But though I'll gladly trace these scenes with thee, VIII. TO MY BROTHERS. SMALL, busy flames play through the fresh laid coals, And while, for rhymes, I search around the poles, What are this world's true joys,-ere the great voice, November 18, 1816. VIII. In Tom Keats's copy-book this sonnet is headed "Written to his brothe Tom on his Birthday", and dated "Nov. 18, 1816." In the last line the transcrip reads 'place' for 'face'. The sonnet seems to have been originally written pencil in the note-book referred to at page 39, immediately after the sonnet George Keats; but the two quatrains, which fill one page, are all that I found of this sonnet among the Keats relics of Severn. The quatrains stand finally thus in the draft: Small flames are peeping through the fresh laid coals A gentle empire o'er fraternal souls And while for Rhymes I search around the Poles Upon the Pages Voluble and deep That aye at fall of Night our care condoles. and another at line 5- And while I am thinking of a Rhyme; and here 'searching' was substituted for 'thinking of', before the whole was cancelled in favour of the reading of the text. IX. KEEN, fitful gusts are whisp'ring here and there Or of the dead leaves rustling drearily, That in a little cottage I have found; X. To one who has been long in city pent, And open face of heaven,—to breathe a prayer Who is more happy, when, with heart's content, And gentle tale of love and languishment? IX. Clarke records that this sonnet was written on the occasion of Keats's first 'becoming acquainted with Leigh Hunt at the Cottage in the Vale of Health, Hampstead. X. In a transcript in the hand-writing of George Keats this sonnet is subscribed as "Written in the Fields-June 1816". The variations shown by this manuscript, no doubt correctly copied from the original, are,-in line 2, 'upon' for 'into'; in line 4 bright' for 'blue'; in line 5 'heart's' is written correctly, though 'hearts' is wrongly printed in the 1817 volume; in line 6 'upon a' for 'into some'; in line 7 some' for 'a'; in line 9 'Returning, thoughtful, homeward' for 'Returning home at evening'; line 11 is and line 14 is Following the wafted Cloudlet's light career; That droppeth through the Æther silently. In Tom Keats's copy-book the only variation from the printed text of 1817 is in line 4, 'bright' for 'blue'. It is clear the sonnet was carefully revised for the 1817 volume; and it is curious that Keats did not find out his indebtedness to Milton for his "prosperous opening". Compare 'Paradise Lost', IX. 445, As one who long in populous City pent... Returning home at evening, with an ear That falls through the clear ether silently. XI. ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S HOMER. MUCH have I travell'd in the realms of gold, That deep-brow'd Homer rul'd as his demesne; Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold : XI. Charles Cowden Clarke says, in the article in 'The Gentleman's Magazine' referred to at page 43, that this sonnet was sent to him by Keats so as to reach him at 10 o'clock one morning when they two had parted "at day-spring" after a night encounter with a copy of Chapman's Homer belonging to Mr. Alsager of 'The Times'. Mr. Locker-Lampson had an undated manuscript of the sonnet in Keats's writing, headed "On the first looking into Chapman's Homer"; while in Tom Keats's copy-book the heading is "Sonnet on looking into Chapman's Homer", and the date "1816." In that book, though not in the Locker-Lampson manuscript, line 5 opens with 'But' instead of 'Oft'. In the manuscript line 6 originally read 'Which low-brow'd Homer'; but 'deep' is substituted for 'low'; and for line 7 we read both in the manuscript and in the copy-book Yet could I never judge what men could mean. In line 11 the autograph manuscript reads 'wond'ring eyes' for 'eagle eyes'. The variation in line 7 is of value in connexion with one of the reminiscences of Clarke, who says the seventh line originally stood thus: Yet could I never tell what men could mean and that Keats substituted the reading of the text because he considered the first reading "bald, and too simply wondering". But he may have been actuated by another reason also, as thus: in an article headed "Young Poets" in 'The Examiner' for the 1st of December 1816, Hunt had spoken in high praise of a set of Keats's manuscript poems shown to him, and had printed this one as