Book I.

PAGE 145. ll. 2-3. By thus giving us a vivid picture of the changing day--at morning, noon, and night--Keats makes us realize the terrible loneliness and gloom of a place too deep to feel these changes.

l. 10. See how the sense is expressed in the cadence of the line.

PAGE 146. l. 11. voiceless. As if it felt and knew, and were deliberately silent.

ll. 13, 14. Influence of Greek sculpture. See Introduction, p. 248.

l. 18. nerveless . . . dead. Cf. Eve of St. Agnes, l. 12, note.

l. 19. realmless eyes. The tragedy of his fall is felt in every feature.

ll. 20, 21. Earth, His ancient mother. Tellus. See Introduction, p. 244.

PAGE 147. l. 27. Amazon. The Amazons were a warlike race of women of whom many traditions exist. On the frieze of the Mausoleum (British Museum) they are seen warring with the Centaurs.

l. 30. Ixion’s wheel. For insolence to Jove, Ixion was tied to an ever-revolving wheel in Hell.

l. 31. Memphian sphinx. Memphis was a town in Egypt near to which the pyramids were built. A sphinx is a great stone image with human head and breast and the body of a lion.

PAGE 148. ll. 60-3. The thunderbolts, being Jove’s own weapons, are unwilling to be used against their former master.

PAGE 149. l. 74. branch-charmed . . . stars. All the magic of the still night is here.

ll. 76-8. Save . . . wave. See how the gust of wind comes and goes in the rise and fall of these lines, which begin and end on the same sound.

PAGE 150. l. 86. See Introduction, p. 248.

l. 94. aspen-malady, trembling like the leaves of the aspen-poplar.

PAGE 151. ll. 98 seq. Cf. King Lear. Throughout the figure of Saturn--the old man robbed of his kingdom--reminds us of Lear, and sometimes we seem to detect actual reminiscences of Shakespeare’s treatment. Cf. Hyperion, i. 98; and King Lear, I. iv. 248-52.

l. 102. front, forehead.

l. 105. nervous, used in its original sense of powerful, sinewy.

ll. 107 seq. In Saturn’s reign was the Golden Age.

PAGE 152. l. 125. of ripe progress, near at hand.

l. 129. metropolitan, around the chief city.

l. 131. strings in hollow shells. The first stringed instruments were said to be made of tortoise-shells with strings stretched across.

PAGE 153. l. 145. chaos. The confusion of elements from which the world was created. See Paradise Lost, i. 891-919.

l. 147. rebel three. Jove, Neptune, and Pluto.

PAGE 154. l. 152. covert. Cf. Isabella, l. 221; Eve of St. Agnes, l. 188.

ll. 156-7. All the dignity and majesty of the goddess is in this comparison.

PAGE 155. l. 171. gloom-bird, the owl, whose cry is supposed to portend death. Cf. Milton’s method of description, ‘Not that fair field,’ etc. Paradise Lost, iv. 268.

l. 172. familiar visiting, ghostly apparition.

PAGE 157. ll. 205-8. Cf. the opening of the gates of heaven. Paradise Lost, vii. 205-7.

ll. 213 seq. See Introduction, p. 248.

PAGE 158. l. 228. effigies, visions.

l. 230. O . . . pools. A picture of inimitable chilly horror.

l. 238. fanes. Cf. Psyche, l. 50.

PAGE 159. l. 246. Tellus . . . robes, the earth mantled by the salt sea.

PAGE 160. ll. 274-7. colure. One of two great circles supposed to intersect at right angles at the poles. The nadir is the lowest point in the heavens and the zenith is the highest.

PAGE 161. ll. 279-80. with labouring . . . centuries. By studying the sky for many hundreds of years wise men found there signs and symbols which they read and interpreted.

PAGE 162. l. 298. demesnes. Cf. Lamia, ii. 155, note.

ll. 302-4. all along . . . faint. As in l. 286, the god and the sunrise are indistinguishable to Keats. We see them both, and both in one. See Introduction, p. 248.

l. 302. rack, a drifting mass of distant clouds. Cf. Lamia, i. 178, and Tempest, IV. i. 156.

PAGE 163. ll. 311-12. the powers . . . creating. Coelus and Terra (or Tellus), the sky and earth.

PAGE 164. l. 345. Before . . . murmur. Before the string is drawn tight to let the arrow fly.

PAGE 165. l. 349. region-whisper, whisper from the wide air.