PAGE NO. 188 CXCI The Editor in this and in other instances has risked the addition (or the change) of a Title, that the aim of the verses following may be grasped more clearly and immediately. 194 cxcvin Nature's Eremite like a solitary thing in Nature. --This beautiful Sonnet was the last word of a poet deserving the title marvellous boy' in a much higher sense than Chatterton. If the fulfilment may ever safely be prophesied from the promise, England appears to have lost in Keats one whose gifts in Poetry have rarely been surpassed. Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth, had their lives been closed at twenty-five, would (so far as we know) have left poems of less excellence and hope than the youth who, from the petty school and the London surgery, passed at once to a place with them of 'high collateral glory.' 196 CCI CCHI It is impossible not to regret that Moore has written 206 CCIX Bonnivard, a Genevese, was imprisoned by the Duke of Savoy in Chillon on the lake of Geneva for his courageous defence of his country against the tyranny with which Piedmont threatened it during the first half of the seventeenth century.-This noble Sonnet is worthy to stand near Milton's on the Vaudois massacre. CCX Switzerland was usurped by the French under 209 ccxv This battle was fought Dec. 2, 1800, between the Hohen 212 CCXVIII After the capture of Madrid by Napoleon, Sir J. Moore retreated before Soult and Ney to Corunna, and was killed whilst covering the embarcation of his troops. His tomb, built by Ney, bears this inscription-John Moore, leader of the English armies, slain in battle, 1809.' 225 CCXXIX The Mermaid was the club-house of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and other choice spirits of that age. 226 ccxxx Maisie: Mary. Scott has given us nothing more complete and lovely than this little song, which unites simplicity and dramatic power to a wildwood music of the rarest quality. No moral is drawn, far less any conscious analysis of feeling attempted: --the pathetic meaning is left to be suggested by the Y PAGE NO. mere presentment of the situation. Inexperienced critics have often named this, which may be called the Homeric manner, superficial, from its apparent simple facility: but first rate excellence in it (as shown here, in CXCVI, CLVI, and cxxIx) is in truth one of the least common triumphs of Poetry.-This style should be compared with what is not less perfect in its way, the searching out of inner feeling, the expression of hidden meanings, the revelation of the heart of Nature and of the Soul within the Soul, -the Analytical method, in short,-most completely represented by Wordsworth and by Shelley. 231 CCXXXIV correi: covert on a hillside. Cumber: trouble. 243 CCXLIII This poem has an exaltation and a glory, joined with an exquisiteness of expression, which place it in the highest rank amongst the many masterpieces of its illustrious Author. 252 CCLII interlunar swoon: interval of the Moon's invisibility. 257 CCLVI Calpe: Gibraltar. Lofoden: the Maelstrom whirlpool off the N.W. coast of Norway. 259 CCLVII This lovely poem refers here and there to a ballad by Hamilton on the subject better treated in cxxvII and CXXVIII. 271 CCLXVIII Arcturi: seemingly used for northern stars.-And wild roses &c. Our language has no line modulated with more subtle sweetness. A good poet might have written And roses wild-yet this slight change would disenchant the verse of its peculiar beauty. 275 CCLXX Ceres' daughter: Proserpine. God of Torment: Pluto. CCLXXI This impassioned address expresses Shelley's most rapt imaginations, and is the direct modern representative of the feeling which led the Greeks to the worship of Nature. 284 CCLXXIV The leading idea of this beautiful description of a day's landscape in Italy is expressed with an obscurity not unfrequent with its author. It appears to be,-On the voyage of life are many moments of pleasure, given by the sight of Nature, who has power to heal even the worldliness and the uncharity of man. 285 286 1. 24 Amphitrite was daughter to Ocean. 1. 1 Sungirt City: It is difficult not to believe that 289 CCLXXV 1. 21 Maenad: a frenzied Nymph, attendant on "Dionysus in the Greek mythology. Souls of Poets dead and gone She was a phantom of delight Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea Spring, the sweet Spring, is the year's pleasant king PAGE 174 3 22 127 225 1 Star that bringest home the bee 267 Stern Daughter of the voice of God 204 Surprized by joy-impatient as the wind 195 Sweet, be not proud of those two eyes 74 Sweet Highland Girl, a very shower 248 Sweet stream, that winds through yonder glade 127 Swiftly walk over the western wave 185 Take O take those lips away 22 Tax not the royal Saint with vain expense There's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away 218 There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream The World is too much with us; late and soon 293 The World's a bubble, and the Life of Man 37 They that have power to hurt, and will do none Three years she grew in sun and shower. Tired with all these, for restful death I cry 39 Toll for the Brave 121 To me, fair Friend, you never can be old 9 "Twas at the royal feast for Persia won 'Twas on a lofty vase's side Two Voices are there, one is of the Sea 102 110 206 PAGE Under the greenwood tree Verse, a breeze 'mid blossoms straying Waken, lords and ladies gay We watch'd her breathing thro' the night When Britain first at Heaven's command When he who adores thee has left but the name . When I consider how my light is spent When I have borne in memory what has tamed 5 294 59 237 138 16 297 295 231 77 112 257 63 212 17 61 208 195 3 8 12 When the sheep are in the fauld, and the kye at hame. Why art thou silent! Is thy love a plant Yes, there is holy pleasure in thine eye Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more 290 CCLXXV 1. 4 Plants under water sympathize with the seasons of the land, and hence with the winds which affect them. 291 CCLXXVI Written soon after the death, by shipwreck, of Wordsworth's brother John. This Poem should be compared with Shelley's following it. Each is the most complete expression of the innermost spirit of his art given by these great Poets:-of that Idea which, as in the case of the true Painter, (to quote the words of Reynolds,) 'subsists only in the mind: The sight never beheld it, nor has the hand expressed it; it is an idea residing in the breast of the artist, which he is always labouring to impart, and which he dies at last without imparting.' 292 the Kind: the human race. 293 CCLXXVIII Proteus represented the everlasting changes, united with ever-recurrent sameness, of the Sea. CCLXXIX the Royal Saint: Henry VI. |