The meter, ottava rima, borrowed from the Italians, is peculiarly suitable for satiric poetry.

66

SHELLEY is universally admitted to be high in the first rank of lyric poets. His poems have for most readers little meaning; they are intensively "subjective"; a reader is likely to be strongly attracted by them or strongly repelled. They are in the highest degree "poetical," and annotation can be of little service to them. "The adjectives impracticable, unavailing, and unsatisfying are as applicable to Shelley and his poetry as are winged, luminous, angelic, and divine." (Schelling, The English Lyric, page 178.) "No poet, wrote Mrs. Shelley, was ever warmed by a more genuine and unforced inspiration." And of The Cloud and To a Skylark she said: "They were written as his mind prompted, listening to the caroling of the bird, aloft in the azure sky of Italy; or marking the cloud as it sped across the heavens, while he floated in his boat on the Thames." See Wordsworth, page 235, line 65, and note. West Wind.-21. Manad, a devotee of Bacchus. 32. pumice means, of volcanic origin; but the fact contributes nothing to one's understanding of the poem. Baix's Bay is part of the Bay of Naples. There was once a large city at Baix, now mostly submerged (33-35). 56. The adjectives admirably described the poet. The student should read a good sketch of his life.

The Cloud.-31. sanguine, blood-red; the etymological sense of the word. 81. cenotaph, a tomb for a person buried elsewhere. Skylark. - The poem falls into four main divisions: direct description of the lark's flight and song (1-30); description of the lark by comparisons (31-60); appeal to know the source of the lark's "rapture" (61-75); explanation of the superiority of the bird's song to the poet's (76-105).

KEATS. George Chapman was a late Elizabethan dramatist and poet. His translation of Homer is, according to Saintsbury, "the only really good one" in English verse. realms (1), kingdoms (2), and demesne (6) have almost the same meaning. It would be a good exercise for the student to look them up in a large dictionary, and try to see what shades of meaning Keats meant to convey. 11. It was Balboa, not Cortez, who discovered the Pacific; but the beauty of the sonnet is not in the least marred by the error. 14. Darien, the Isthmus of Panama. The sonnet may be para

phrased as follows: "I have read a great deal of good poetry; I had often heard of the beauties of Homer; but I did not know Homer [because of my ignorance of Greek until I became acquainted with Chapman's translation. Then I felt as does an astronomer when he discovers a new planet; or like the great explorer when he discovered the Pacific Ocean - stricken into silence by wonder." Grasshopper and Cricket. This sonnet was written by Keats in a friendly competition with Leigh Hunt. The latter was not a great poet; but it may be questioned whether his sonnet, which we quote for comparison, is inferior to Keats's.

"Green little vaulter in the sunny grass,

Catching your heart up at the feel of June,
Sole voice that's heard amid the lazy noon,
When even the bees lag at the summoning brass;
And you, warm little housekeeper, who class
With those who think the candles come too soon,
Loving the fire, and with your tricksome tune
Nick the glad silent moments as they pass;
O sweet and tiny cousins, that belong,

One to the fields, the other to the hearth,

Both have your sunshine; both, though small, are strong
At your clear hearts; and both seem given to earth

To ring in thoughtful ears this natural song

Indoors and out, summer and winter, Mirth."

Grecian Urn. It appears that Keats had no individual urn in mind, but combined features found in many specimens and features of his own imagining. He gives such full details that the reader should have no difficulty in forming a clear mental picture of the legend (5) on it. 3. sylvan, of the woods. 7. Tempe, a beautiful valley in Thessaly. Arcady, Arcadia, a district in Greece inhabited by a pastoral people, and noted as a place of quiet and contentment. 10. timbrel, a sort of drum. 11-12. Heard . . . sweeter. The poet seems to say that he can imagine more beautiful music than has ever been composed. 13. sensual, bodily. 15-30. These lines refer to the "legend" on the urn, which can not change. 28. passion is object of above. 41. brede, "braid," embroidery — not, of course, in its literal sense. 44. tease.. thought, exhaust our powers of thinking. 49-50. Keats was a strong believer in the theory of "art for art's sake," which says that art is justified if it

pleases, whether it teaches anything or not. The idea is well put in The Rhodora of Emerson:

"If eyes were made for seeing,

Then Beauty is its own excuse for being."

Eve of St. Agnes. · The tradition upon which this poem is founded is set forth in lines 46-54. St. Agnes' Eve, that is, the eve before St. Agnes's Day, is January 20. The scenes of the poem are various parts of a medieval baron's castle.

5. A beadsman was a pensioner whose business it was to pray for the soul of his benefactor. told his rosary, counted his beads (each of which stood for a prayer). See notes on L'Allegro, 67, and Chaucer's Prologue, 83. 14-16. The images of dead knights and ladies were in the posture of prayer in oratories (i.e., little chapels with altars), inclosed by railings described as purgatorial because of the discomfort suggested. The whole poem is distinguished for its pictorial quality. Note the number of passages appealing to all the senses. 21. flattered, beguiled, charmed. extended comment on this word, worthy, of self-pity to self-love." as it seemed to Porphyro (75). sage. 37. argent, bright (like silver). by Keats as referring to the ladies' robes. spirit; literally, as if dead French à la mort. Day it was customary to sacrifice two lambs, the next day. 81. sooth, truth. Cf. "soothsayer." 83-84. The household of Madeline was at enmity with that of Porphyro. Cf. 98– 104. 105. gossip, companion. This is a good word to investigate.

