Keats: Poems Published in 1820 Part 12

PART I.

PAGE 3. ll. 1-6. _before the faery broods . . . lawns_, i.e. before mediaeval fairy-lore had superseded cla.s.sical mythology.

l. 2. _Satyr_, a horned and goat-legged demi-G.o.d of the woods.

l. 5. _Dryads_, wood-nymphs, who lived in trees. The life of each terminated with that of the tree over which she presided. Cf. Landor's 'Hamadryad'.

l. 5. _Fauns._ The Roman name corresponding to the Greek Satyr.

l. 7. _Hermes_, or Mercury, the messenger of the G.o.ds. He is always represented with winged shoes, a winged helmet, and a winged staff, bound about with living serpents.

PAGE 4. l. 15. _Tritons_, sea-G.o.ds, half-man, half-fish. Cf. Wordsworth, 'Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn' (Sonnet--'The World is too much with us').

l. 19. _unknown to any Muse_, beyond the imagination of any poet.

PAGE 5. l. 28. _pa.s.sion new._ He has often before been to earth on similar errands. Cf. _ever-smitten_, l. 7, also ll. 80-93.

l. 42. _dove-footed._ Cf. note on l. 7.

PAGE 6. l. 46. _cirque-couchant_, lying twisted into a circle. Cf.

_wreathed tomb_, l. 38.

l. 47. _gordian_, knotted, from the famous knot in the harness of Gordius, King of Phrygia, which only the conqueror of the world was to be able to untie. Alexander cut it with his sword. Cf. _Henry V_, I. i.

46.

l. 58. _Ariadne's tiar._ Ariadne was a nymph beloved of Bacchus, the G.o.d of wine. He gave her a crown of seven stars, which, after her death, was made into a constellation. Keats has, no doubt, in his mind t.i.tian's picture of Bacchus and Ariadne in the National Gallery. Cf. _Ode to Sorrow_, _Endymion_.

PAGE 7. l. 63. _As Proserpine . . . air._ Proserpine, gathering flowers in the Vale of Enna, in Sicily, was carried off by Pluto, the king of the underworld, to be his queen. Cf. _Winter's Tale_, IV. iii, and _Paradise Lost_, iv. 268, known to be a favourite pa.s.sage with Keats.

l. 75. _his throbbing . . . moan._ Cf. _Hyperion_, iii. 81.

l. 77. _as morning breaks_, the freshness and splendour of the youthful G.o.d.

PAGE 8. l. 78. _Phoebean dart_, a ray of the sun, Phoebus being the G.o.d of the sun.

l. 80. _Too gentle Hermes._ Cf. l. 28 and note.

l. 81. _not delay'd_: cla.s.sical construction. See Introduction to Hyperion.

_Star of Lethe._ Hermes is so called because he had to lead the souls of the dead to Hades, where was Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. Lamb comments: '. . . Hermes, the _Star of Lethe_, as he is called by 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 habitants, and the sudden coming of a celestial among them.'

l. 91. The line dances along like a leaf before the wind.

l. 92. Miltonic construction and phraseology.

PAGE 9. l. 98. _weary tendrils_, tired with holding up the boughs, heavy with fruit.

l. 103. _Silenus_, the nurse and teacher of Bacchus--a demiG.o.d of the woods.

PAGE 10. l. 115. _Circean._ Circe was the great enchantress who turned the followers of Ulysses into swine. Cf. _Comus_, ll. 46-54, and _Odyssey_, x.

PAGE 11. l. 132. _swoon'd serpent._ Evidently, in the exercise of her magic, power had gone out of her.

l. 133. _lythe_, quick-acting.

_Caducean charm._ Caduceus was the name of Hermes' staff of wondrous powers, the touch of which, evidently, was powerful to give the serpent human form.

l. 136. _like a moon in wane._ Cf. the picture of Cynthia, _Endymion_, iii. 72 sq.

l. 138. _like a flower . . . hour._ Perhaps a reminiscence of Milton's 'at shut of evening flowers.' _Paradise Lost_, ix. 278.

PAGE 12. l. 148. _besprent_, sprinkled.

l. 158. _brede_, embroidery. Cf. _Ode on a Grecian Urn_, v. 1.

PAGE 13. l. 178. _rack._ Cf. _The Tempest_, IV. i. 156, 'leave not a rack behind.' _Hyperion_, i. 302, note.

l. 180. This gives us a feeling of weakness and weariness as well as measuring the distance.

PAGE 14. l. 184. Cf. Wordsworth:

And then my heart with pleasure fills And dances with the daffodils.

ll. 191-200. Cf. _Ode on Melancholy_, where Keats tells us that melancholy lives with Beauty, joy, pleasure, and delight. Lamia can separate the elements and give beauty and pleasure unalloyed.

l. 195. _Intrigue with the specious chaos_, enter on an understanding with the fair-looking confusion of joy and pain.

l. 198. _unshent_, unreproached.

PAGE 15. l. 207. _Nereids_, sea-nymphs.

l. 208. _Thetis_, one of the sea deities.

l. 210. _glutinous_, referring to the sticky substance which oozes from the pine-trunk. Cf. _Comus_, l. 917, 'smeared with gums of glutinous heat.'

l. 211. Cf. l. 63, note.

l. 212. _Mulciber_, Vulcan, the smith of the G.o.ds. His fall from Heaven is described by Milton, _Paradise Lost_, i. 739-42.

_piazzian_, forming covered walks supported by pillars, a word coined by Keats.

PAGE 16. l. 236. _In the calm'd . . . shades._ In consideration of Plato's mystic and imaginative philosophy.

PAGE 17. l. 248. Refers to the story of Orpheus' attempt to rescue his wife Eurydice from Hades. With his exquisite music he charmed Cerberus, the fierce dog who guarded h.e.l.l-gates, into submission, and won Pluto's consent that he should lead Eurydice back to the upper world on one condition--that he would not look back to see that she was following.

When he was almost at the gates, love and curiosity overpowered him, and he looked back--to see Eurydice fall back into Hades whence he now might never win her.

PAGE 18. l. 262. _thy far wishes_, your wishes when you are far off.