An echo of sweet music doth create A fear in the poor Herdsman, who doth bring O that our dreamings all, of sleep or wake, 65 70 75 Beyond its proper bound, yet still confin'd, 80 Cannot refer to any standard law Of either earth or heaven? It is a flaw In happiness, to see beyond our bourn,— It forces us in summer skies to mourn, 85 Dear Reynolds! I have a mysterious tale, (73) In the Aldine edition we read to for so. (77) Rossetti also notes that this line "is anticipative of the Grecian Urn ode”,— Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought... The same may be said of "the milk-white heifer lows," in line 21. Upon a Lampit rock of green sea-weed The rocks were silent, the wide sea did weave 90 An untumultuous fringe of silver foam Along the flat brown sand; I was at home And should have been most happy,—but I saw 95 Of an eternal fierce destruction, And so from happiness I far was gone. Still am I sick of it, and tho', to-day, I've gather'd young spring-leaves, and flowers gay 100 Of periwinkle and wild strawberry, Still do I that most fierce destruction see, The Shark at savage prey,-the Hawk at pounce,— Ravening a worm,-Away, ye horrid moods! 105 Moods of one's mind! You know I hate them well. You know I'd sooner be a clapping Bell To some Kamtschatcan Missionary Church, Than with these horrid moods be left i' the lurch. (90) The Aldine edition reads weave; but the 1848 version has wave. (105) I do not know whether a line has been lost, or whether Keats is himself responsible for the want of a rhyme to this line. DAWLISH FAIR. OVER the Hill and over the Dale, And over the Bourne to Dawlish, This scrap occurs in a letter to James Rice, written from Teignmouth on the 25th of March 1818, and published by Lord Houghton in the first volume of the Life, Letters &c. (1848). Keats closes his letter with "I went yesterday to Dawlish fair", and this quatrain. The hilly walk to Dawlish is recorded with topographical accuracy. Whether the rest is observation or (as is more probable) mere rhyme, I cannot say. Fragment of an Ode to Maia, written on MOTHER of Hermes! and still youthful Maia As thou wast hymned on the shores of Baiæ ? Or may In earlier Sicilian? or thy smiles Seek as they once were sought, in Grecian isles, Rounded by thee, my song should die away Rich in the simple worship of a day. First given in the Life, Letters &c. (1848) in a letter to Reynolds from Teignmouth, dated the 3rd of May 1818, wherein Keats says "it is impossible to know how far knowledge will console us for the death of a friend, and the 'ills that flesh is heir to.' With respect to the affections and poetry, you must know by sympathy my thoughts that way, and I dare say these few lines will be but a ratification. I wrote them on May-day, and intend to finish the ode all in good time." Lord Houghton very aptly observes-" It is much to be regretted he did not finish this Ode; this commencement is in his best manner: the sentiment and expression perfect, as every traveller in modern Greece will recognize." An Ode so propitiously begun would, if completed, have been a worthy ending for the Devonshire series, though including what I believe I am not alone in regarding as Keats's masterpiece,-Isabella. SONG. I. HUSH, hush! tread softly! hush, hush my dear! Tho' your feet are more light than a Fairy's feet, 2. No leaf doth tremble, no ripple is there On the river, all's still, and the night's sleepy eye Closes up, and forgets all its Lethean care, Charm'd to death by the drone of the humming Mayfly; And the Moon, whether prudish or complaisant, Has fled to her bower, well knowing I want No light in the dusk, no torch in the gloom, As far as I have been able to trace this poem, it appeared for the first time in the Life, Letters, and Literary Remains (1848), where it is dated 1818. The statement in the Aldine edition of 1876 that it was first printed in The Literary Pocket-book or Companion for the Lover of Nature and Art, for 1818, must derive from some misapprehension, as there is no such book. The Pocket-book was started by Hunt in 1819; and in a copy of the book for that year |