaps, current, though more careful
criticism has long shown it to be untenable. For " his field of diction and
expression " can in no way be said to have " extended beyond his know-
ledge of literature," and though the term " extensive " as applied to a
man's reading must always be relative, a poet who is steeped in the
writings of Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton and Wordsworth, to
mention no others, has acquired more than the ordinary culture of the
middle class, has gone some way, at least, towards mastering " the whole
history and variations of the English tongue." The wonder indeed
remains as great, but it is a wonder of a different kind — that Keats should
have realised so intensely his kinship with his predecessors and gained his
peculiar power of self-expression so that their life became his and their
language the only possible utterance for his ideas and moods.
The object of this appendix is to make some analysis of the sources of
Keats's poetic vocabulary and to trace at the same time the development
of his power over language. Much valuable work has already been ac-
complished on this subject. Woodhouse ' began the task by annotating
his own MS. volume of his friend's poems ; Mr. W. T. Arnold in the
introduction to his Poems of Keats (1888) gave the first comprehensive
treatment of it, and additions have since been made by Mr. Sidney Colvin,
' Woodhouse also interleaved his copies of Keats's published poems, inserting re-
jected readings and setting down any explanations which seemed necessary, or parallel
passages from our earlier poetry which occurred to him. Through the kindness of Mr.
BourdiUon I have been allowed to examine his copy of the 1817 volume. The explana-
tions are sometimes obvious but many of them are suggestive ; the parallels cited show
a capricious but often detailed knowledge of Elizabethan poetry. Of Woodhouse's
notes on Endymion Mr. Forman has made free use in his edition of Keats, but he has
not distinguished them from his own notes, so that we are unable to tell which of the
Elizabethan parallels that he cites were originally noted by Woodhouse.
APPENDIX C 571
and Mr. Buxtou Forman, whilst Mr. Read in his dissertation Keats and
Sptnser has discussed fully the relations of Keats and Spenser, and Prof.
Hoops in his edition of Hyperion the debt of Hyperion to Milton.
It is unavoidable that many of my remarks should be a mere repetition
of theirs, but even so I can claim for them that they are corroborative, in
that they are the result of independent investigation ; yet my contribution
to the subject may not be without value if it shows, by the glossary which
is appended to it, what has, I think, never been shown before, that Keats's
language is not nearly so definitely imitative of single authors as repro-
ductive of a language which the earlier authors held in common and which,
therefore, he regarded as his lawful inheritance. If Keats became familiar
with a word in many authors, instead of merely meeting it in one, he
would be not only more likely to reproduce it, but more fully justified in
so doing. This is where the valuable work done by several scholars, in
suggesting Keats's debt to individual authors, has at times created a false
impression. Mr. Arnold, e.g., attributes the word eterne "probably" to
Spenser, and in this he is followed by Mr. Forman, but when we see that
the word is used also by Chaucer, is to be found in one of the most haunt-
ing speeches of Lady Macbeth's, is in Browne, in Chapman, and in
Chatterton, all of whom Keats knew well, the complexion of the matter
is quite altered. The word may be archaic, but to Keats it seems quite
natural — he is merely employing language which he has frankly accepted
as his poetic birth-right. This is doubtless an extreme instance, but a
glance at the glossary will show that the point could be illustrated at
great length. Messrs. Arnold and Read attribute to Spenser among other
words griesly,^ perceaunt, raught, sallows, and Mr. Read " with a high de-
gree of certainty," amate, atween, bale, distraught, fray and affray, pight ;
but though Keats was certainly familiar with them in Spenser he knew
them equally well in other sources — amate, e.g., is in Chatterton, and seeing
that it is used by Keats in his Sonnet to Chatterton it would be more natural
to connect its use with him than with the earlier poet. So perceaunt is
used twice by Chatterton (and twice by Chatterton means as much as
many times in Spenser, because of the different bulk of the two writers)
and by Keats at the time when he was making a special study of Chatter-
ton ; atween is a form used by Coleridge in the Ancient Mariner, fray and
affray are used by Chapman and Shakespeare, pight by Shakespeare in
Troihis and Cressida, a play Keats knew through and through ; griesly is
as much connected with Milton as Spenser, sallows is used by Sandys and
Chapman, whilst bale, raught, and distraught are archaisms common
enough to need no special explanation. The point to realise is that in
the majority of cases Keats does not borrow consciously from any definite
author or passage. His memory is richly stored with the language of
earlier poets and he draws upon it, as we draw upon our own natural
'" Griesly, perceaunt, and raught," says Mr, W. T. Arnold, Aea/j, p. xxiv., "were
undoubtedly derived from " Spenser.
S7« JOHN KEATS
vocabulary, unoongcioui of its actual source ; and even vrhen, as is often
the case, the cadence of the passage in which the word is used or its
definite association with other words betrays its immediate origin, our
judgment of Keats's use of it must be tempered by the fact that the word
was familiar to him from other sources and was therefore to him a natural
word to use. His case is in no way to be compared with Chatterton's ;
Keats never set himself to hunt for words ; he read those authors who had
most kinship with him and their manner of expression became his own.
But the basis of any author's vocabulary is the language that he brings
to it from his ordinary life. Of this the greater proportion calls for no
comment, but its most striking features must be examined before the influ-
ence of literature can be fully understood. " As soon as literature becomes
common," says Coleridge, " and a large number of men seek to express
themselves habitually in the most precise, sensuous and impassioned
language, the difference (between prose and verse) as to mere words ceases.
The sole difference in style is that the poetry demands a severe keeping —
it admits nothing that prose may not often admit, but it oftener rejects.'*
Without the culture of such a society as Coleridge here describes, and
moving for the most part among those who were not accustomed "to
express themselves habitually in the most precise, sensuous and impas-
sioned language," Keats needed to extend his vocabulary in the direction
in which such language could be found ; equally did he need to learn a
lesson which a more cultivated man would have known instinctively, — what
it was essential for him to reject.
The vulgarisms of Keats's diction resolve themselves into the use of
word's, which, debased by trivial association or in themselves quite incom-
patible with genuine passion, should never be used in poetry ; the use of
words to which he gives a meaning which they do not bear, except in
slang or the loose language of a too familiar conversation, and the undue
affection for certain words or formations of words. In the first class I
should be. inclined to notice elegant, gigle, tip-top (Endymion, i. 805, iii.
Id), the interjection hist! by which Endymion recalls Peona-^"bist!
one word I have to say " {End. iv. 909), the unfortunate remark of
Cynthia's Pallas is a dunce (ib. ii. 799), and the reference to himself in the
Hymn to Apollo as a " blank idiot." In the second class I should ^lace jaunty
as applied to a stream (Tip-toe, 22, etc.), smitten in the sense of smitten with
love, beauty, etc. (Ep. to C. C. C. 102, Lamia, i. 7), things as a loose substitute
for a more definite noun {End. iv. 717, etc.), treat in the sense of a joy or
delight (Lamia, i. 330), like in the phrase these like, this like (Hyp. i. 50 ;
F. of Hyp. i. 328),' and the frequent use of feel and shine as nouns. The
first of these is essentially vulgar, the second is a common Elizabethanism,
but it cannot be regarded as such in Keats ; it came to him from his ordin-
ary life, and its vulgar associations should have kept him from introducing
it so frequently into his verse.
1 This use of " like " may be due in Keats to false analogy with "such like'' which
is common in Shakespeare.
APPENDIX C 573
This list is necessarily small, because Keats wha felt that " poetry should
surprise by a fine excess " was not prone to adopt the commoner words or
to attempt dangerous ejcperiments on the side of familiarity— had he in any
measure accepted Wordsworth's theory of diction the list would have been
greatly extended. But he had no desire to approach too near to the lan-
guage of common life and when he recognised that he had done so he was
quick to correct. Two bad uses oifed disappeared from the first draft of his
poems, and many of the passages rejected from Endymion owe their absence
from the printed text to his consciousness of their triviality of phrase.