Tears," says Leigh Hunt in an "are the tributes, more or less 31. snarling describes the sound 34-36. Another "pictorial" pas58. train was explained 70. amort, without 71. Or. St. Agnes's which were shorn

111. Well-a-day! alas! 115. holy loom, the loom on which the wool from St. Agnes's lambs was made into cloth. Cf. 71, and note. 120. Only a person with supernatural power, such as a witch, could hold water in a sieve. 126. mickle, much. 158. plaining, archaic for "complaining." 171. Since Merlin paid,

etc. "The monstrous debt was his monstrous existence which he owed to a demon and repaid when he died or disappeared through the working of one of his own spells by Vivien." See the story in Tennyson's Merlin and Vivien, one of the Idylls of the King. 173. cates, delicacies. 174. tambour, a kind of drum. frame, a round frame like the edge of a tambour, used to hold cloth for embroidering.

208. The three

193. missioned, sent. unaware, unexpectedly. stanzas following are perhaps the most famous and effective picture in the entire poem, if not in the whole range of English literature. Keats delighted in sense impressions. One will be repaid by a study of the details here, and an effort to realize the picture. 214. heraldries, coats of arms. 218. gules, the term used in heraldry for "red." The colors of this stanza are due to the manycolored window. 241. swart, swarthy, dark. Paynims, pagans. This line has been variously explained. It may mean a missal (i.e., prayer-book) on which is a picture of pagans praying; or, a missal clasped in a pagan country.

253-275. This passage should be compared with 208-234. 257. Morpheus was the god of sleep. Morphean amulet, a charm to produce sleep. 262. azure-lidded. Keats's fondness for pictures

led him to coin words that would express a great deal. 266. soother, more soothing or pleasing. 270. Samarcand is a city in Asia noted for its manufactures of silk. Lebanon, a range of mountains, also located in Asia, was famous in ancient times for its cedars. Compare this line with L'Allegro, 4, and Il Penseroso, 76; and see the notes on those lines. 277. eremite, hermit, worshiper.

285. carpet, table-cover. 292. Provence, a district of southern France, famous for its literature, especially lyric poetry. La belle dame sans merci, the beautiful lady without pity. Keats wrote a poem with this French phrase for title. 317. Voluptuous, giving pleasure. 344. a boon; because it served to cover the noise of the elopement Porphyro was about to propose. 349. Rhenish, Rhine wine. mead, a mixed drink. 377. avès, prayers; specifically, the prayer to the Virgin Mary, beginning Ave Maria, "Hail, Mary," of which a hundred and fifty are said in "telling the beads." See lines 5-6.

Roast Pig.

LAMB. Lamb did, in fact, get the central idea of this story from his friend M. (Thomas Manning); but there is no Chinese manuscript back of it, and many details are of Lamb's invention. 10. elder brother, earlier practice. 15. lubberly, awkward. 20. antediluvian, before the Flood. 21. new-farrowed, new-born. 26. tenement here means merely "house." 37. a premonitory moistening, his mouth watered in anticipation of the treat. 58. lower regions, stomach.

88. mess, dish, food. 103. assize town, place for holding court

but in England, not China. The whole proceedings are English; likewise the insurance offices (123), which, needless to say, had no existence in ancient China. 128. John Locke was a great English philosopher of the seventeenth century. 142. mundus edibilis, world of things to eat. 143. princeps obsoniorum, chief of tidbits. 147. amor immunditie, love of dirt. 150. præludium, prelude. The Latin terms and the high-sounding words are part of Lamb's burlesque tone.

153. tegument, skin. 165. ambrosian, like ambrosia, the food of the gods. 178. conversation, mode of life; a use of the word common in the Authorized Version of the Bible—e.g., in Psalms XXXVII, 14. 180. Ere, etc. From Coleridge's Epitaph on an Infant. 182. clown, rustic. 184. hath a fair sepulchre, etc. A humorous allusion to the last two lines of Milton's On Shakspere:

"And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie

That kings for such a tomb would wish to die."

187. Sapors, flavors. 213. villatic, belonging to the villa or farm. The quoted phrase is from Milton's drama, Samson Agonistes. 217. like Lear. See Shakspere's King Lear, 2. 4. 253. 253. nice, discriminating. 258. intenerating and dulcifying, making tender and sweet. 265. St. Omer's, a college in France, which Lamb never attended. 268. per flagellationem extremam is translated by the phrase preceding. 276. barbecue, roast whole. Lamb here distinguishes between the whole hogs (grown porkers of line 144) and the weakling (the young and tender suckling of line 145). shalots are a kind of onion, which he would permit in roasting the hog, but not the young pig.

Dream-Children.

This essay in connection with the preceding shows how well Lamb understood "the intertwining of the ludicrous and pathetic elements in human nature." Such an understanding is an essential characteristic of every real humorist. Lamb had a grandmother named Field who was housekeeper "in a great house"; and other details of the essay are known to come from the author's life and experiences. There is, however, insufficient evidence for the existence of a real Alice Wn whom he courted for seven years; and Lamb's well-known "habit of embroidering fiction upon fact" forbids us to accept readily any identification of her.

14. the Robin Redbreasts covered the murdered children's bodies with leaves. 41. Psaltery, the book of Psalms. 96. John L