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Art thou wayworn, or canst not further trace
The diamond path? And does it indeed end
Abrupt in middle air? Yet earthward bend
Thy forehead, and to Jupiter cloud-borne
Call ardently! He was indeed wayworn ;
Abrupt, in middle air, his way was lost;
To cloud-borne Jove he bowed, and there crost
Towards him a large eagle, 'twixt whose wings,
Without one impious word, himself he flings,
Committed to the darkness and the gloom :
Down, down, uncertain to what pleasant doom,
Swift as a fathoming plummet down he fell
Through unknown things; till exhal'd asphodel,
And rose, with spicy fannings interbreath'd,

Came swelling forth where little caves were wreath'd
So thick with leaves and mosses, that they seem'd
Large honey-combs of green, and freshly teem'd
With airs delicious. In the greenest nook
The eagle landed him, and farewell took.

It was a jasmine bower, all bestrown

With golden moss. His every sense had grown
Ethereal for pleasure; 'bove his head
Flew a delight half-graspable; his tread
Was Hesperean; to his capable ears

655

660

665

670

657. In the original draft the supernatural machinery for this transit was entirely different, thus

To cloudborne Jove he bent: and there was tost

Into his grasping hands a silken cord

At which without a single impious word
He swung upon it off into the gloom.

Down, down, uncertain to what pleasant doom,

Dropt like a fathoming plummet, down he fell

Through unknown things; till &c.

668-71. The draft carries out the idea of the silken cord as follows:

With airs delicious. Long he hung about

Before his nice enjoyment could pick out

The resting place: but at the last he swung
Into the greenest cell of all-among

Dark leaved jasmine: star flower'd and bestrown

With golden moss.

674. 'Hesperèan', I presume, not Hespèrean as invariably accented by Milton. The precise value of 'capable' as used here is of course regulated by past and not by present custom. In this case it simply stands for receptive, able to receive, as in 'Hamlet' (Act III, Scene iv)

look you how pale he glares,

His forme and cause conjoyn'd, preaching to stones,
Would make them capeable.

Silence was music from the holy spheres ;

A dewy luxury was in his eyes;

The little flowers felt his pleasant sighs

And stirr❜d them faintly.

Verdant cave and cell

He wander'd through, oft wondering at such swell
Of sudden exaltation: but, "Alas !”

Said he, "will all this gush of feeling pass
Away in solitude? And must they wane,
Like melodies upon a sandy plain,
Without an echo? Then shall I be left
So sad, so melancholy, so bereft !

675

680

685

Yet still I feel immortal! O my love,

My breath of life, where art thou? High above,

Dancing before the morning gates of heaven?

Or keeping watch among those starry seven,

Old Atlas' children? Art a maid of the waters,

690

One of shell-winding Triton's bright-hair'd daughters?

Or art, impossible! a nymph of Dian's,

Weaving a coronal of tender scions

For very idleness? Where'er thou art,

Methinks it now is at my will to start

695

Into thine arms; to scare Aurora's train,

And snatch thee from the morning; o'er the main
To scud like a wild bird, and take thee off
From thy sea-foamy cradle; or to doff

Thy shepherd vest, and woo thee mid fresh leaves.

700

679. In the draft

He wandered through, with still encreasing swell...

681. In the draft

Said he, "will all these gushing feelings pass...

684. The draft reads 'Ah I shall be left...".

685. Compare the Sonnet 'On a Dream'

So play'd, so charm'd, so conquer'd, so bereft...

687-90. Endymion conjectures whether his unknown love is one of the Hours or one of the nymph Pleione's daughters by Atlas, transferred to heaven as the Pleiades. The draft reads 'the starry seven', and 'Art a nymph of the waters'. The finished manuscript has 'Art a maid o' the waters'.

691-2. According to the draft,

One of shell-winding Triton's floating daughters?
Art thou, impossible! a maid of Dian's,...

697. In the draft the passage originally stood thus :

And snatch thee from among them; to attain
The starry hights and find thee ere a breath...

as if the intention had been to refer again to the fourfold conjecture instead of only three of its aspects.

698. The draft reads 'skim' for 'scud'.

No, no, too eagerly my soul deceives
Its powerless self: I know this cannot be.
O let me then by some sweet dreaming flee
To her entrancements: hither sleep awhile!
Hither most gentle sleep! and soothing foil
For some few hours the coming solitude."

Thus spake he, and that moment felt endu'd
With power to dream deliciously; so wound
Through a dim passage, searching till he found
The smoothest mossy bed and deepest, where
He threw himself, and just into the air
Stretching his indolent arms, he took, O bliss!
A naked waist: "Fair Cupid, whence is this?"

705

710

A well-known voice sigh'd, "Sweetest, here am I!"
At which soft ravishment, with doting cry
They trembled to each other.-Helicon !

715

O fountain'd hill! Old Homer's Helicon !
That thou wouldst spout a little streamlet o'er
These sorry pages; then the verse would soar
And sing above this gentle pair, like lark
Over his nested young: but all is dark
Around thine aged top, and thy clear fount
Exhales in mists to heaven. Aye, the count
Of mighty Poets is made up; the scroll
Is folded by the Muses; the bright roll
Is in Apollo's hand: our dazed eyes
Have seen a new tinge in the western skies:

701-2. In the draft,

But ah! too eagerly my soul deceives

Its mortal self: O since this cannot be,...