The undue affection for certain words is rather a matter of tempera-
ment than, strictly speaking, of vocabulary, for given the sentiment to
be expressed, the words themselves are often quite justifiable ; and it is
only their reiteration which contributes an element of peculiarity to
the vocabulary. Certain of these however call for brief comment. The
word luxury and the adjectives which correspond to it recur unpleasantly
in the early poems. Mr. Arnold notes the recurrence of delicious twenty
times, and Mr. Bridges calls attention to the undue reiteration of such
words as melUng, fainting, swimnting, swooning, and panting. Peculiarly
offensive is the word stare which is continually introduced in the poet's
early love scenes (about ten times), whilst squeeze {Cal. 81 ; End., iv. 665)
is, if possible, worse.
Other favourite words are tiptoe, tease and ^nest. In no way perhaps
is the mastery over language shown more indisputably than in the power
to elevate a common word either by its association or position or the feel-
ing put into it, into a world of higher thought or emotion ; but this is the
last reward of a consummated style and is hardly to be expected in a mere
tyro, particularly if he is ill-educated. Keats does not always know when
a common word is elevated by its context, or when the whole sentiment
of his passage is degraded by a common word. This is admirably illustrated
by his use of the word tease which occurs no less than ten times in his
poetry and rings the changes on all grades of emotion from the execrable
" No little fault or blame Canst thou lay on me for a teasing girl " {End.
i. 617 rej.), almost paralleled in vulgarity in his Song of Four Fairies
written at a time when he might have been expected to know better, " and
Oberon will tease," to the great passage in the Ode on a Grecian Urn —
Thou, silent fbrm, Aost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity.
The same gradation of feeling can be traced in his employment of the
word tiptoe, which he introduces once at least with exquisite effect ; but
ntst vaa always a snare to him j. its singularly inappropriate introduction
into Hyperion to describe the assembly of the Titans being one of the few
serious fiaws in the essential dignity of the poem.
From considering Keats's predisposition to certain wwds we pass
naturally to a discussion of the peculiar word formations to which he had
an unfortunate leaning. First among these is the love of abstract nouns,
some of them manufactured for the occasion, and the majority of them
574 JOHN KEATS
strained from their usual sigaificaace to express a concrete idea. The
fault here, therefore, is twofold — a lack of resource in language which leads
to the tiresome recurrence of the same word formation, and a laclc of
definiteness in expression. The favourite abstract noun in Keats is that
which is easiest to make — ^the adjective transformed by the addition
of -ness, or the simple present participle. So we have in / stood tip-toe
the quaint mossiness of aged roots (40), Apollo kisses the dewiness of the
flowers (£3), the streams are called freshnesses (70), and later on in the same
poem we have delieiousness, silkiness, clearness, and nearness. To the same
period or a little later belong Uafiness {Cal. 34; Sleep and Poetry, 7),
cragginess {ib. 126), smoothness {ib. 377), nothingness (ib. 169, and End. i. 3),
gloominess, pleasantness {=pleasant scene, End. i. S&) cloudiness (»&. i. 741),
tapemess, [thy &ager' a taperness =sthy taper finger (ib. i. 782).] Of present
participles used as nouns, and usually in the same vague seuse, we have,
among others, in / stood tip-toe, fluttertngs (92;, doings and cooings (68, 64),
wandering and pondering (121, 122;, smotherings (132), shiftings {Sleep and
Poetry, 286), mutterings («6. 40;, imaginings {ib. Tl, and End. iii.), folly-
ing {End. i. 612), towery perching {ib. i. 635), feathery whizzing (t&. i. 333),
tannings {ib. ii. 664), hoverings {ib. ii. 931), fingering {ib. ii. 5ij, pleasurings
{ib. iv. 716), illuminings (>6. iv. fi84), thunderings {Sonnet to Haydon), spiriting
{Sonnet to Spenser). And the use of abstract for concrete extends beyond
words of this formation ; cf. e.g. those three grossly offensive phrases quite
close together in End. ii. — smooth excess (743), slippery blisses (758;, milky
sovereignties (759).
The number of cases in which these words bear the rhyme demon-
strates clearly that Keats was often led into the habit through insufficient
mastery over his versification ; bmt the chief reason for their employment
has a different cause. His desire to place upon record his appreciation of
nature and his enthusiasm for the beautiful has outrun his power of
accurate portrayal, and he substitutes for that vivid delineation of
significant det^ which brings a whole picture before the mind terms
which merely convey a vague and formless impression of it. The fitult
resolves itself into a lack of definiteness, where definiteness is in reality
the secret of all great art. Vagueness has indeed a distinct poetic value
varying in almost exact proportion to the artist's power over detail, and a
comparison with Milton (the great master i<u this kind) will at once show
the weakness of Keats. Probably Milton's influence more than any other
helped Keats to throw off this early vice, as well as to discover where the
abstract can be used with really telling poetic effect. Lamia is spoken of
as the " brilliance feminine " (i. 92), but only when a vivid picture of her
dazzling charms has already been given us, which the phrase at once
recalls, adding to it a touch of mystery. ' So too of the " wide quietness "
in which the temple of Psyche is to be built ; the two divine lovers are
not presented, as they would have been presented in 1816, couched in
floweriness and rooty blossomings, but
mid hush'd, cool-rooted flowers, fragrant-ey'd.
APPENDIX C 976
The picture is vivid and clear in every detail, and when we reach the
phtase " wide quietness " there is added to it a suggestion of infinite calm
— that sense of distance without which a landscape carries no meaning to
our hearts.
Analogous in its effect to this use of abstract nouns is the predilection
for adverbs formed from present participles. These are particularly
offensive when they are combined, as often in Keats, with the word so,
used not in its proper grammatical significance, but loosely, as in the
emasculate conversation of the drawing-room, to mean indescribably. In
CaUdore, the worst specimen of this style, we have so lingerittgly (6), so
elegantly (11), so invitingly (31), so sweetly . . . so completely (62, 63), with
the companion phrase quite transcendent (133), and other cases of the present
participle adverb and of so used independently. This vulgarism tends to
disappear as Keats develops in literary power, but examples of it survive
to mar his finest work. Even in the Eve of St. Agnes we have so
dreamingly (xxxiv.) and the vague use of so occurs more than once in
Lamia. A similar vulgarism introduced from conversation is the use of the
auxiliary do for emphasis — do smile {End. iv. 116), do gently murder half my
soul {End. iv. 309), do come now {End. i. 406, rej.), and the pronunciation of
perhaps as a monosyllable {S. and P. 33, 324 ; Ep. to Reynolds, 14).
Another marked feature of the early poems is the love of -y adjectives.
Here again it is only the excessive and unnatural use that calls for
censure — up to a certain point they are perfectly justifiable and have the
highest authority. These adjectives are a natural formation from the
noun, but it is obvious that they should only be formed when their
relation with the noun from which they are formed and the noun which
they qualify are alike clear — otherwise they are merely an easy way of
escaping the difficulty of accurate expression. This is not seldom the
case in Keats, e.g. pillowy silkiness (/ stood tip-toe, 188), liny marble
(S. and P. 364).
But it is evident that Keats had a further reason for their use — a
metrical one. Bver since those changes in th^ language had taken place
which mark the transition from IMiddle English to Modern English, the
loss of unaccented syllables and in particular of the unaccented -e had
given a weight to the language which made it particularly difficult to give
lightness and variety to the verse. Especially true is this of the heroic
couplet. Even if we had a poet to-day who could equal Chaucer in
metrical skill, he would be unable to produce, within the bounds of that
metre, effects comparable to those which Chaucer produced in the Canter-
bury Tales; and these -y words have a peculiar value to the modern
metrist in that their unaccented syllable is free from the weight which a
consonant seldom fails to g^ve. There can be no doubt that Keats was
troubled by the weight of his unaccented syllables, and that he feU into
the habit of using an undue number of these adjectives because they gave
him some relief from it. Take e.g. one of his worst words — boundly " my
boundly reverence "(S. and P. 209;. Mr. W. T. Arnold suggests that
SjTe JOHN KEATS
bomtdfy is on the analogy of rotmdly which Keats had found in Browne,
This seems to me very far-fetched. I think that obviously Keats was led to
it through a desire, perhaps unconscious on his part, to write a euphonious
verse. He may have meant boundless or bounden; in the one case he would
have had an ugly repetition of his sibilant, in the other an ugly repetition
of a nasal — he felt it and he cut the difficulty in a manner that seemed to
him at that period quite natural and quite justifiable. But the greatest
artists do not avoid the difficulties of their material, they triumph over
them ; and it is noticeable that as Keats gains a mastery over the language
these words become more and more sparingly used till they assume their
proper proportion among his adjectives. Out of about fifty which we find
in the poems (not counting those in ordinary use) only fifteen appear
after Endyittion (t.«. after 1817), of these only seven are new to him, and
of those seven only two or three are not justified, either by some literary
aesociatiion, or by th«ir unquestionable effectiveness. These are fledgic
and seeptry. A full list will be found in the Glossary.'
