...all her silken flanks with garlands drest? What little town by river or sea-shore, Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, Is emptied of this folk, this...can e'er return. O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede Of marble men and maidens overwrought, With forest branches and the trodden weed; Thou, silent...

...all her silken flanks with garlands drest? What little town by river or sea shore, Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, Is emptied of this folk, this...not a soul to tell Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.34 The stanza is an incandescent wonder. In its structure as a procession from somewhere else...

...in the realm of the aesthetic representation we are witness to the sacrifice of more than a heifer: And, little town, thy streets for evermore Will silent...soul to tell Why thou art desolate, can e'er return. The people of the town are described as on their way to an event from which they cannot return. If...

...questions conduct to a comprehensive realization: What little town by river or sea shore. Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, Is emptied of this folk, this...soul to tell Why thou art desolate, can e'er return. (35-40) The two strains in Keatsian ekphrasis merge here. Its hazards (which the poet has slyly implied...

...her silken flanks with garlands dressed? What little town by river or sea shore, Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn? And, little town, thy streets forevermore Will silent be; and not a soul to tell Why thou art desolate, can e'er return. 5 O Attic...

...all her silken flanks with garlands drest? What little town by river or sea shore, Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, Is emptied of this folk, this...soul to tell Why thou art desolate, can e'er return. 40 5 O Attic33 shape! Fair attitude! with brede34 Of marble men and maidens overwrought, With forest...

...And all his silken flanks with garlands drest? What little town by river or sea shore, Is ... is ... is emptied of this folk, this pious morn? And, little...soul to tell Why thou art desolate, can e'er return . . ." (He shivers involuntarily. ALAN appears at the top of the stairs and starts down.) ALAN: Penny...

...topical, subjected to mutability. Hence thé emphasis on silence, désolation, sterility and loss: And, little town. thy streets for evermore Will silent be; and not a soûl to tell Why thou art desolate, can e'er return. (38-40) From a silence pregnant with thé totality...

...might actually come and be puzzled by its emptiness. (I can see no other interpretation of the lines, "and not a soul to tell / Why thou art desolate can e'er return.") But, actually, of course, no one will ever discover the town except by the very same process by which...

...all her silken flanks with garlands drest? What little town by river or sea shore, Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, Is emptied of this folk, this...soul to tell Why thou art desolate, can e'er return. V O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede Of marble men and maidens overwrought, With forest branches...