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 goddess 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 gods 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 gods 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-shell 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 goddess of dawn. Cf. _Hyperion_, i. 181.
l. 25. _Olympus._ Cf. _Lamia_, i. 9, note.
_hierarchy._ The orders of gods, with Jupiter as head.
l. 26. _Phoebe_, or Diana, goddess of the moon.
l. 27. _Vesper_, the evening star.
PAGE 119. l. 34. _oracle_, a sacred place where the god was supposed to answer questions of vital import asked him by his worshippers.
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 passing 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. _God 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 PASSION 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 goddess 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
