But neither Miltonic nor Greek is Keats's marvellous treatment of nature as he feels, and makes us feel, the magic of its mystery in such a picture as that of the
tall oaks
Branch-charmèd by the earnest stars,
or of the
dismal cirque
Of Druid stones, upon a forlorn moor,
When the chill rain begins at shut of eve,
In dull November, and their chancel vault,
The heaven itself, is blinded throughout night.
This Keats, and Keats alone, could do; and his achievement is unique in throwing all the glamour of romance over a fragment 'sublime as Aeschylus'.
NOTES ON HYPERION.
BOOK I.
PAGE 145. ll. 2-3. By thus giving us a vivid picture of the changing day--at morning, noon, and night--Keats makes us realize the terrible loneliness and gloom of a place too deep to feel these changes.
l. 10. See how the sense is expressed in the cadence of the line.
PAGE 146. l. 11. _voiceless._ As if it felt and knew, and were deliberately silent.
ll. 13, 14. Influence of Greek sculpture. See Introduction, p. 248.
l. 18. _nerveless . . . dead._ Cf. _Eve of St. Agnes_, l. 12, note.
l. 19. _realmless eyes._ The tragedy of his fall is felt in every feature.
ll. 20, 21. _Earth, His ancient mother._ Tellus. See Introduction, p. 244.
PAGE 147. l. 27. _Amazon._ The Amazons were a warlike race of women of whom many traditions exist. On the frieze of the Mausoleum (British Museum) they are seen warring with the Centaurs.
l. 30. _Ixion's wheel._ For insolence to Jove, Ixion was tied to an ever-revolving wheel in Hell.
l. 31. _Memphian sphinx._ Memphis was a town in Egypt near to which the pyramids were built. A sphinx is a great stone image with human head and breast and the body of a lion.
PAGE 148. ll. 60-3. The thunderbolts, being Jove's own weapons, are unwilling to be used against their former master.
PAGE 149. l. 74. _branch-charmed . . . stars._ All the magic of the still night is here.
ll. 76-8. _Save . . . wave._ See how the gust of wind comes and goes in the rise and fall of these lines, which begin and end on the same sound.
PAGE 150. l. 86. See Introduction, p. 248.
l. 94. _aspen-malady_, trembling like the leaves of the aspen-poplar.
PAGE 151. ll. 98 seq. Cf. _King Lear_. Throughout the figure of Saturn--the old man robbed of his kingdom--reminds us of Lear, and sometimes we seem to detect actual reminiscences of Shakespeare's treatment. Cf. _Hyperion_, i. 98; and _King Lear_, I. iv. 248-52.
l. 102. _front_, forehead.
l. 105. _nervous_, used in its original sense of powerful, sinewy.
ll. 107 seq. In Saturn's reign was the Golden Age.
PAGE 152. l. 125. _of ripe progress_, near at hand.
l. 129. _metropolitan_, around the chief city.
l. 131. _strings in hollow shells._ The first stringed instruments were said to be made of tortoise-shells with strings stretched across.
PAGE 153. l. 145. _chaos._ The confusion of elements from which the world was created. See _Paradise Lost_, i. 891-919.
l. 147. _rebel three._ Jove, Neptune, and Pluto.
PAGE 154. l. 152. _covert._ Cf. _Isabella_, l. 221; _Eve of St. Agnes_, l. 188.
ll. 156-7. All the dignity and majesty of the goddess is in this comparison.
PAGE 155. l. 171. _gloom-bird_, the owl, whose cry is supposed to portend death. Cf. Milton's method of description, 'Not that fair field,' etc. _Paradise Lost_, iv. 268.
l. 172. _familiar visiting_, ghostly apparition.
PAGE 157. ll. 205-8. Cf. the opening of the gates of heaven. _Paradise Lost_, vii. 205-7.
ll. 213 seq. See Introduction, p. 248.
PAGE 158. l. 228. _effigies_, visions.
l. 230. _O . . . pools._ A picture of inimitable chilly horror.
l. 238. _fanes._ Cf. _Psyche_, l. 50.
PAGE 159. l. 246. _Tellus . . . robes_, the earth mantled by the salt