All these features of Keats's early style, some of them showing traces
of survival even in his maturer poems, were natural to him, and would
have had their place in his work if he had never read a line of poetry,
supposing, for the moment, that he would in that case have written any
himself. But it must be remembered that in every case he had a prece-
dent or an analogy by which he could have defended himself. Stumbefy
may be, as Mr. Arnold remarks, " a very vile word," but it is used by
Shakespeare and Milton : paly by the side of pale is a totally unjustifiable
formation, but it is found in Shakespeare, Collins and Coleridge. So
that the study of Keats's idiosyncrasies of diction leads naturally to a
consideration of the influence upon him of other authors, from whom
he leafnt both good and bad, though only as he developed was he able to
discriminate the good from the bad. Our next duty therefore is to
examine the points of affinity between the vocabulary of Keats and that
of those authors whom he read most assiduously, remembering at the
same time no one author can be viewed entirely apart from the rest An
exact chronological treatment of these influences is impossible, as in many
cases they were contemporary with one another ; in tracing the develop^
ment of his style, however, it is obviously the proper course to begin by a
discussion of those who encouraged him in his own evil tendencies.
The worst of these is Leigh Hunt. Of the general vulgarity of Hunt's
influence enough has been said in the General Introduction ; it will be
suflicient now to show how he encouraged by example, if not always by
precept, the worst elements in Keats's vocabulary. In The Story of
1 Mr. Bridges criticises Mr. W. T. Arnold's reference to Keats's predilection for -y
adjectives in the witty remark, " I never heard of any one objecting to Shakespeare's
' I can call spirits from the vasty deep.' Indeed what is in question is very much the
same with the words as with the spirits, whether they do come when you do call for
them." Exactly, and the point which. Mr. Arnold proves, I think, condusively, is that
in many cases they do not come, but that the words produced carry po more con-
viction than the spMt rapping of the liioderh exorcist.
APPENDIX C 577
Rimini (1816) we have the same love of abstract nouns to express a
concrete thing; especially abstract nouns formed from present parti-
ciples, e.g. smearings, measurings, doings ; the same love of adverbs from
present participles — thrilUngly, smilingly, crushingly, preparingly ; the
same delight in the use of -y adjectives which have no good authority,
or are obscure in their meaning, scattery, glary, flamy. In Foliage
published in 1818 (but much of it written somewhat earlier) Hunt draws
on the same vocabulary ; of pres. part, adverbs we have, glancingly, pout-
ingly, kneadingly, of -y adjectives we have leafy and rooty, strawy, surfy and
layery. It must be remembered, moreover, that such words would pro-
bably be found in undue excess in Hunt's familiar conversation and that
Keats, in associating with Hunt, would have them continually before him.
In both of Hunt's volumes, as would be expected, words abound which
express a sense of luxury and ill-defined delight, nor are we surprised to
find as common to both Keats and Hunt the word tiptoe ' used metaphori-
cally, but without poetic effect (in Hunt's tiptoe looks), stare in the offensive
sense already referred to, and twice, the objectionable /ee/ as a noun.
But before a personal acquaintance with Hunt had come to swell the
force of distant admiration, another influence had begun to work which
in itself would lend support to the dangerous idiosyncrasies of the un-
trained poet. This was Chapman. In our reverence for the greatest
of Elizabethan translators and our gratitude to him for the inspiration
which he gave to Keats we should remember also that no writer of his
eminence ever took grosser liberties with the language, or bent it more
remorselessly to fit the Procrustean bed of his ideas. And just as in his
Odyssey he illustrated all those laxities of form for which the early versi-
fication of Keats has been condemned, so it was with his use of diction.
If he did not find a word bearing the required metrical value, in which
to express his conception of Homer's meaning, he had no hesitation in
coining a new form, and he did this in the same manner as did Keats in
a later day. In him we find : —
(fl) The excessive use of the abstract noun formed either in -ing or
-ment, e.g. embracings for embraces, deservings for deserts, murmurings,
dephrings, etc., designmenis, procurement, intendment, etc. Mr. Colvin
attributes to Chapman Keats's use of abstract nouns in -ness and refers to
the Hymn to Pan, where we find cliffy highnesses and wat'ry softnesses.
These are indeed in the manner of Keats, and Keats doubtless knew the
Hymn to Pan well, but it is right to add that in reading through the whole
of Chapman I have found no other examples of this particular formation.
(6) Excessive use of -y adjectives, some of them felicitous but many
of them strange and even awkward, e.g. beamy, cavy, cliffy, cloddy, gleby,
gulfy, foody, flamy, barky, nervy, orby, oxy, rooty, spurry.
' Mr. Bridges attributes Keats's use of tiptoe to Shakespeare. Of such a passage
as End. i. 831 this statement is obviously correct, but Keats's earlier employment of
it, in the 1817 volume, as well as certain of its uses in Bndymion, betray a far different
origin.
37
578 JOHN KEATS
(c) The vulgar use of so, e.g. so languishingly (Od. i. 97), so weak
and wan (Od. vi. 2).
(d) An occasional familiarity of phrase which seems singularly incon-
gruous in a heroic poem. Can we wonder at the banality of some of
Endymion's language to Peona or to Cynthia when Keats found in his
great epic model Calypso thug addressing Odysseus : —
O ye are a shrewd one, and so habited
In taking heed thou know'st not what it is
To be unwary, nor use words amiss.
How hast thou charm'd me, were I ne'er so sly !
In all this we can see how Chapman would seem to Keats to lend
suppoi't to some of his natural tendencies of style. But that the influence
of Chapman continues far beyond this early period, is evident in Hyperion,
and though there is little that can be attributed to the influence of Chap-
man only, there can be no doubt that his translations contributed con-
siderably to the vein of Elizabethanism which runs through the work of
the maturer Keats. For example, the interchange of the different parts
of speech is common to all Elizabethan writers, but certain of Keats's
verb-nouns have a distinct ring of Chapman about them. Such are ex-
claim, proclaim, pierce. Cf. Chapman's use of impair, upbraids, manage.
Again, the love of abstracts in the plural. This is a feature of Keats's
latest work and by it he obtains at times the most successful effects. The
form imageries, indeed, is rightly attributed to Spenser, but the peculiar
musical effect obtained by words of this kind, especially when placed at
the end of the line, is extremely common in Chapman, e.g. : —
in his effeminacies (II. vi. 347).
Never war gives Troy satieties (II. xiii. 576).
Grace this day with fit iransparences (II. xvii. 561).
But Ithacus our strongest phantasies (Od. iv. 391).
In pleasure of their 'high fed fantasies (Od. xx. IS).
Where, after, we will prove what policies (Od. xxiii. 107).
Keats has the following : —
Poured into shapes of curtain'd canopies
Spangled, and rich with liquid broideries (End. ii. 618, 619).
Her silk had play'd in purple phantasies (Is. xlvii.).
So rainbow-sided, touch'd with miseries (Lam. i. 54).
And with the larger wove in small intricacies (Lam. ii. 141).
The space, the splendour of the draperies (Lam. ii. 206).
All garlanded with carven imag'ries (St. Ag.).
'mong thousand heraldries (St. Ag.).
And daz'd with saintly imageries (St. Mark).
Among its golden broideries (St. Mark).
With its many mysteries (St. Mark).
And hopes, and joys, and panting miseries (Ode to Fanny, ii.).
Bigger than stags, — a moon, — with other mysteries (Cap and Bells).
And all the smooth routine of gallantries (Cap and Bells).