given in Tom Keats's copy-book, with the remark that it contained "one incorrect rhyme". The only disputable rhyme is that of 'mean' and 'demesne', and that is got rid of by the revision. "The rest of the composition", says Hunt, "with the exception of a little vagueness in calling the regions of poetry 'the realms of gold', we do not hesitate to pronounce excellent, especially the last six lines. The word 'swims' is complete; and the whole conclusion is equally powerful and quiet. He appears to have become reconciled to "the realms of gold" in later years, to judge from the close of that charming work 'Imagination and Fancy'. Speaking of this sonnet he says at page 345 (I quote the third edition, dated 1846),-"'Stared' has been thought by some too violent, but it is Then felt I like some watcher of the skies XII. ON LEAVING SOME FRIENDS AT AN EARLY HOUR. GIVE me a golden pen, and let me lean On heap'd up flowers, in regions clear, and far ; Or hand of hymning angel, when 't is seen precisely the word required by the occasion. The Spaniard was too original and ardent a man either to look, or to affect to look, coldly superior to it. His 'eagle eyes' are from life, as may be seen by Titian's portrait of him." Of the last line, which ends the poetry of Imagination and Fancy', Hunt says "We leave the reader standing upon it, with all the illimitable world of thought and feeling before him, to which his imagination will have been brought, while journeying through these 'realms of gold." The last four lines seem to be a reminiscence of Robertson's History of America, recorded by Clarke as among Keats's later school reading; but, as Tennyson pointed out to Francis Palgrave ('Golden Treasury', 1861, page 320) the reference should really be to Balboa. From Hunt's remark about the portrait it is clear that this was no mere slip of the pen : Cortez was the man whom Keats's imagination saw in the situation; and it is to be presumed that his memory betrayed him, for it seems unlikely that he met with the story elsewhere, told of Cortez. The passage of Robertson's History of America (Works, edition of 1817) is in Volume VIII, page 287. "At length the Indians assured them, that from the top of the next mountain they should discover the ocean which was the object of their wishes. When, with infinite toil, they had climbed up the greater part of that steep ascent, Balboa commanded his men to halt, and advanced alone to the summit, that he might be the first who should enjoy a spectacle which he had so long desired. As soon as he beheld the South Sea stretching in endless prospect below him, he fell on his knees, and lifting up his hands to heaven, returned thanks to God, who had conducted him to a discovery so beneficial to his country, and so honourable to himself. His followers, observing his transports of joy, rushed forward to join in his wonder, exultation, and gratitude." An account of this incident will also be found in Washington Irving's 'Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus'. XII. This sonnet also belongs to the Cottage in the Vale of Health, as we are led to infer from Clarke's mention of it in connexion with No. IX and No. XV. The while let music wander round my ears, Let me write down a line of glorious tone, XIII. ADDRESSED TO HAYDON. HIGHMINDEDNESS, a jealousy for good, A loving-kindness for the great man's fame, What when a stout unbending champion awes XIV. ADDRESSED TO THE SAME. GREAT spirits now on earth are sojourning; The social smile, the chain for Freedom's sake: XIII. Benjamin Robert Haydon, historical painter, was born on the 26th of January 1786, and died by his own hand on the 22nd of June 1846. He had considerable influence with Keats in the early days of the period to which this sonnet belongs, and keenly appreciated the young poet's genius. This will be readily discerned by those who read the letters of the two friends in a subsequent volume of this edition of Keats's works. XIV. This sonnet was not originally written with a short 13th line, but with the line Of mighty workings in some distant Mart? Haydon suggested the hiatus; and Keats adopted it. In Tom Keats's copy-book the sonnet is headed simply "Sonnet" and is dated 1816 merely. There is no variation from the printed text. It is almost superfluous to identify the two men referred to in the first six lines-Wordsworth and Leigh Hunt. |