720

725

706. The draft reads 'With thy quick magic' for 'For some few hours'. 709. In the finished manuscript, 'feeling' stands cancelled in favour of searching'.

713. The draft reads 'Good heavens!' for 'Fair Cupid'.

715. In the draft this line stood thus

At which each uttering forth (an anguish}

wailful

}cry.

The finished manuscript reads as in the text; but the first edition has 'doating'. 719-20. The draft reads 'this verse' and 'the gentle pair', and in the next

ne but one 'green' for 'top'.

723. In the draft, 'mist', in the singular.

725-6. The original reading of the draft was

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the great roll dazzled eyes...

ime has reversed in favour both of Keats and of some of his contemporaries this rdict that the sun of poetry set with Shakespeare.

The world has done its duty. Yet, oh yet,
Although the sun of poesy is set,

These lovers did embrace, and we must weep
That there is no old power left to steep
A quill immortal in their joyous tears.

Long time ere silence did their anxious fears
Question that thus it was; long time they lay
Fondling and kissing every doubt away;
Long time ere soft caressing sobs began
To mellow into words, and then there ran

Two bubbling springs of talk from their sweet lips.

730

735

"O known Unknown! from whom my being sips
Such darling essence, wherefore may I not
Be ever in these arms? in this sweet spot
Pillow my chin for ever? ever press

These toying hands and kiss their smooth excess?
Why not for ever and for ever feel

740

Still

That breath about my eyes? Ah, thou wilt steal
Away from me again, indeed, indeed—
Thou wilt be gone away, and wilt not heed
My lonely madness. Speak, delicious fair!
Is-is it to be so? No! Who will dare
To pluck thee from me? And, of thine own will,
Full well I feel thou wouldst not leave me.
Let me entwine thee surer, surer-now
How can we part? Elysium! who art thou?
Who, that thou canst not be for ever here,
Or lift me with thee to some starry sphere?
Enchantress! tell me by this soft embrace,
By the most soft completion of thy face,
Those lips, O slippery blisses, twinkling eyes,

745

750

755

735-6. The draft reads 'dreaming' for 'every' and 'few' for 'soft'. 739. Compare, for mere juxtaposition of words, 'Romeo and Juliet,' Act 1,

Scene v, line 141

Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

743. The draft reads 'languid' for 'toying'.

747-8. Woodhouse notes, apparently from the draft, the variation,

And there must be a time when thoul't not heed

My lonely madness—O delicious {maid}.

fair

The finished manuscript and the first edition both read 'my kindest fair!' Bu the version of the text is from the corrected copy.

749. In the draft, 'What will dare', and in the next line but one 'I knowfeel'.

756-7. The draft gives this couplet thus

Enchantress! tell me by this mad embrace,
By the moist languor of thy breathing face...

And by these tenderest, milky sovereignties-
These tenderest, and by the nectar-wine,
"O dov'd Ida the divine!

The passion".

Endymion! dearest! Ah, unhappy me!

760

His soul will 'scape us-O felicity!

How he does love me! His poor temples beat

To the very tune of love-how sweet, sweet, sweet.

765

Revive, dear youth, or I shall faint and die;
Revive, or these soft hours will hurry by

In tranced dulness; speak, and let that spell

Affright this lethargy! I cannot quell

Its heavy pressure, and will press at least

770

My lips to thine, that they may richly feast

Until we taste the life of love again.

What! dost thou move? dost kiss? O bliss! O pain!

I love thee, youth, more than I can conceive;

And so long absence from thee doth bereave

775

My soul of any rest: yet must I hence:
Yet, can I not to starry eminence

Uplift thee; nor for very shame can own
Myself to thee: Ah, dearest, do not groan
Or thou wilt force me from this secrecy,
And I must blush in heaven. O that I
Had done 't already; that the dreadful smiles
At my lost brightness, my impassion'd wiles,
Had waned from Olympus' solemn height,
And from all serious Gods; that our delight
Was quite forgotten, save of us alone!

And wherefore so asham'd? 'Tis but to atone
For endless pleasure, by some coward blushes:

760-1. The draft has this couplet as follows

These tenderest-and by the breath-the love
The passion-nectar-Heaven !"—"Jove above!

The second of these lines originally stood in the finished manuscript thus—

[blocks in formation]

780

785

as if 'passion' were meant to scan as a trisyllable, as in many other cases of similar words in 'Endymion,'-'ambrosial' for instance in line 810; 'Endymion' in lines 823 and 855 of this Book; and 'intoxication' in line 502 of Book I; but Keats has inserted before 'Ida' the word 'dov'd', not 'lov'd' as in the first edition.

770. The draft reads 'yet' for 'and', and in the next line "gainst' for 'to'. 774. Cancelled reading from the draft, 'Listen to me if Love will let me... 782. The contraction 'done't' here is a final and deliberate intention: for although 'done it' was printed in the first edition-perhaps through Keats having puzzled the printer by writing in the manuscript 'don't'-the printed words are altered to 'done't' in the corrected copy.

783. There is a cancelled reading in the draft, At my dear weakness and'.... 785. The draft reads 'Powers' for 'Gods' and 'my' for 'our', and in the hext line but one 'But' for 'And'.

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