Keats: Poems Published in 1820 Part 19

The story of Psyche may be best told in the words of William Morris in the 'argument' to 'the story of Cupid and Psyche' in his _Earthly Paradise_:

'Psyche, a king's daughter, by her exceeding beauty caused the people to forget Venus; therefore the G.o.ddess would fain have destroyed her: nevertheless she became the bride of Love, yet in an unhappy moment lost him by her own fault, and wandering through the world suffered many evils at the hands of Venus, for whom she must accomplish fearful tasks. But the G.o.ds and all nature helped her, and in process of time she was re-united to Love, forgiven by Venus, and made immortal by the Father of G.o.ds and men.'

Psyche is supposed to symbolize the human soul made immortal through love.

NOTES ON THE ODE TO PSYCHE.

PAGE 117. l. 2. _sweet . . . dear._ Cf. _Lycidas_, 'Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear.'

l. 4. _soft-conched._ Metaphor of a sea-sh.e.l.l giving an impression of exquisite colour and delicate form.

PAGE 118. l. 13. _'Mid . . . eyed._ Nature in its appeal to every sense.

In this line we have the essence of all that makes the beauty of flowers satisfying and comforting.

l. 14. _Tyrian_, purple, from a certain dye made at Tyre.

l. 20. _aurorean._ Aurora is the G.o.ddess of dawn. Cf. _Hyperion_, i.

181.

l. 25. _Olympus._ Cf. _Lamia_, i. 9, note.

_hierarchy._ The orders of G.o.ds, with Jupiter as head.

l. 26. _Phoebe_, or Diana, G.o.ddess of the moon.

l. 27. _Vesper_, the evening star.

PAGE 119. l. 34. _oracle_, a sacred place where the G.o.d was supposed to answer questions of vital import asked him by his wors.h.i.+ppers.

l. 37. _fond believing_, foolishly credulous.

l. 41. _lucent fans_, luminous wings.

PAGE 120. l. 55. _fledge . . . steep._ Probably a recollection of what he had seen in the Lakes, for on June 29, 1818, he writes to Tom from Keswick of a waterfall which 'oozes out from a cleft in perpendicular Rocks, all fledged with Ash and other beautiful trees'.

l. 57. _Dryads._ Cf. _Lamia_, l. 5, note.

INTRODUCTION TO FANCY.

This poem, although so much lighter in spirit, bears a certain relation in thought to Keats's other odes. In the _Nightingale_ the tragedy of this life made him long to escape, on the wings of imagination, to the ideal world of beauty symbolized by the song of the bird. Here finding all real things, even the most beautiful, pall upon him, he extols the fancy, which can escape from reality and is not tied by place or season in its search for new joys. This is, of course, only a pa.s.sing mood, as the extempore character of the poetry indicates. We see more of settled conviction in the deeply-meditative _Ode to Autumn_, where he finds the ideal in the rich and ever-changing real.

This poem is written in the four-accent metre employed by Milton in _L'Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_, and we can often detect a similarity of cadence, and a resemblance in the scenes imagined.

NOTES ON FANCY.

PAGE 123. l. 16. _ingle_, chimney-nook.

PAGE 126. l. 81. _Ceres' daughter_, Proserpina. Cf. _Lamia_, i. 63, note.

l. 82. _G.o.d of torment._ Pluto, who presides over the torments of the souls in Hades.

PAGE 127. l. 85. _Hebe_, the cup-bearer of Jove.

l. 89. _And Jove grew languid._ Observe the fitting slowness of the first half of the line, and the sudden leap forward of the second.

NOTES ON ODE

['BARDS OF Pa.s.sION AND OF MIRTH'].

PAGE 128. l. 1. _Bards_, poets and singers.

l. 8. _parle_, French _parler_. Cf. _Hamlet_, I. i. 62.

l. 12. _Dian's fawns._ Diana was the G.o.ddess of hunting.

INTRODUCTION TO LINES ON THE MERMAID TAVERN.

The Mermaid Tavern was an old inn in Bread Street, Cheapside. Tradition says that the literary club there was established by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603. In any case it was, in Shakespeare's time, frequented by the chief writers of the day, amongst them Ben Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, Selden, Carew, Donne, and Shakespeare himself. Beaumont, in a poetical epistle to Ben Jonson, writes:

What things have we seen Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been So nimble and so full of subtle flame, As if that any one from whence they came Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, And has resolved to live a fool the rest Of his dull life.

NOTES ON LINES ON THE MERMAID TAVERN.

PAGE 131. l. 10. _bold Robin Hood._ Cf. _Robin Hood_, p. 133.

l. 12. _bowse_, drink.

PAGE 132. ll. 16-17. _an astrologer's . . . story._ The astrologer would record, on parchment, what he had seen in the heavens.

l. 22. _The Mermaid . . . Zodiac._ The zodiac was an imaginary belt across the heavens within which the sun and planets were supposed to move. It was divided into twelve parts corresponding to the twelve months of the year, according to the position of the moon when full.

Each of these parts had a sign by which it was known, and the sign of the tenth was a fish-tailed goat, to which Keats refers as the Mermaid.

The word _zodiac_ comes from the Greek +zodion+, meaning a little animal, since originally all the signs were animals.

INTRODUCTION TO ROBIN HOOD.

Early in 1818 John Hamilton Reynolds, a friend of Keats, sent him two sonnets which he had written 'On Robin Hood'. Keats, in his letter of thanks, after giving an appreciation of Reynolds's production, says: 'In return for your Dish of Filberts, I have gathered a few Catkins, I hope they'll look pretty.' Then follow these lines, ent.i.tled, 'To J. H. R. in answer to his Robin Hood sonnets.' At the end he writes: 'I hope you will like them--they are at least written in the spirit of outlawry.'

Robin Hood, the outlaw, was a popular hero of the Middle Ages. He was a great poacher of deer, brave, chivalrous, generous, full of fun, and absolutely without respect for law and order. He robbed the rich to give to the poor, and waged ceaseless war against the wealthy prelates of the church. Indeed, of his endless practical jokes, the majority were played upon sheriffs and bishops. He lived, with his 'merry men', in Sherwood Forest, where a hollow tree, said to be his 'larder', is still shown.

Innumerable ballads telling of his exploits were composed, the first reference to which is in the second edition of Langland's _Piers Plowman_, c. 1377. Many of these ballads still survive, but in all these traditions it is quite impossible to disentangle fact from fiction.