Keats: Poems Published in 1820 Part 17

l. 133. _brook_, check. An incorrect use of the word, which really means _bear_ or _permit_.

PAGE 92. ll. 155-6. _churchyard . . . toll._ Unconscious prophecy. Cf.

_The Bedesman_, l. 22.

l. 168. _While . . . coverlet._ All the wonders of Madeline's imagination.

l. 171. _Since Merlin . . . debt._ Referring to the old legend that Merlin had for father an incubus or demon, and was himself a demon of evil, though his innate wickedness was driven out by baptism. Thus his 'debt' to the demon was his existence, which he paid when Vivien compa.s.sed his destruction by means of a spell which he had taught her.

Keats refers to the storm which is said to have raged that night, which Tennyson also describes in _Merlin and Vivien_. The source whence the story came to Keats has not been ascertained.

PAGE 93. l. 173. _cates_, provisions. Cf. _Taming of the Shrew_, II. i.

187:--

Kate of Kate Hall--my super-dainty Kate, For dainties are all cates.

We still use the verb 'to cater' as in l. 177.

l. 174. _tambour frame_, embroidery-frame.

l. 185. _espied_, spying. _Dim_, because it would be from a dark corner; also the spy would be but dimly visible to her old eyes.

l. 187. _silken . . . chaste._ Cf. ll. 12, 113.

l. 188. _covert_, hiding. Cf. _Isabella_, l. 221.

PAGE 94. l. 198. _fray'd_, frightened.

l. 203. _No uttered . . . betide._ Another of the conditions of the vision was evidently silence.

PAGE 95. ll. 208 seq. Compare Coleridge's description of Christabel's room: _Christabel_, i. 175-83.

l. 218. _gules_, blood-red.

PAGE 96. l. 226. _Vespers._ Cf. _Isabella_, l. 21, ll. 226-34. See Introduction, p. 213.

l. 237. _poppied_, because of the sleep-giving property of the poppy-heads.

l. 241. _Clasp'd . . . pray._ The sacredness of her beauty is felt here.

_missal_, prayer-book.

PAGE 97. l. 247. _To wake . . . tenderness._ He waited to hear, by the sound of her breathing, that she was asleep.

l. 250. _Noiseless . . . wilderness._ We picture a man creeping over a wide plain, fearing that any sound he makes will arouse some wild beast or other frightful thing.

l. 257. _Morphean._ Morpheus was the G.o.d of sleep.

_amulet_, charm.

l. 258. _boisterous . . . festive._ Cf. ll. 12, 112, 187.

l. 261. _and . . . gone._ The cadence of this line is peculiarly adapted to express a dying-away of sound.

PAGE 98. l. 266. _soother_, sweeter, more delightful. An incorrect use of the word. Sooth really means truth.

l. 267. _tinct_, flavoured; usually applied to colour, not to taste.

l. 268. _argosy_, merchant-s.h.i.+p. Cf. _Merchant of Venice_, I. i. 9, 'Your argosies with portly sail.'

PAGE 99. l. 287. Before he desired a 'Morphean amulet'; now he wishes to release his lady's eyes from the charm of sleep.

l. 288. _woofed phantasies._ Fancies confused as woven threads. Cf.

_Isabella_, l. 292.

l. 292. '_La belle . . . mercy._' This stirred Keats's imagination, and he produced the wonderful, mystic ballad of this t.i.tle (see p. 213).

l. 296. _affrayed_, frightened. Cf. l. 198.

PAGE 100. ll. 298-9. Cf. Donne's poem, _The Dream_:--

My dream thou brokest not, but continued'st it.

l. 300. _painful change_, his paleness.

l. 311. _pallid, chill, and drear._ Cf. ll. 12, 112, 187, 258.

PAGE 101. l. 323. _Love's alarum_, warning them to speed away.

l. 325. _flaw_, gust of wind. Cf. _Coriola.n.u.s_, V. iii. 74; _Hamlet_, V. i. 239.

l. 333. _unpruned_, not trimmed.

PAGE 102. l. 343. _elfin-storm._ The beldame has suggested that he must be 'liege-lord of all the elves and fays'.

l. 351. _o'er . . . moors._ A happy suggestion of a warmer clime.

PAGE 103. l. 355. _darkling._ Cf. _King Lear_, I. iv. 237: 'So out went the candle and we were left darkling.' Cf. _Ode to a Nightingale_, l.

51.

l. 360. _And . . . floor._ There is the very sound of the wind in this line.

PAGE 104. ll. 375-8. _Angela . . . cold._ The death of these two leaves us with the thought of a young, bright world for the lovers to enjoy; whilst at the same time it completes the contrast, which the first introduction of the old bedesman suggested, between the old, the poor, and the joyless, and the young, the rich, and the happy.

INTRODUCTION TO THE ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE, ODE ON A GRECIAN URN, ODE ON MELANCHOLY, AND TO AUTUMN.

These four odes, which were all written in 1819, the first three in the early months of that year, ought to be considered together, since the same strain of thought runs through them all and, taken all together, they seem to sum up Keats's philosophy.

In all of them the poet looks upon life as it is, and the eternal principle of beauty, in the first three seeing them in sharp contrast; in the last reconciling them, and leaving us content.