The wondering spirits of heaven were mute,

And tears 'mong the dewdrops of morning oft glistened.

In this little dome, all those melodies strange,

Soft, plaintive, and melting, for ever will sigh;

Nor e'er will the notes from their tenderness change;

Nor e'er will the music of Oberon die.

So, when I am in a voluptuous vein,

I pillow my head on the sweets of the

rose,

And list to the tale of the wreath, and the chain,

Till its echoes depart; then I sink to repose.

Adieu, valiant Eric! with joy thou art crown'd;

As the sky-searching lark, and as elate. Minion of grandeur ! think you he did wait?

Think you he nought but prison-walls did see,

Till, so unwilling, thou unturn'dst the key?

Ah, no! far happier, nobler was his fate! In Spenser's halls he strayed, and bowers fair,

Culling enchanted flowers; and he flew With daring Milton through the fields of air:

To regions of his own his genius true Took happy flights. Who shall his fame impair

When thou art dead, and all thy wretched crew?

TO HOPE

Keats dates this poem in the volume of 1817,

WRITTEN ON THE DAY THAT MR. LEIGH HUNT LEFT PRISON

Either the 2d or 3d of February, 1815. Charles Cowden Clarke, to whom Keats showed the sonnet, writes in his recollections:

This I feel to be the first proof I had received of his having committed himself in verse; and how clearly do I recollect the conscious look and hesitation with which he offered it! There are some momentary glances by beloved friends that fade only with life.' The sonnet was printed in the 1817 volume.

WHAT though, for showing truth to flatter'd state,

Kind Hunt was shut in prison, yet has he,

In his immortal spirit, been as free

WHEN by my solitary hearth I sit,

And hateful thoughts enwrap my soul in

gloom;

When no fair dreams before my mind's eye' flit,

And the bare heath of life presents no bloom;

Sweet Hope, ethereal balm upon me shed,

And wave thy silver pinions o'er my head.

Whene'er I wander, at the fall of night, Where woven boughs shut out the moon's bright ray, Should sad Despondency my musings fright,

And frown, to drive fair Cheerfulness away,

Peep with the moonbeams through the leafy roof,

And keep that fiend Despondence far aloof.

Published in the 1817 volume. Lord Houghton states that this sonnetwas the means of introducing Keats to Mr. Leigh Hunt's society. Mr. Cowden Clarke had brought some of his young friend's verses and read them aloud. Mr. Horace Smith, who happened to be there, was struck with the last six lines, especially the penultimate, saying "what a well condensed expression!" and Keats was shortly after introduced to the literary circle.' This would appear to fix the date as not later than the summer of 1815.

How many bards gild the lapses of time!

A few of them have ever been the food Of my delighted fancy, I could brood Over their beauties, earthly, or sublime : And often, when I sit me down to rhyme, These will in throngs before my mind intrude:

But no confusion, no disturbance rude Do they occasion; 't is a pleasing chime. So the unnumber'd sounds that evening store;

The songs of birds - the whisp'ring of

KEEN, fitful gusts are whisp'ring here and there

Among the bushes half leafless, and dry;

The stars look very cold about the sky, And I have many miles on foot to fare. Yet feel I little of the cool bleak air,

Or of the dead leaves rustling drearily, Or of those silver lamps that burn on high,

Or of the distance from home's pleasant lair:

For I am brimful of the friendliness

That in a little cottage I have found; Of fair-hair'd Milton's eloquent distress, And all his love for gentle Lycid drown'd; Of lovely Laura in her light green dress, And faithful Petrarch gloriously crown'd.

SPENSERIAN STANZA

WRITTEN AT THE CLOSE OF CANTO II. BOOK V. OF 'THE FAERIE QUEENE'

Given by Lord Houghton in Life, Letters and Literary Remains, who comments as follows: 'His sympathies were very much on the side of the revolutionary Giant, who "undertook for to repair" the "realms and nations run awry," and to suppress tyrants that make men subject to their law," "and lordings curbe that commons over-aw," while he grudged the legitimate victory, as he rejected the conservative philosophy, of the " righteous Artegall " and his comrade, the fierce defender of privilege and order. And he expressed in this ex post facto prophecy, his conviction of the