And Tellus feels his forehead's cumbrous load. Cynthia! where art thou now? What far abode Of green or silvery bower doth enshrine Such utmost beauty? Alas, thou dost pine For one as sorrowful: thy cheek is pale For one whose cheek is pale: thou dost bewail 75 His tears, who weeps for thee. Where dost thou sigh? And Brooke, in Constantia, has The wind fresh blowing from the Syrian shore Swift through the floods her spooming vessel bore. 80 85 (71) In the manuscript and in the corrected copy, his; but her was printed in the first edition, and corrected as an erratum,—the only one in some copies. The mistake arose through a pencilled marginal suggestion made in the printer's copy, not in Keats's writing. (74) Cancelled reading of the draft, Thine for Such. (77-8) In the draft there was a false rhyme here, seen and remedied in copying out : Where art thou Ah Surely that light is from the Evening star... (86-7) The draft shows more than one tentative for this passage, O'erwhelming water-courses; scaring out The thorny sharks from hiding-holes, and fright'ning On gold sand impearl'd With lilly shells, and pebbles milky white, 90 95 100 Poor Cynthia greeted him, and sooth'd her light 105 To breathlessness, and suddenly a warm Of his heart's blood: 'twas very sweet; he stay'd To taste the gentle moon, and freshening beads, ΠΙΟ Yet not so idle-for down glancing thence (89-90) In the draft this couplet reads— Enormous sharks from hiding-holes, and fright'ning (94-5) The draft reads thus In air, or living flame-or magic shells, In earth, or mist, in star or blazing sun,... Lash'd from the crystal roof by fishes' tails. Mantling the east, by Aurora's peering hand Far had he roam'd, With nothing save the hollow vast, that foam'd, 115 120 Of gone sea-warriors; brazen beaks and targe; Rudders that for a hundred years had lost 125 With long-forgotten story, and wherein No reveller had ever dipp'd a chin But those of Saturn's vintage; mouldering scrolls, 130 Dian had chac'd away that heaviness, He might have di'd: but now, with cheered feel, (128) In the draft, revellers for reveller. He onward kept; wooing these thoughts to steal 140 "What is there in thee, Moon! that thou shouldst move My heart so potently? When yet a child I oft have dry'd my tears when thou hast smil'd. Thou seem'dst my sister: hand in hand we went 145 From eve to morn across the firmament. No apples would I gather from the tree, Till thou hadst cool'd their cheeks deliciously: No tumbling water ever spake romance, But when my eyes with thine thereon could dance: 150 No woods were green enough, no bower divine, Until thou liftedst up thine eyelids fine: In sowing time ne'er would I dibble take, 155 No one but thee hath heard me blythly sing And mesh my dewy flowers all the night. No melody was like a passing spright If it went not to solemnize thy reign. Yes, in my boyhood, every joy and pain 160 By thee were fashion'd to the self-same end; (140) Cancelled reading of the manuscript, went for kept. (150) The draft reads soul in place of eyes. (156) This line affords a curious instance of waywardness in the matter of spelling: the last word but one is blithly in the first edition, blythly in the finished manuscript, and, fide Woodhouse, blithely in the draft. In Book I, line 939, the cognate adjective is spelt with a y, both in manuscript and in first edition; so that it is to be presumed that Keats really preferred this orthography, which is that adopted in Piers Plowman. (159) The draft yields the alternative readings flew and sought in place of went. And as I grew in years, still didst thou blend 165 Thou wast the charm of women, lovely Moon! O what a wild and harmonized tune 170 My spirit struck from all the beautiful! On some bright essence could I lean, and lull Nature's soft pillow in a wakeful rest. But, gentle Orb! there came a nearer bliss 175 My strange love came-Felicity's abyss! She came, and thou didst fade, and fade away— Yet not entirely; no, thy starry sway Has been an under-passion to this hour. (168) Instead of topmost the draft has highest. 180 185 (170) In the draft, harmonizing, and in the next line the alternative readings sung and made for struck. (176) The draft reads dear pleasure's own abyss for Felicity's abyss. (180) The draft reads orbed for orby. (183) In the draft, instead of My sovereign vision, we read The vision of my Love. |