APPENDIX C 579
There can be no doubt that Mr. Arnold is right in attributing to
Chapman's influence Keats's love of the word sphere both in usual and
unusual senses. I have noticed it about twenty times in Chapman and
its use often seems somewhat strained. He is particularly fond of apply-
ing it to the eyes, e.g. spheres of eyes {Od. xiii. 635), visual spheres, let mine
eyelids close their spheres {Od. xix. 801). It was passages such as these
which suggested to Keats (Hyp. i. 117), "Open thine eyes eterne, and
sphere them round." The line, "Twelve sphered tables, by silk seats
insphered" (Lamia, ii. 183) employs the word in a more natural sense, and
is also paralleled in Chapman. Cf. also note to Hyperion, ii. 79. The follow-
ing old words would also be known to him in Chapman as in Spenser and
other Elizabethans, beldame, battailous, disparted, gaze (in phrase at gaze)
horrid, sallows.^ On the other hand Mr. Arnold can hardly be right in
attributing to Chapman Keats's use of wicker = basket (End. i. 137).
Chapman's phrase is "press of wicker" (Od. ix. 360), i.e. of wickerwork,
which is exactly the modern use. Keats is more likely adopting a modern
colloquialism, to be found in many parts of England at the present day.
The seventeenth-century poet who may be ranked next to Chapman
in his efifect upon Keats's style and vocabulary is William Browne of
Tavistock. A quotation from Britannia's Pastorals, which heads the
early Epistles, shows that Keats must have read Browne soon after he had
become familiar with the translation of Homer, whilst reminiscences of
Browne which are to be found in the Ode to the Nightingale and La Belle
Dame sans Merci suggest that either Keats continued to read him, or, as is
more likely, that at an early period he had studied him in such detail as
to make a permanent impression on him. Certainly there was much in
Browne which would have attracted Keats at that time ; his freshness of
mind, his rambling delight in nature, find expression in a versification
which has all the laxity of Keats's immature couplets and in a vocabulary
with many of the features which mark the 1817 volume. There is the
same love of abstract nouns in -ment and- ing(8), languishment, embrace-
ment, dreariment, procurement, fa/mishmmt, sonnetings, banquetings, shading
(shade), WMtterings, fondlings ; and the same licentious use of adjectives
in -y, many of them forms quite unjustifiable except for purposes of metre,
e.g. calmy, greeny, scaly, pitchy, lawny, plumy, flaggy, rushy, swarty ;
the same love also of compound adjectives of a land especially dear to
Keats at an early period, e.g. lily-silken, silver-seeming, silver-circling.
Of words and forms rare or archaic common to the vocabulary of Browne
and Keats one may notice the following : mfew, y-pight, freshet, writhen,
raught, rillets, teen, undersong. None of them, except perhaps writhen,
would he owe entirely to Browne, but this fact does not make the in-
fluence of Browne by any means unimportant.
A similar influence, as far as vocabulary, at least, is concerned, was
'The spelling "chace" for "chase" is more likely to be due to the influence of
Chapman than to that of Somerville, whom we do not know that Keats ever read.
580 JOHN KEATS
doubtless exerted by Sandys's translation of Ovid, which Keats must have
been continually reading in 1817-18. We have the evidence of Wood-
house to the effect that the somewhat strange use of the word brawniest
in Hyp. ii. 21 "the brawniest in assault" was suggested by Sandys, big-
brawned ^gaon, and Mr. Forman has pointed out that the only known
literary use of the word bowse before Keats is to be found in Sandys.
Similarly the form spry {End. iv. 157), which some have taken to be an
unfortunately Cockney mispronunciation of spray, whilst others, e.g. Mr.
Arnold, have asserted that it has nothing to justify it except the necessity
of a rhyme (which would indeed have been quite a sufficient justification
in the eyes of Spenser), was traced by Mr. Forman (following Woodhouse)
to Sandys, " who, he remarks, will certainly do as an authority in default
of a better." It is interesting to be able to add, as a further justification
of Keats in its use, that he was not merely drawing upon a form which he
had noticed in one passage. In the early editions of both Defoe and
Smollett, both of whom we have evidence that Keats knew, the word is
spelt sprye. Apparently, therefore, the form was by no means as un-
common as has been supposed, and Keats, having met it in several places,
would feel perfectly well justified in employing it. Other rare words which
a study of Sandys would familiarise to him are disparted, embracements,
covert, sallows, spume, nervy, spumy.
As a whole, however, the influence of Leigh Hunt and of the seventeenth-
century poets (Chapman and Browne especially) was rather to encourage
the natural tendencies of the immature Keats than to add to the resources
of his vocabulary in a manner which would be permanently useful to him.
Hence it has seemed best to discuss them first. The other authors who
may have left traces upon the work of Keats will be considered in their
chronological order.
' — I First of these was Spenser.
As I have already implied, there has been, in my opinion, a tendency
to overrate the predominance of the influence of Spenser on both the
thought and the language of Keats. The reason of this is partly because
it has been the subject of the most thorough and scholarly investigation,
first by Mr. Arnold and then quite exhaustively by Mr. Read, partly also
because the well-known story of Keats's first acquaintance with Spenser,
as told by Clarke, has something arrestingly dramatic about it. It was
the first influence to make itself felt upon him, but, in spite of its great
attraction, at no period of his literary life can it be said to have been the
foremost influence. Almost at once it was subordinated to the phraseology
of the eighteenth century, then to the seventeenth century and Leigh
Hunt, then to Shakespeare and then to Milton. After this Keats's style is
more truly eclectic, and Shakespeare, Milton, Chatterton and Spenser all
are laid under contribution, so that it would be diflicult to assign the
mastery to any one of them. At the same time it must be recognised that
Spenser's vocabulary has lefl its mark upon all the work of Keats, and
even though it is not the sole or principal source of many of the words
APPENDIX C 581
which have been attributed to it, there is no doubt that in many cases Keats
saw them first in Spenser, so that when he met them afterwards in other
writers that he happened to be studying at the time more closely, he was
already familiar with them. Almost certainly the following came to Keats
from Spenser, daedaU, elf (for man), lifeful, touted, needments, tinct ; whilst
Spenser shared with other writers in familiarising Keats with a large
number of words, among which I should regard as the most justly associ-
ated with his name, beldame, beadsman, bedight, covert, dreariment, raft,
shallop. A full list will be found in the Glossary.
There can be little doubt that the great literary force which freed or
rather was freeing Keats from idiosyncrasies of vocabulary, and giving him
a firm grasp of the richness and the strength of the English tongue, just
as it freed him from undue subservience to any one master, was Shake-
speare. In Shakespeare he found many of those qualities which in their
exaggeration in Keats and others have been mentioned for censure,
but here he found them in their due proportion and used with that
easy mastery which proclaims the consummate artist. A glance at the
Glossary will prove, what has, I think, been overlooked before, not
only how many words Keats undoubtedly learnt from Shakespeare,' but
also how many, whose presence in his work has been attributed solely to
others, and generally to Spenser, are to be found in Shakespeare also ; and
that too at a time when we know that Shakespeare was forming the princi-
pal object of his study. And as the great dramatist became daily a greater
wonder to him and he came to understand him to his very depths, he
caught something of that power over language, which is indefinable,
because it cannot be analysed into mannerisms, and is only called Shake-
spearian from its inevitable fitness and its supreme felicity. It is difficult,
for example, to avoid associating with Shakespeare's influence some of
those compound adjectives, characteristic of Keats's maturer work, which
suggest a far fuller meaning than is afForded by regarding the first part of
the compound as in purely adverbial relation with the second. In his
early poems, doubtless, Keats had formed his compounds on the analogy
of the looser Elizabethan writers such as Browne and Chapman, but for
any parallel to the wealth and the subtlety of meaning carried by Keats's
dark-clustered, wild-bridged, soft-conched, soft-lifted, high-sorrowful, and others
of the same pregnant force, we must turn, I think, to Shakespeare. Cf.
for example, deep-contemplative (As You Like Jt, ii. 7. 31) and three which
occur in Troilus and Cressida, a play studied by Keats with peculiar care,
' " There is hardly any direct imitation or adaptation of Shakespeare in detail "
(Arnold, JTeais, xxxviii.). " Spenser, Leigh Hunt and Milton, these then are the three
names which 1 think a student of Keats has constantly to bear in mind " (ii. xxxvi.).
Mr. Read, indeed, duly records the presence of many of his Spenserian words in
Shakespeare also ; he differs from me in his estimate of the importance of this fact,
whilst any mention of the Shakespearian words which do not occur in Spenser is beyond
the immediate scope of his inquiry. Yet only in the light of these can a judgment upon
the whole question of the relative importance of Keats's debt to these two authors be
arrived at.
