English Narrative Poems Part 31

[142] 664. =Werst=; a Russian measure equal to about two-thirds of a mile.

THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB (Page 86)

Read _2 Chronicles_, chapter 32, and _Isaiah_, chapters 36 and 37.

JOHN KEATS

John Keats was born October, 1795, and died on the 23d of February, 1821. He was the son of a livery-stable keeper, who had married his former proprietor's daughter. The parents had wished to educate Keats and his two brothers, but before Keats was fifteen, both his father and mother had died. He was then apprenticed to a surgeon at Edmonton, under whom he remained four years, and then went up to London to complete his training for a medical degree. This he received in due time and began to practise, but he found literature so much more attractive that, in about a year, he gave up his attempt to practise medicine. At about this time he became acquainted with Leigh Hunt, who had a good deal of influence upon Keats's literary beginnings. His first volume of poetry, which appeared in 1817, shows this influence strongly. A year later his _Endymion_ was published and was so severely criticised by _Blackwood's_ and especially by the _Quarterly_ that Keats took it much to heart; some have supposed that this attack very much hastened his death. His brother George had moved to America in 1818, and his brother Tom was now dying with consumption. Keats nursed him faithfully until his death.

Immediately after this sorrow, he fell deeply in love, but his health was so greatly impaired that he found it necessary, in 1820, to take a trip to Italy. He did not grow stronger, however, but died at Rome on the 23d of February, 1821.

Keats's poetry is noted especially for its sensuous beauty, its descriptions, and its remarkable reproduction of the Greek and romantic spirits.

THE EVE OF ST. AGNES (Page 88)

Around St. Agnes' Eve, which is the night before the Feast of St. Agnes on January 21, and which corresponds to the Scotch "Hallowe'en," there grew up the superst.i.tion that a maiden could, by observing certain traditional precautions, have in her sleep a vision of her future husband. Perhaps the most common way to obtain this vision was for the girl to go to sleep on her back with her hands behind her head; then at midnight she would dream that her lover came and kissed her. This is the superst.i.tion that Keats has made use of in _The Eve of St. Agnes_.

St. Agnes was a Roman girl, who at thirteen was loved by the son of a Roman prefect, but, however, being like her parents a Christian and having vowed virginity, she told her lover that she was already betrothed. The youth, thinking he had some earthly rival, as a result fell so very sick that his father tried to intercede with the girl's parents. When he found these people were Christians, he tried to compel Agnes to become a vestal virgin or marry his son. Agnes, because she refused to do either of these things, was dragged to the altar, but because here, by her prayers, she restored to her lover the sight which he had lost, she was set free by the Prefect. The people, however, tried to burn her, but were themselves consumed in the fire, until finally one of their number slew her with his sword. A few days after her death, her parents had a vision of her, surrounded by angels and accompanied by a lamb (Agnus Dei). After her canonization it was customary to sacrifice on St. Agnes' Day, during the singing, two lambs whose wool the next day was woven by the nuns into pallia for the archbishops. (Cf. I. 115, 117.) Cf. _Agnus_ and _Agnes_.

[143] 5. =Beadsman.= =Bead= originally meant prayer; hence "to say one's beads." A beadsman was an inmate of an almshouse who was bound to pray for the founders of the house. In Shakespeare the word is used to denote one who prays for another.

[144] 31. =Snarling.= Does this verse resemble the sound described? What is the name of this figure?

[145] 40. =New-stuffed.= What does this mean here?

[146] 46. =St. Agnes' Eve.= See Introductory Note.

[147] 70. =Amort= (Fr. a la mort); lifeless, spiritless.

[148] 71. =Lambs.= See Introductory Note.

[149] 75. =Porphyro= (Gr. _porphyro_ = a purple fish, purple). Why did Keats choose this name instead of Lionel, as he first intended?

[150] 77. =b.u.t.tress'd= means supported, but here it must mean protected from; _i.e._ Porphyro was in the shadow of the b.u.t.tress.

[151] 81. =Sooth=; truth. Cf. _soothsayer_.

[152] 86. =Hyena.= Find out the characteristics of this animal, and see what the force of the epithet is here.

[153] 90. =Beldame= (_bel + dame_) originally meant a fair lady, then grandmother and, in general, old woman or hag.

[154] 105. =Gossip= originally meant a sponsor at baptism (_G.o.d-sib_), then a boon companion, and finally a tattler.

[155] 115. =Holy loom.= See Introductory Note.

[156] 120. =Witch's sieve.= This refers to the superst.i.tion that witches could hold water in sieves and could sail in them. Cf. _Macbeth_, I. 3.

1, 8:--

"But in a sieve I'll thither sail, And, like a rat without a tail, I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do."

[157] 126. =Mickle=; much.

[158] 135. =Lap.= "Madeline is asleep in her bed; but she is also asleep in accordance with the legends of the season; and therefore the bed becomes their lap as well as sleep's."

--LEIGH HUNT.

[159] 138. How make =purple riot= in his heart?

[160] 171. =Merlin= was the sorcerer in Arthur's court. Vivien succeeded in getting from him a secret by which she shut him up in a hollow tree.

See Tennyson's _Merlin and Vivien_. Malory has another version of the story.

[161] 173. =Cates=; provisions,--especially rich, luxurious provisions.

Cf. _cater_, _caterer_.

[162] 174. =Tambour frame.= Tambour is a kind of drum; cf. _tambourine_.

A tambour frame is a round frame for holding material which is to be embroidered.

[163] 208. =Cas.e.m.e.nt high....= On these next three stanzas Keats spent much time. They are considered beautiful description. Why?

[164] 214. =Heraldries= are coats of arms.

[165] 215. =Emblazonings=; colored heraldries.

[166] 218. =Gules=; the tincture red. In a s.h.i.+eld without color gules is indicated by vertical parallel lines.

[167] 241. =Missal=; a ma.s.s book for the year. What is the meaning of this line? =Paynims=; pagans.

[168] 257. =Morphean.= Morpheus was the G.o.d of sleep.

[169] 262. =Azure-lidded sleep.= Note the different senses appealed to in these next stanzas. Keats is called one of our most sensuous poets.

[170] 266. =Soother=; used here for _more soothing_.

[171] 267. What are =lucent syrops=? Note derivation.

[172] 277. =Eremite=; hermit.

[173] 292. Keats wrote a poem about this time called _La Belle Dame sans Merci_.

[174] 346. =Wa.s.sailers= was a term originally used for men drinking each other's health with the words _wes h[=a]l_, be whole.

[175] 375. Angela. Have the deaths of Angela and the Beadsman been foretold?

ALFRED TENNYSON

Alfred Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolns.h.i.+re, England, on August 6, 1809, and died at Aldworth in Surrey in 1892. He was the third of twelve brothers and sisters, several of whom later showed evidences of genius. As early as 1827 he and his brother Charles published _Poems by Two Brothers_, for which they received ten pounds. At Trinity College, Cambridge, which he entered in 1828, he won the chancellor's gold medal for a prize poem _Timbuctoo_. On the death of his father in 1831 he left Cambridge without a degree. Before this in 1830 he had published _Poems, chiefly Lyrical_, and two years later in 1832 a new volume appeared which was severely criticised, though it contained much excellent work.