455 LI Here pause these graves are all too young as yet LII 460 465 The One remains, the many change and pass; Until Death tramples it to fragments. - Die, If thou wouldst be with that which thou dost seek! Follow where all is fled! - Rome's azure sky, Flowers, ruins, statues, music, words are weak The glory they transfuse with fitting truth to speak. 470 475 LIII Why linger, why turn back, why shrink, my Heart? And man, and woman; and what still is dear No more let Life divide what Death can join together. 480 485 LIV That light whose smile kindles the Universe, 490 LV The breath whose might I have invoked in song Whilst, burning through the inmost veil of Heaven, 495 Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are. (1-117) Tell the meaning of the word "Adonais." When Shelley heard of the death of Keats, he was living at Pisa. It was in the spring of 1821 that this elegy was written. What line in "Lycidas" is recalled by (10)? Surely one recounts with "soft enamoured breath" the melodic poems of Keats'. In what poem does Keats make death so beautiful that it is rich to die? (29-36) Milton was the sire of an immortal strain. Homer and Virgil were the two other "sons of light." (37-45) Many mediocre poets "tapers" had been happier in their obscurity than if they had climbed to Milton's "bright station"; many illustrious poets "in their refulgent prime "' had perished miserably, as Edmund Spenser, neglected by man or God; and "some yet live,” Byron and Shelley, who are “. treading the thorny road, Which leads, through toil and hate, to Fame's serene abode." (46-49) Read stanza LIII. of Keats' "Isabella" where the maiden 66 frail Form, A phantom among men." (275-279) Some of these consuming thoughts, pursuing him from a questionable past, are reminders of his cruel treatment of Harriet Westbrook. (289-342) Notice the heart that shows the wildly vibrating pulse of Shelley's. (297) Cf. A. Y. L. I., Act II. 1. 30-63. (300) Here there is a recognition on the part of Shelley that the premature death of Keats may come to him, since in some respects their lives had been similar. From Shelley's life explain (305). The poet and critic who possessed the "softer voice" was Leigh Hunt. In what poem does 1 Keats express the feeling as if he had drunk poison and had sunk Lethewards? (343-369) Here begins Part II. of the elegy. Observe the skill in the transition from the difficulty of believing Keats to be dead to the acceptance of it: the consolation from now on is to be afforded by calm philosophy such as avers whatever is must be right. Where in "Lycidas" is a similar, abrupt transition? (370-405) Keats has gone to join his immortal bird so that he may make more sweet all of nature's music; his presence will everywhere be felt since he is one with the love which burns at the core of the universe. All things are beautiful since they have made possible the beautiful; everything is forced by "plastic stress" to produce beauty, even Death bears such in its ugliness so that it may usher a mortal into heaven's light. (388-396) Whatever on earth was beautiful forever retains its beauty. Death seems a veil, but in reality it is a raised one. A change to the beauty of another life is destined for the heart of Keats, who had yearned after that ineffable glory of beauty which has never been revealed to the greatest of those who have sought to pierce the azure or to ransack the tomb. Death moves like a wind of light over the dark waters of a current moving towards heaven, and pushes a vessel laden with the soul gently to the longwished for port, where transitory beauty is abiding and permanent such as Keats found traced on the brede of his "Cold Pastoral." Explain (397). Why should Thomas Chatterton welcome Keats? Spenser's "Astrophel" suggested this elegiac use of Sir Philip Sidney. Why should Keats be compared to Lucan? (406–441) Shelley finely classifies Keats' poetry by elevating the poet to the throne on the hitherto kingless sphere as the " Vesper of our throng' of poets that have untimely died. (415-423) Explain. Cf. Byron's "Cain," Act II. Sc. 1, where the first murderer is drawn to the utmost bounds of space, where he looks backward on the cosmos in search of earth, and sees in a mass of innumerable lights something which hardly shines as bright as a firefly. Who are Rome's sceptred sovereigns that Childe Harold" are (478-486). still rule us from their urns? What stanzas of remembered? (442-477) Analyse a great, dynamic phrase. Explain (482-485)-(487-495). What poets, previously known, have written lines dramatically foreshadowing premature deaths? Compare the close of this elegy with those of previously read monodies. Professor C. F. Johnson makes a fine general estimate of the whole poem when he says of Shelley: "He could not have been more in earnest thrilled in every fibre of his being- had he seen the embodiments of the spiritual forces face to face." -more What is the sum of the indebtedness of "Adonais" to "Lycidas"? TO A SKYLARK Hail to thee, blithe spirit- Pourest thy full heart 5 In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. Higher still and higher From the earth thou springest, The blue deep thou wingest, 10 And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. In the golden lightning Of the sunken sun, O'er which clouds are bright'ning, Thou dost float and run, 15 Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun. The pale purple even Melts around thy flight; Like a star of heaven, In the broad daylight 20 Thou art unseen, - but yet I hear thy shrill delight — Keen as are the arrows Of that silver sphere In the white dawn clear, 25 Until we hardly see, we feel, that it is there. All the earth and air With thy voice is loud, |