HYPERION, A VISION:

THE FIRST VERSION OF THE POEM.

[This remarkable sketch for one of the most remarkable fragments ever produced by a man of equal years remained in manuscript until Lord Houghton contributed it to the third Volume of the Bibliographical and Historical Miscellanies of the Philobiblon Society (1856-57). A few copies of this contribution were also printed separately from the Miscellanies. The fragment was afterwards published in the Appendix to "a new edition" of The Life and Letters of John Keats issued by his Lordship in 1867 through Messrs. Moxon and Co. It will be seen that, although a great deal of the Vision is special thereto, there are large passages which recur in the later version of Hyperion. A comparison of passages which are substantially identical while varying in detail supports Keats's artistic reputation in the most notable manner.-H. B. F.]

HYPERION, A VISION:

THE FIRST VERSION OF THE POEM.

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
Trac'd 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

And dumb enchantment. Who alive can say,
"Thou art no Poet-may'st 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 purpos'd to rehearse
Be poet's or fanatic's will be known

When this warm scribe, my hand, is in the grave.

Methought I stood where trees of every clime,
Palm, myrtle, oak, and sycamore, and beech,
With plantane and spice-blossoms, made a screen,

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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
By angel tasted or our Mother Eve;

For empty shells were scatter'd on the grass,
And grapestalks 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 return'd to her own fields,
Where the white heifers low. And appetite,

More yearning than on earth I ever felt,
Growing within, I ate deliciously,-
And, after not long, thirsted; for thereby
Stood a cool vessel of transparent juice

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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,

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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,

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Could so have rapt unwilling life away.

Among the fragrant 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,

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Like a Silenus on an antique vase.

How long I slumber'd 'tis a chance to guess.
When sense of life return'd, I started up
As if with wings, but the fair trees were gone,
The mossy mound and arbour were no more:
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

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Of grey 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

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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 confus'd there lay
Robes, golden tongs, censer and chafing-dish,
Girdles, and chains, and holy jewelries.

Turning from these with awe, once more I raised

My eyes to fathom the space every way:

The embossed roof, the silent massy range

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Of columns north and south, ending in mist

Of nothing; then to eastward, where black gates

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Were shut against the sunrise evermore;

Then to the west I look'd, and saw far off

An image, huge of feature as a cloud,