582 JOHN KEATS
subtU-potent (iii. 2. 26), dumb-discotiysive (iv. 4. 92), mommtaryswift (iv.
2. 14).
Undoubtedly Shakespearian in Keats are a-cold, amort, angerly, close
(embrace), dibble, coverture, pleached,rubicms, ruddy (drops), sliver, snail-paced,
throe ' (as a verb), and to the influence of Shakespeare with that of others
the words, beldame, beadsman, bruit, capable, daft, darkling, dight, eld,
ebon, honey dew, Ubbard, lush, parle,pight, rack (of clouds), tiptoe; phantasy,
yerk, pleasure, scandal apd quire as verbs, and the adjectives fenny, mealy,
paly, slumbery. (Cf. also General Introduction, p. xxxiii. Introduction
to End. bk. ii. p. 429.)
It is a curious fact that the influence of Milton (more especially in the
early poems) whilst it is as prominent as that of any other author, is
shown far more in allusion and reminiscence of Miltonic cadence, than by
the borrowing of definitely Miltonic words.^ But before Hyperion we
have alp, argent, capable (of an ear), delectable (also in Shakespeare, though
with different stress), drear, and dight, the one often attributed solely to
Chatterton and the other to Spenser, dulcet, lave (also in Chatt.), eld (also
Shak.), monstrous {i.e. peopled with monsters), eclipsing (in a sense definitely
reminiscent of Paradise Lost, ii. 666), snuff (verb), bloomy, oozy, and wormy,
and contemporary or later than Hyperion, besprent (with dew), adjectives
in -ant, formed on the analogy of the Miltonic adjective of the same
formation (which, however, can be paralleled in Chatterton also') e.g.
adorant, aspirant, couchant; lucent (also a favourite word in Gary's Dante),
park (also Shak. and Marston), rhomb, sciential, slope, syllabling, sooth, and
the form foughten. The Miltonisms of Hyperion are noticed in the intro-
duction to that poem. Mr. Arnold has pointed out that the immense
increase of adjectives in -ed, which in Keats's later work supplant the -y
adjectives, is also chiefly due to the study of Milton. A full list of these is
not given in the Glossary, because, as the N. £. D. points out, the termina-
tion -ed is now added without restriction to any substantive from which it
is desired to form an adjective with sense "possessing, provided with,
characterised by." Hence only those are given which are distinctly
participial rather than adjectival, or which afford an interesting literary
parallel within the known limits of Keats's reading.
The influence of the eighteenth century upon the vocabulary of Keats
was, as Mr. Colvin has pointed out, predominant in the poet's Juvenilia.
This was partly no doubt because he read the eighteenth-century Spen-
serians without being able to discriminate between their work and that of
Spenser himself, but it was also due to the fact that the poetic diction in
' " I believe that Keats invented the verb ' to throe' " (Arnold, xlv.).
'These are pointed out in the notes passim. Keats probably borrowed more from
Comus than from any other poem (or part of a poem) of the same length, and he drew
upon the minor poems of Milton continually all through his literary life. The influence
of Paradise Lost, too, began earlier than has often been supposed. Cf. notes to End-
in. and iv. passim. It is mteresting to know upon the authority of Severn that Keats's
next poem, which he would discuss with his friend on his voyage to Italy, was to be
upon the subject of Sabrina.
' And in Shakespeare, as Professor Bradley has pointed out to me. Cf. Timon of
Athens, iv. 3. 5, dividant ; iv . 3. 25, operant ;iv. 3. 115, trenchant; iv. 3. 135, mountant.
APPENDIX C 583
vogue in the eighteenth century was still the language of verse in Keats's
own day, and before he began to liave definite theories about his art he
would naturally accept its recognised medium of expression. We find
accordingly such eighteenth-century phrases as, verdant hill, laurelled
peers, tuneful thtmders, ravished heavens, trembUmgly expire, renovated eyes,
melt the soul, radiant jwes, delicious tear, romantic eye, etc. ; together with
a typically eighteenthrcentury personification. Disappointment, parent of
Despair, Despondence, miserable bane, etc. These and such phrases it would
be a mistake to attribute to any definite influence, they were the poetical
stock-in-trade of the period ; but certain authors of the eighteenth century
made a less transient appeal to Keats and are worthy of a short notice in
this connection. These are Thomson, Collins and Chatterton.
From Thomson Keats certainly took the word clamant, his phrase
athwart the gloom is repeated by Keats in Sleep and Poetry, his famous line
And hold high converse with the mighty dead is more than once adapted by
Keats, and his line The blackbird whistles from the thorny brake is at least
echoed in the last stanza of the Ode to A utumn. - Another word, used in Keats
with peculiar lingering effect, is also a favourite of Thomson' s— gradual.
Whe,re,iaAiiis gradual, life at length goes out {Winter, 890).
larger prospects of the beauteous whole
Would, gradual open on our opening minds ( Winter, 580).
gradual sinks the breeze
Into a perfect calm.
A similar effect is gained by Keats in his exquisite description of the sea : —
Down whose green back the short-liv'd foam, all hoar.
Bursts gradual, with a wayward indolence {End. ii. 349, 350),
I cannot parallel this use exactly in any other author.
Probably from Thomson also is the phrase horizontal sun, and the
adjective plumy as applied to birds, though this is found in other authors,
whilst Thomson helped to familiarise him with the words disparted, drear,
ciHed, herbaged, sleeked (of wings), s^ume, spumy, and umbrageous, which
in previous investigations have either been left unnoticed in his vocabulary,
or attributed with too much confidence to another writer.
The influence of Collins is slighter, but it is not unimportant, and, if
we remember the small bulk of Collins's work, as large as could be ex-
pected. The' word brede has been attributed to Chaucer ' in whom it means
breadth and to Waller in whom it means embroidery. . There is no evidence
that Keats ever read Waller, nor is it^asy to see why he should ever have
been induced to do so, and though the meaning " breadth " will fit in with
the passage in the Grecian Urn, it will not fit in with the passage in Lamia ;
and it is very unlikely that Keats would use an extremely rare word in
two different senses. He therefore meant by it in both cases embroidery,
and his mind was turning back, consciously or unconsciously, to the Ode
to Evening " with brede etherial wove." It can hardly be doubted either
' Speaking more accurately the poet of The Flawre and the Leafe, in which Irede is
found in line 43.
584 JOHN KEATS
that chilly fingef'd spring (End. iv. 971) owes something to Collins'g
Spring, with dewy fingers cold, and though his lines Heard melodies are
sweet but those unheard Are sweeter may owe a more direct debt to Words-
worth, Keats knew also their original in the Ode to the Passions, "In
notes by distance made more sweet." Adjectives formed both in -y and
-ed are used in Collins to a fault: common to both poets are pillared,
laurelled, honied, curtained, shouldered, paly, though they are found else-
where, and CoUins's love of Spenser and Milton would continually recall
to Keats the language and tone of his two greatest masters.^
But the poet of the eighteenth century who influenced Keats most
deeply was that one who least of all partook of the qualities of his age.
Chatterton appealed to Keats in his earliest years of the poetic life ; to
him Endymion was dedicated, and in revulsion from the classicalism of
Milton he turned to Chatterton as his model. Apart from the unfortu-
nately Rowleian old English of the Eve of St. Mark (99-114) there is
nothing in his vocabulary which owes its presence exclusively to Chatter-
ton ; at the same time there are many words which gained an additional
hold upon him through Chatterton's use of them, which, as we know,
would convince him perhaps more than it would convince us of their
unimpeachable integrity. Of these I should especially call attention to
amate, argent, darkling, drear, eterne, languishment, lave ; mickU, dight and
pight (great favourites with Chatterton), ope, perceaunt, shent, shoon, sith,
teene, paly. He would also find in Chatterton engine used as a verb,
whilst the same authority was joined, as we have seen, with what to Keats
seemed the essentially antagonistic authority of Milton, in suggesting to
him the -ant adjectives.
