tenth of November, 1793, the Goddess of Reason was enthroned in Notre Dame

Cathedral. 418. 66. From bleak Helvetia's icy caverns.

The ode was occasioned by the French invasion of Switzerland in 1798.

KUBLA KHAN

66

a

419. Coleridge writes, in his preface to the

poem: In consequence of a slight indis-
position, an anodyne had been prescribed,
from the effects of which he Coleridge]
fell asleep in his chair at the moment that
he was reading the following sentence,
or words of the same substance, in Pur-
chas's Pilgrimage: 'Here the Khan Kubla
commanded a palace to be built, and a
stately garden thereunto. And thus
ten miles of fertile ground were inclosed
with a wall. The author continued for
about three hours in a profound sleep,
at least of the external senses, during
which time he has the most vivid confi-
dence that he could not have composed
less than from two to three hundred lines;
if that indeed can be called composition
in which all the images rose up before
him as things, with a parallel production
of the correspondent expressions, without
any sensation or consciousness of effort.
On awaking he appeared to himself to
have a distinct recollection of the whole,
and instantly and eagerly wrote down the
lines that are here preserved. At this
moment he was unfortunately called out
by a person on business . .. and de-
tained by him above an hour, and on his
return to his room found that ...
all the rest had passed away.”
Professor William A. Neilson, in his
recent Essentials of Poetry, writes: “In
... Coleridge's Kubla Khan we have
no wrestling with spiritual questions, no
lofty solution of the problem of conduct
found through brooding on the beauties of
nature. Instead, a thousand impressions
received from the senses, from records of
Oriental travel, from numberless roman-
tic tales, have been taken in by the author,
dissolved as in a crucible by the fierce
heat of his imagination, and are poured
forth a molten stream of sensuous im-
agery, incalculable in its variety of sug-
gestion, yet homogeneous, unified, and,
despite its fragmentary character, the
ultimate expression of a whole romantic
world” (p. 43).

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER In Wordsworth's note on his own poem, We Are Seven, the following passage explains the origin of the Ancient Mariner: ** In the spring of the year 1798 (Coleridge), my sister, and myself, started to visit Linton. In the course of this walk was planned the poem of the

worth's marriage-in the Morning Post. Although Wordsworth's name did not appear in this version, it was in fact addressed to him. Later, after an estrangement between the two poets, Coleridge revised and enlarged the ode. The first form is printed in the Globe edition of

Coleridge's works, p. 522.. 433. 25. O Lady! In the earlier version, here

and throughout the poem, O Edmund!
under which pseudonym Coleridge ad-
dressed Wordsworth.
40. What can these avail.

What can these beauties of nature avail? 436. 120. As Otway's self. Originally

Edmund's self."
138. Friend devoutest of my choice. The
poem originally closed with these lines:

O simple spirit, guided from above,
O lofty Poet, full of life and love,
Brother and friend of my devoutest choice,
Thus may'st thou ever, evermore rejoice!"

as

WORK WITHOUT HOPE 436. The poem was composed in February,

1827, long after Coleridge's best work
had been done.
7. Amaranths. Legendary flowers sym-
bolic of immortality.

Ancient Mariner, founded on a dream, as Mr. Coleridge said, of his friend, Mr. Cruikshank. Much the greatest part of the story was Mr. Coleridge's invention; but certain parts I myself suggested:for example, some crime was to be committed which should bring upon the old Navigator, as Coleridge afterwards delighted to call him, the spectral persecution, as a consequence of that crime, and his own wanderings. I had been reading in Shelvocke's Voyages a day or two before that while doubling Cape Horn they frequently saw albatrosses.

Suppose,' said I, 'you represent him as having killed one of these birds on entering the South Sea, and that the tutelary Spirits of those regions take upon them to avenge the crime!' The incident was thought fit for the purpose, and adopted accordingly. I also suggested the navigation of the ship by the dead men, but do not recollect that I had anything more to do with the scheme of the poem.

