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273 241. Where swart Paynims pray.

'Clasped like a missal in

a land of Pagans: that is to say, where Christian prayer-books must not be seen, and are, therefore, doubly cherished for the danger."LEIGH HUNT.

274 250. Noiseless as fear in a wide wilderness. To me this is one of the numerous great lines in the poem. Without being able clearly to define how or why, the reader feels himself seized by the throat, as it were, with a sense of being alone in a wide, breathless desert, where nothing of evil is visible, but where some awful and almost supernatural stillness is thrillingly informed with a fear too supreme for expression or comprehension. The suggestiveness of the line is all but worthy of Shakespeare.

274 262. "It is, apparently, as a poetical contrast to the fasting which was generally accepted as the due method by which a maiden was to prepare herself for the Vision, that the gorgeous supper-picture of st. xxx was introduced. Keats, who was Leigh Hunt's guest at the time this volume appeared, read aloud the passage to Hunt, with manifest pleasure in his work the sole instance I can recall where the poet modest in proportion to his greatness - yielded even to so innocent an impulse of vanity."— Palgrave.

274 266. Soother. Smoother to the palate.

275 289–297. It was a pretty fancy thus to connect his own poem, La Belle Dame sans Merci, with a forgotten Provençal air.

278 360. Carpets. Of course an error, as carpets were not in

use at the time indicated by the rest of the poem. in The King's Tragedy Dante Gabriel Rossetti anachronism:

"The night-wind wailed round the empty room

And the rushes shook on the floor."

The point is, however, one of no great importance.

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Forman notes that avoids such an

Leigh Hunt's closing words upon this poem may not inaptly close these notes: Here endeth the young and divine poet, but not the delight and gratitude of his readers; for, as he sings elsewhere, —

A thing of beauty is a joy forever."

INDEX OF FIRST LINES.

As from the darkening gloom a silver dove
Asleep! O sleep a little while, white pearl
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever

Bards of Passion and. of Mirth.

Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art

Deep in the shady sadness of a vale.

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How many bards gild the lapses of time
Hush, hush! tread softly! hush, hush, my dear

In a drear-nighted December

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52

I stood tip-toe upon a little hill

It keeps eternal whisperings around

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Keen, fitful gusts are whisp'ring here and there.

57

Lo! I must tell a tale of chivalry

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Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains

No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist
No! those days are gone away.

Nymph of the downward smile and sidelong glance

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O Goddess! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung
One morn before me were three figures seen
O solitude! if I must with thee dwell
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

St. Ágnes' Eve-Ah, bitter chill, it was
Standing aloof in giant ignorance
Souls of Poets dead and gone

The poetry of earth is never dead

This pleasant tale is like a little copse

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness

Time's sea hath been five years at its slow ebb

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What is more gentle than a wind in summer
What though, for showing truth to flatter'd state
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Woman! when I behold thee flippant, vain

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