Of the influences of Keats's contemporaries it is not necessary to say
much here. A glance at the Glossary will show that he did not stand
alone in his age in his love of words which were already either obsolete
or rare in common speech. The great characteristic of the whole
literary movement of which he was a member was its recognition of the
glories of the past, and he would have found ample corroboration of his
own practice in Coleridge, in Southey, in Scott,' in the Essays of Hazlitt
and Lamb, even in the poems of Wordsworth. But in Keats less than any
of them was this practice studied. Limited as was the vocabulary of his
everyday life, it sought reinforcement in that language in which alone
the poetic side of his nature could iind full expression. Naturally and
without conscious effort, he adapted that language to his own needs, and
in those poems which are most essentially original and characteristic of
his genius he resumed that flexi^bility, that beauty, that "old vigour,"
which have made it a worthy vehicle for the richest literature of the
world.
1 In Collins these are blended with the conventional poetic diction of the day, and
some of its phrases also are common to Collins and Keats.
'Dr. Murray has pointed out to me the interesting fact that a large number of
good Elizabethan words, which are absent from our literature in the later seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, reappear in the pages of the iVaveriey Naruels.
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INDEX OF TITLES AND FIRST LINES OF POEMS
Text. Notes,
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever
Acrostic : Georgiana Augusta Keats
Addressed to Haydon. Sonnet
Addressed to the Same . .
After dark vapours have oppress'd our plains .
Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight ,
Ah ! who can e'er forget so fair a being ?
Ah I woe is me 1 poor silver-wing !
Ailsa Rock, To. Sonnet
And what is love ? It is a doll dress'd up
Another sword 1 And what if I could seize .
. Apollo, Hymn to
Ode to
As from the darkening gloom a silver dove .
As Hermes once took to his feathers light
As late I rambled in the happy fields
Asleep I O sleep a little while, white pearl .
Autumn, To . . . .
Bards of Passion and of Mirth
Belle Dame sans Merci, La .
Bluel Tis the life of heaven, — the domain .
Brawne, vide Fanny . ...
Bright star ! would I were steadfast as thou art
Brother George, To my. Epistle .
Brother George, To my. Sonnet .
Brothers, To my. Sonnet ....
Brown, Charles Armitage, Spenserian Stanzas on
Burns, Sonnet on Visiting the Tomb of .
Sonnet written in the Cottage where Burns
Byron I how sweetly sad thy melody ! .
Byron, To. Sonnet
Calidore. A Fragment
Can death be sleep, when life is but a dream .
Cap and Bells, The ; or. The Jealousies. A Faery
Castle Builder, The, Fragment of
Cat ! who hast pass'd thy grand climacteric .
Chapman. On first looking into Chapman's Homer,
Chatterton, To. Sonnet
Chief of organic numbers ! . .
Clarke, Epistle to Charles Cowden .
Come hither all sweet maidens soberly .
was born
Tale
Sonnet
53
420
357
557
37
399
37
399
273
540
245
526
20
393
259
535
282
547
352
557
344
556
350
.S5b
348
5.56
351
55b
285
549
33
397
261
535
205
482
201
481
244
52b
279
545
288
551
24
395
31
.396
34
39«
361
558
281
546
283
547
347
556
347
5Sb
10
391
347
550
3b3
559
352
557
353
557
3<)
398
348
556
257
533
27
395
275
540
Daisy's Song
260
534
JOHN KEATS
Dear Reynolds I as last night I lay in bed
Death, On . . ....
Deep in the shady sadness of a vale
Draught of Sunshine, A
Dream, On a, after reading Dante's Episode of
Francesca. Sonnet ....
Paolo and
Elgin Marbles, On seeing the. Sonnet
Emma, To . , . . .
Endymion : a Poetic Romance,
Book I
Book II
Book III
Book IV
Epistles (published 1817)
Epistle to John Hamilton Reynolds
Eve of St. Agnes, The .
Eve of St. Mark, The . . .
Ever let the Fancy roam
Extempore, An ....
'* Faerie Queene, The," Spenserian Stanza written at the close
of Canto II., Book V., of . . .
Faery Songs
Fair Isabel^ poor simple Isabel 1 . . .
F»me, like a wayward girl, will still be coy .
Fame, On. Two Sonnets ....
Fanatics have their dreams, wherewith they weave
Fancy
Fanny, Ode to . . . . .
Fanny, Lines to
Fanny, Sonnet to . . ...
Fill for me la brimming bowl ....
" Flowre and the Lefe," Sonnet written in the
FpUy's Song
Four Fairies, Song of
Four Seasons fill the measure of the year
Fresh morning gusts have blown away all fear
Full many a dreary hour have I past
Give me a golden pen, and let me lean .
Give me your patience Sister while I frame .
Glocester, no more. I will behold that Boulogne
Glory and loveliness have passed away .
Go no further ; not a step more. Thou art .
God of the golden bow . ...
Good Kosciusko, thy great name alone .
Grasshopper and Cricket, On the. Sonnet
0feat spirits now on earth are sojourning
Qrecian Urn, Ode on a
Gdevously are we tantalised, one and alt
Had I a man's fair form, then might my sighs
H'adst thou liv'd in days of old
Happy, happy glowing fire I . .
Happy is England I I could be content
Hast thou from the caves of Golconda, a gem
Haydon 1 forgive me that I cannot speak
Text.
Notes.
270
537
347
550
aoy
495
353
557
285
549
275
540
38s
562
53
420
75
429
98
436
122
443
22
394
270
537
180
464
241
535
198
479
359
558
339
558
259
334
164
460
28s
550
285
550
229
515
igg
479
251
530
253
532
287
551
383
562
274
540
355
557
267
537
280
545
349
536
24
395
36
399
357
557
345
555
2
387
330'
555
350
550
.38
402
38
402
37
402
194
476
335
555
31
396
l6
392
267
537
39
403
15
392
274
540
Missing Page
604
JOHN KEATS
Lovers, A Party of .
Maia, Fragment of an Ode to
Many the wonders I this day have seen
Mathew, George Felton, Epistle to
Meg Merrilies
Melancholy, Ode on . . .
Mermaid Tavern, Lines on the
Milton. Lines on seeing a lock of Milton's hair
Modern Love . . . .
Mortal, that thou mayst understand aright
Mother of Hermes t and still youthful Maia ! ,
Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold
Muse of my native land I loftiest Muse 1
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My spirit is too weak ; mort^ity .
Nature witheld Cassandra in the skies
Nightingale,' Ode to a .
Nile, To the. Sonnet . . .
No more advices, no more cautioning
No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist
No ! those days are gone away
Not Aladdin magian
Now, Ludolph 1 Now, Auranthe ! Daughter fair !
Now may we lift our bruised vizors up .
Now Morning from her orient chamber came
Nymph of the downward smile, and sidelong glance
O Chatterton I how very sad thy fate I .
O come my dear Emma I the rose is full blown
O Goddess ! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung
O golden-tongued Romance with serene lute I
O, my poor boy I My son ! My son I My Ludolph
O Peace I and dost tjiou with thy presence bless
O soft embalmer of the still midnight I .
O Solitude I if I must with thee dwells .
O Sorrow . . . . .
O sovereign power of love! O grief I O balm i
O that a week could be an age, and we .
O that the earth were empty, as when Cain .
O thou whose face hath felt the Winter's wind
O thou, whose mighty palace roof doth hang .
O ! were I one of the Olympian twelve .
O what can ail thee. Knight at arms
Oft have you seen a swan superbly frowning .
Oh 1 for enough life to support me on .
Oh 1 how I love, on a fair summer's eve
Oh, I am firighten'd-with most hateful thoughts !
Old Meg she was a Gipsy ....
On a Picture of Leander. Sonnet .
On first looking into Chapman's Homer. Sonnet
On the Grasshopper and Cricket. Sonnet
On leaving some Friends at an early Hour. Sonnet
On receiving a curious Shell, and a Copy of Verses
On seeing the Elgin Marbles for the first time. Sonnet
On sitting down to read " King Lear " once again. Sonnet
One morn before me were three figures seen ,
Text.
362
248
31
22
261
206
202
257
239
248
36
IZ2
191
283
191
278
303
206
203
262
314
342
19
33
348
385
r96
277
334
384
284
34
125
75
280
312
258-
58
354
244
27
331
273
355
261
275
36
38
36
15
275
277
249
Notes.
