1. 2. _What deaf and viperous murderer._ Deaf, because insensible to the beauty of Keats's verse; and viperous, because poisonous and malignant. The juxtaposition of the two epithets may probably be also partly dependent on that passage in the Psalms (lviii. 4, 5) which has become proverbial: 'They are as venomous as the poison of a serpent: even like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ears; which refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely.' 1. 4. _The nameless worm._ A worm, as being one of the lowest forms of life, is constantly used as a term implying contempt; but it may be assumed that Shelley here uses 'worm' in its original sense, that of any crawling creature, more especially of the snake kind. There would thus be no departure from the previous epithet 'viperous.' See the remarks as to 'reptiles,' St. 29. 11. 5, 6. _The magic tone Whose prelude,_ &c. Shelley, it will be perceived, here figures Keats as a minstrel striking the lyre, and preparing to sing. He strikes the lyre in a 'magic tone'; the very 'prelude' of this was enough to command silent expectation. This prelude is the poem of _Endymion_, to which the _Quarterly_ reviewer alone (according to Shelley) was insensitive, owing to feelings of 'envy, hate, and wrong.' The prelude was only an induction to the 'song,'--which was eventually poured forth in the _Lamia_ volume, and especially (as our poet opined) in _Hyperion_. But now Keats's hand is cold in death, and his lyre unstrung. As I have already observed--see p. 35, &c.--Shelley was mistaken in supposing that the _Quarterly Review_ had held a monopoly of 'envy, hate, and wrong'--or, as one might now term them, detraction, spite, and unfairness--in reference to Keats. +Stanza 37,+ 1. 4. _But be thyself, and know thyself to be!_ The precise import of this line is not, I think, entirely plain at first sight. I conceive that we should take the line as immediately consequent upon the preceding words--'Live thou, live!' Premising this, one might amplify the idea as follows; 'While Keats is dead, be it thy doom, thou his deaf and viperous murderer, to live! But thou shalt live in thine own degraded identity, and shalt thyself be conscious how degraded thou art.' Another suggestion might be that the words 'But be thyself are equivalent to 'Be but thyself.' 11. 5, 6. _And ever at thy season be thou free To spill the venom when thy fangs o'erflow._ This keeps up the image of the 'viperous' murderer--the viper. 'At thy season' can be understood as a reference to the periodical issues of the _Quarterly Review_. The word 'o'erflow' is, in the Pisan edition, printed as two words--'o'er flow.' 1. 7. _Remorse and self-contempt._ Shelley frequently dwells upon self-contempt as one of the least tolerable of human distresses. Thus in the _Revolt of Islam_ (Canto 8, st. 20): 'Yes, it is Hate--that shapeless fiendly thing Of many names, all evil, some divine-- Whom self-contempt arms with a mortal sting,' &c.