Life of John Keats: His Life and Poetry, His Friends, Critics and After-FameColvin, Sidney
General
Life of John Keats: His Life and Poetry, His Friends, Critics and After-Fame
Colvin, Sidney
Keats, John, 1795-1821; Poets, English -- 19th century -- Biography
Endymion now forsakes
All the delights that shepherds do prefer,
And sets his mind so gen'rally on her
That, all neglected, to the groves and springs,
He follows Phoebe, that him safely brings
(As their great queen) unto the nymphish bowers,
Where in clear rivers beautified with flowers
The silver Naides bathe them in the brack.
Sometime with her the sea-horse he doth back,
Amongst the blue Nereides; and when,
Weary of waters, goddess-like again
She the high mountains actively assays,
And there amongst the light Oriades,
That ride the swift roes, Phoebe doth resort;
Sometimes amongst those that with them comport,
The Hamadriades, doth the woods frequent;
And there she stays not; but incontinent
Calls down the dragons that her chariot draw,
And with Endymion pleased that she saw,
Mounteth thereon, in twinkling of an eye,
Stripping the winds, beholding from the sky
The Earth in roundness of a perfect ball,--
the sequel is irrelevant, and the passage so loose in grammar and
construction that it matters not where it is broken off.
Thirdly, we have the curious invention of the magic robe of Glaucus in
Keats's third book. In it, we are told, all the rulers and all the
denizens of ocean are figured and indued with magic power to dwindle and
dilate before the beholder's eyes. Keats describes this mystic garment
in a dozen lines[3] which can scarcely be other than a summary and
generalized recollection of a long passage of eighty in which Drayton
describes the mantle of Cynthia herself, inwoven with figures of sea and
storm and shipwreck and sea-birds and of men fishing and fowling (crafts
supposed to be subject to the planetary influence of the moon) in tidal
or inland waters. And lastly, Keats in his second book has taken a
manifest hint from Drayton where he makes Venus say archly how she has
been guessing in vain which among the Olympian goddesses is Endymion's
lover.[4]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account