559
529
396
394
535
482
481
533
557
524
529
398
443
472
540
548
472
542
553
482
482
535
553
555
393
397
556
562
477
541
555
562
548
397
446
429
545
553
533
422
557
526
395
555
540
556
535
540
398
402
399
392
540
541
529
Missing Page
606
JOHN KEATS
The poetry of earth is never dead .
The stranger lighted firom his steed
The sun, with his great eye . . . .
The town, the churchyard, and the setting sun
There are who lord it o'er their fellow-men
There is a charm in footing slow across a silent pli
Think not of it, sweet one, so . . .
This living hand, now warm and capable
This mortal body of a thousand days
This pleasant tale is like a little copse .
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness ,
Thrush, What the, said
Thus in alternate uproar and sad peace .
Time's sea hath been five years at its slow ebb
'Tis the witching hour of night
To **** (Georgiana Augusta Wylie)
To ••***•. Sonnet
To G. A. W. Sonnet
To-night I'll have my friar — let me think
To one who has been long in city pent .
Unfelt, unheard, unseen . .
Upon a Sabbath-day it fell
Upon a time, before the faery broods
Vattxhall, To a Lady seen for a few moments at. Sonnet
Was ever such a night ?
Welcome joy, and welcome sorrow ....
Well, well, I know what ugly jeopardy
What can I do to drive away
What is more gentle than a wind in summer ?
What the Thrush said. Lines from a letter to John Hamilton
Reynolds
What though, for showing truth to flatter'd state .
What though while the wonders of nature exploring
When by my solitary hearth I sit
When I have fears that I may cease to be .
When they were come into the Faery's Court
When wedding fiddles are a-playing ....
Where be ye going, you Devon maid ? . . . .
Where is my noble herald ?
Where's the Poet ? show him I show him
Where — where — where shall I find a messenger ? . i
Who loves to peer up at the morning sun > .
Who, who from Dian's feast would be away ?
Why did I laugh to-night ? No voice will tell
Woman I when I behold thee flippant, vain .
Written in Disgust of Vulgar Superstition. Sonnet
Written on the day that Mr. Leigh Hunt left Prison. Sonnet
Written on a Blank Page in Shakespeare's Poems, feeing "A
Lover's Complaint ". Sonnet
Written upon the top of Ben Nevis. Sonnet
You have my secret ; let it not be breath'd ....
Young Calidore is paddling o'er the lake
Text.
Notes
38
402
26d
5H4
260
534
281
546
98
416
35»
558
25S
532
454
512
283
54?
274
540
~*9i
--47?'
2S8-
533
224
512
279
544
264
536
16
392
31
396
33
397
352
557
35
398
255
532
241
525
147
453
279
544
333
555
256
532
321
554
253
532
40
403
258
533
32
396
14
392
18
393
277
5«;
3S9
558
355
557
261
535
29s
553
256
532
308
553
276
541
134
450
284
549
20
393
351
556
32
396
a88
551
282
547
300
553
10
391
Missing Page
608 JOHN KEATS
Gary, vide Dante.
Chalmers, English Poets, 423, 485, 526.
Chambeilayne, Pharonnida, 415.
Chapman (George), general influence upon Keats, xxiii, xxix, xlv, xlvi, 36, 398,
399 ; upon Keats's vocabulary and style, 577-9 ; cf. also 571, 580 and Glossary^
585-600 ; his Homer's Iliad, 485, 495, 499, 555 ; as a source for Hyperion, xlvi ;
his Odyssey, 394, 409, 440; Hymn to Apollo, 434, 518; Hymn to Pan, 420,
426 ; The Works and Days of Hesiod, 485, 499,
Chatterton (Thomas), xix, xxiii, li, Iv, 395, 408, 419, 451, 526, 536 ; Endymion
dedicated to, 417 ; ^lla, 535 ; Excellent Ballad of Charitie, 465, 495 ; in-
fluence upon Keats's vocabulary, 584 ; cf. also 571, 580-4 and Glossary.
Chaucer, xxiv, 56, 274, 409, 463, 469, 570, 571, 575, 583; The Canterbury Tales,
versification of, 575 ; Troilus and Cresseyde, 429 ; The Flowre and the Leafe
(pseudo-Chaucerian), 389, 405, 540, 583 ; cf. also Glossary.
Clarke (Charles Cowden), Epistle to, 27-30; influence on Keats, ib., xxi-xxiii,
395 ; his Recollections of Writers, etc., the source of much information upon
Keats, 387, 388, 392, 397, 398, 402, 441, 448, 470, 540 ; cf. also 564, 565,
568, 569.
Classics, vide Greek.
Claude, Enchanted Castle, 475, 537.
Coleridge (Samuel Taylor), Ancient Mariner, 447 ; Ballad of Dark Ladye, ib. ;
Christabel, 409, 467, 469, 526; Essays on the Fine Arts, position therein
compared with Keats's in / Stood Tip-toe, 389; Lectures on Shakespeare,
424; The Nightingale, 438, 461, 474; c/. also 527, 572, 576.
Collins (William), Ix, 478, 576 ; How, sleep the brave, 452 ; Ode to Evening, 583 ;
influence on Keats's vocabulary, 583, 584 ; tf. also Glossary.
Colvin (Mr. Sidney), debt of present editor to, x; his Life of Keats (English Men
of Letters Series) and Letters of yohn Keats quoted passim ; A Morning's
Work in a Hampstead Garden, 473 ; on sources oi Endymion, 415, 416, 420 ;
and of Hyperion, 485 ; criticisms of Lamia, xlii, 439 ; Isabella, 463 ; Ode to
a Nightingale, 475 ; Eve of St. Mark, 526; etc.
Cortez, 36 ; substituted by Keats for Balboa, 399 ; Titian's portrait of, ib.
Courthope (Mr. W. J.), attack on Keats in Liberal Movement in English Litera-
ture, 429.
Cowper (William), On the Receipt of My Mother's Picture, 395.
Crewe (Lord), discovery oi MS. of Fall of Hyperion and other. poems, xi, 515.
Criticism, attitude of Keats to, 413, 414, 418, 419 ; Keats's powers of, ix, xxxi,
396, 454. 461. etc., etc.
Dante, Keats's interest in, aroused by Bailey, 436, 445 ; Cary's translation of,
445, 465, 466, 550, 567 ; influence of, on Fall of Hyperion, 516.
Defoe, 580.
Dilke (C. Wentworth), 565 ; Letter to, 448 ; his view of America contested by
Keats, 536.
Drama, Keats's desire to excel in, Iviii ; possibilities of his ultimate success in,
lix ; c/. also 551, 552, 554, 555.
Drayton (Michael), Mom in the Moon, its influence on Endymion, 415, 416, 420.
Drummond (of Hawthornden), 414, 415, 441.
Dryden ^ohn), Annus Mirabilis, 462; influence of The Fables upon Lamia,
lii, liii, 453.
li\mlof. History of Fiction, 468.
Edinburgh Review, 412, 453, 493.
Elgin Marbles, xliii, Iviii, 274, 275, 400, 410, 422, 476, 540,
Elizabethans, Keats's affinity with, xlv-xlvii ; his debt to, notes, passim.
Emotion, its antagonism with Reason, xxxvii, xli, xlii, 439, 533, 538, 539 ; the guide
to Truth, xxxvii.
Endymion, original title of / Stood Tip-toe, 388.
Missing Page
610 JOHN KEATS
Hyperion, general introduction to, 484-94; date of composition, 484; newly
discovered autograph MS. of, 494 ; criticisms of, 493, 494 ; Miltoni&m of,
4S9-93 i original design of, 486 ; how far adhered to, 487, 488 ; relation with
the Fail of Hyperion, 515 ; significance of, in development of Keats's mind
and art, xli; sources of, xlvi, 485.
Imagination, Keats's views of the, xxxvii.
Indicator, The, poems of Keats published in, 526, 549, 561 ; Lamia, Hyperion,
etc., reviewed by Hunt in, 453, 493, 512.
Jeffrey, his criticism of Keats, 412, 453, 493.
Jeffrey (Miss), Letter to, 530.
Johnson (Samuel), xlvii.
Jonson (Ben), xlvii, 420 ; Epithalamion, 449 ; Hymn to Diana, 449 ; The Satyr,
465 ; cf. also Glossary.
