Philoctetes, one of the Argonauts, received from the dying Hercules his arrows. Called by Menelaus to go with the Greeks to the Trojan war, he was sent to the island of Lemnos, owing to a wound in his foot. There he remained for ten years, till the oracle informed the Greeks that Troy could not be taken without the arrows of Hercules. The sonnet refers to the legend of his life in Lemnos.--ED. [474] 1837. ... isle Lay couched; upon that breathless Monument, On him, or on his fearful bow unbent, 1827. [475] 1837. From home affections, and heroic toil. Nor doubt ... 1827. [476] 1837. ... that ... 1827. [477] 1837. And very ... 1827. [478] Compare the sonnet _To Toussaint l'Ouverture_ (vol. ii. p. 339).--ED. "WHILE ANNA'S PEERS AND EARLY PLAYMATES TREAD" Composed 1827.--Published 1827 [This is taken from the account given by Miss Jewsbury of the pleasure she derived, when long confined to her bed by sickness, from the inanimate object on which this sonnet turns.--I.F.] One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED. While Anna's peers[479] and early playmates tread, In freedom, mountain-turf and river's marge;[480] Or float with music in the festal barge; Rein the proud steed, or through the dance are led; Her doom it is[481] to press a weary bed-- 5 Till oft her guardian Angel, to some charge More urgent called, will stretch his wings at large, And friends too rarely prop the languid head. Yet, helped by Genius--untired comforter,[482] The presence even of a stuffed Owl for her 10 Can cheat the time; sending her fancy out To ivied castles and to moonlight skies, Though he can neither stir a plume, nor shout; Nor veil, with restless film, his staring eyes. FOOTNOTES: [479] Anna Jewsbury, afterwards Mrs. William Fletcher. Compare _Liberty_, in this volume, stanza 1, and the note (p. 222).--ED. [480] 1837. While they, her Playmates once, light-hearted tread The mountain turf and river's flowery marge; 1827. While they, who once were Anna's Playmates, tread The mountain turf and river's flowery marge; 1832. [481] 1832. Is Anna doomed ... 1827. [482] 1837. Yet Genius is no feeble comforter: 1827. TO THE CUCKOO Composed 1827.--Published 1827 One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.