Keats (Fanny), 565 ; Letters to, 411, 551.
Keats (George), 387, 564-7 ; Epistle to, 24 ; Sonnet to, 31 ; Letters to, xxxiv,
409, 411, 453, 477 ; journal Letters to and Georgiana Keats, xxxvi,
xxxvii, 479, 481, 525, 526, 528, 536, 339, 549, 552.
Keats (Georgiana nee Wylie), 392, 564, 566 ; Poems to, 16, 33 ; Letters to, vide
Keats (George).
Keats (John), vide Chronological Table, 564-9.
Keats (Thomas), 512, 547, 564-6; Sonnet to, 34; Letters to, 479, 498, 505, 535,
546. 547-
Kirke White, 408.
Lamb (Charles), at Haydon's dinner party, 438, 566; criticism of Isabella, 463;
of Lamia, 456, 463 ; of the Eve of St. Agnes, 469 ; Essays of Elia, 447.
Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes and other Poems, 1820, its character and
reception, 452, 453 ; Keats on, 452.
Landor (Walter Savage), Gebir, 496, 514 ; on Koskiusko, 403.
LempriSre, Classical Dictionary, Keats's early reading of, xxi ; limited extent of
its influence upon Keats, xliv, 499 ; cf. also 390, 423, 424, 447, 485, 486, 506,
Love, treatment of, in Keats's early poetry, 391, 393 ; influenced by the associa-
tion in his mind of Spenser and Leigh Hunt, xxvii-xxix ; later development
of Keats, liv-lvii.
Lyly, Endimion, 414.
Manchester Quarterly, The (1883), article by G. Milner, On some Marginalia
made by D. G. Rossetti in a copy of Keats's Poems, vide Rossetti.
Marlowe (Christopher), Hero and Leander, 437.
Marston (John), The Fawn, 418 ; Antonio and Mellida, 422.
Massinger (Philip), 590, 595.
Mathew (George Felton), 22, 394, 395.
Medievalism, Keats's affinity with the spirit of, Iv-lviii, 469, 526, 527.
Meredith (George), 475.
Milner (George), On some Marginalia made by D. G. Rossetti in a copy of
Keats's Poems, vide Rossetti.
Milnes (R. Monckton), vide Houghton.
Milton (John), early influence upon Keats, xxiii ; influence upon Hyperion, xlvi, 1,
489-93 ; influence on Keats's style and vocabulary, 574, 576, 580, 582, 584 ;
cf. also Glossary, 585-600 ; Keats's criticisms of, li ; his enthusiasm for, 489 ;
his Notes on, 455, 497, 503, 512, 546; Cbmus, 401, 405, 429, 432, 435.
440, 446, 448, 456, 471, 493, 535, 552, 554, 555 ; Death of a Fair Infant,
474 ; // Penseroso, 429, 433, 437, 457, 482, 520 ; V Allegro, 390, 395, 437.
448, 457. 478. 556 ; Lycidas, 388, 397, 402, 422, 433, 435, 439, 446. 478.
493, 512, 536, 570; Ode on the Nativity, 446, 451, 478; Paradise Lost,
393. 398. 403. 431. 434-40. 448. 449. 455-7. 467. 47i. 485. 488-512. 520,
521, 524, 533, 539, 554, 556, 560 ; Paradise Regained, 433, 451, 5". S^IT"
Samson Agonistes, 492 ; Sonnets, 557 ; cf. also, 453, 458,
Missing Page
612 JOHN KEATS
Saturn, Keats's conception of the character, debt to Milton's Satan, 502 ; to King
Lear, 496 ; weakening of his character in the Fall of Hyperion, 323.
Scott (Sir Walter), xxviii, 424, 468, 535, 584.
Sea, Keats's feeling for the, 541.
Severn (Joseph), 564, 568 ; influences Keats in his appreciation of Elgin
Marbles, 540 ; influences Keats in his appreciation of Milton, 489 ; Life
and Letters (ed. W. Sharp), Ixiii, 414, 551, 552.
Shakespeare, extent and character of his influence on Keats, xxxii-xxxv ; influ-
ence on Keats's vocabulary, 581 ; cf. also Glossary, 585-600 ; as Keats's
inspiring genius, 410 ; reality of, to Keats, 544; All's Well that Ends Well,
513 ; Ant. and Cleo., 553 ; As You Like It, xxxiii, 388, 445 ; CoHolanus, 553 ;
Cymbeline, 429; Hamlet, 423, 452, 470, 546, 553; Henry P'., 513; Julius
Casar, 440 ; King Lear, xxxiii, xxxiv, 542, 558 ; influences Keats's conception
of Saturn, 496 ; Macbeth, 467, 470, 500, 555 ; Merchant of Venice, 414 ; Mid-
summer-Night's Dream, xxxiii, 392, 395, 397, 431 ; Much Ado, 429, 441 ;
Othello, lix, 431 ; Pericles, 424, 437, 527 ; Richard II., 554 ; Richard
III., 437 ; Romeo and jfuliet, 391, 429, 558 ; Sonnets, xxxiii, supply motto for
Endymion, 417 ; Tempest, xxxiii, 424, 427, 534 ; Timon of Athens, 500, 582 ;
Titus Andronicwi, 500 ; Troilus and Cressida, xlii, 429, 430, 571 ; Twelfth
Night, 430 ; Venus and Adonis, lix, 432 ; Winter's Tale, 421, 437, 455 ; cf.
also 409, 410, 521, S70, 576, 580.
Shelley (Percy Bysshe), 565, 566, 568 ; his conception of poetry compared with
Keats's, 389 ; his criticisms on Endymion, 413 ; on Hyperion, 494 ; mistakes
as to Keats's character, 401 ; Adonais, xix, 407; Defence of Poetry, 389;
Love's Philosophy, 429 ; Sonnet on Nile, 542 ; cf. also 387, 423, 424.
Smith (Horace), 397.
Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, 580, 594.
Sonnet, Keats's early use of Italian form and later preference for Shakespearian,
xxxiii, 543, 544 ; his experiments in sonnet form, 548, 549.
Spence, Polymetis, xxi, xlv, 390, 433, 428^.— — ^
Spenser (Edmund), Keats first introdtoced to, by C. C. Clarke, xxi ; he associates
Spenser with Leigh Hunt, xxviii ; the influence of Spenser upon his genius
as a whole, xxi, xxii, xxxiv ; on Endymion, xlv ; on the Eve of St. Agnes,
Ivii ; on his vocabulary, 570, 571, 578. 579, and cf. Glossary, 585-600 ;
Keats's debt in Endymion, bk. iii., to MftrHage of -the Medway, 442, 443 ;
Colin Clout's come home againe, 395, 42i> 422 ; Epithalamium, xxi, 392,
395 ; the Faerie Queene, xxii, xlvii, 390-5, 397, 421-7, 430, 432, 434, 441,
442, 450, 455, 457, 468, 472, 485, 508, 526, 544, 558, 560; Muiopotmos,
387 ; Nuptial Odes, influence of, 388 ; Prothalamium, 421 ; Shepherd's
Calendar, 392, 471.
Spenserians (17th century), influence on Endymion, xlviii, 411 ; (i8th century),
influence on early work of Keats, xxiii, 393, 558, 582, 583.
Stephens, Reminiscences of Keats (Houghton MSS.), xxvii.
Tasso, 392.
Taylor (John), Letters to, xxxii, xxxiv, Iviii, 428, 464, 466.
Tennyson (Alfred, Lord), 398.
Thomson (James), influence on Keats's vocabulary, 583, and cf. Glossary; The
Seasons, 420, 449, 556 ; The Castle of Indolence, 529.
Tighe (Mrs.), xxiii ; Psyche, or the Legend of Love, 390, 392, 478.
Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne, 410, 431, 446, 447, 455, 461, 474; his portrait of
Cortez, 399.
Tooke, Pantheon, xxi, xlv, 485.
Vergil, 393, 436, 439, 491, 500, 508; Keats's translation of, xxi.
Versification of 1817 volume, xxix, 405 ; of early Epistles, 394 ; of Endymion,
411 ; ol Lamia, Iii, 453 ; of Isabella, 460 ; oiEve of St. Agnes, Iv; oiEve of
St. Mark, 526 ; oi Epistle to Reynolds, 538.
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