We began the composition together on that, to me, memorable evening. I furnished two or three lines at the beginning of the poem, in particular:. And listened like a three years' child; The Mariner had his will.'”

The poem was first printed in the 1798 edition of the Lyrical Ballads. Many archaisms, intended to make it resemble the popular ballads, and a few stanzas, were afterwards removed. The marginal gloss was added when the poem appeared in the Sybilline Leaves, 1817.

FROST AT MIDNIGHT 430. The poem was written in February, 1798,

while Coleridge was living in his cottage at Nether-Stowey.

7. My cradled infant. His son Hartley. 431. 25. At school. Coleridge entered Christ's

Hospital when he was ten years old, and
remained there till he went up to Cam-
bridge University in 1791. Cf. Lamb's
Christ's Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago,
P. 512.
27. That fluttering stranger. “ A flake
or film of soot hanging on the bar of a
grate, supposed to foretell the advent of a
stranger.” (English Dialect Dictionary.)
38. The stern preceptor. Boyer, the
famous flogging master” of Christ's
Hospital.
43. Sister more beloved. Between Cole-
ridge and his sister Ann, who died in 1791,
there was a strong attachment.
55. Thou, my babe! shalt wander, etc.
The prophecy in these lines was fulfilled
when in 1800 Coleridge moved to Greta
Hall, Keswick, in the lake district.

DEJECTION: AN ODE 433. The poem was first printed on the fourth

BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA 37. The Lyrical Ballads. The title given to the 1798 volume to which both Wordsworth and Coleridge contributed. It contained, among other poems, Tintern

Abbey, and The Ancient Mariner. 437. 85. A preface. See the selections from

this Preface, pp. 389 ff. 439. 297. Præcipitandus, etc. The free spirit

must be urged forward.
354. Laxis effertur habenis. He is car-
ried with loose reins.
371. Sir John Davies. Lawyer and poet
(1569-1626), best known for his poems
Orchestra, Or a Poeme of Dancing, and
Nosce Teipsum, on the immortality of
the soul; the quotation is from the latter.

SCOTT

BOAT SONG 442. 10. Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu. “ Black

Roderick, the descendant of Alpine."
(Scott.)
12. Beltane. May-day.

6

CORONACH 443. “ The Coronach of the Highlanders was

HARP OF THE NORTH

443. This is a sort of epilogue to The Lady of

the Lake.

JOCK OF HAZELDEAN 444. The first stanza is traditional; see F. J. Child's English and Scottish

Popular Ballads, v. 159, for the older John of Hazelgreen on which Scott modelled his song.

BRIGNALL BANKS

From Rokeby.

COUNTY GUY

446. From Quentin Durward.

BONNY DUNDEE

From The Doom of Devor goil. 1. Claver'se. John Graham of Claverhouse (1649?-1689), an ardent and successful partisan of Charles II, won the title “ bloody Claver'se” by his persecution of the Scottish Dissenters during the last years of Charles's reign. In 1688 he was created first Viscount Dundee by James II. After James's flight, Claverhouse maintained a royal army in Scotland, and won the battle of Killiecrankie in July, 1689, but died of a wound the night of the victory. The incident referred to in the poem took place March 18, 1688, when Claverhouse rode out of Edinburgh at the head of some fifty dragoons, having bolted the Convention that was to determine Scotland's attitude towards James II. 13. The Bow. Bow Street, Edinburgh. 14. Ilk carline was flyting and shaking her pow. Every old woman was scolding and wagging her head. 15. The young plants of grace they looked couthie and slee. The young men looked kindly and sly. 17. The Grassmarket. An open square in the center of the city, formerly used for public executions. See The Heart of Midlothian, Chapter ii. 21. Cowls of Kilmarnock. The Presbyterian Whigs, who were all anti-Stuart. 22. Lang hafted gullies. Long handled knives. 23. Close-head. The entrance to a blind alley. (Engl. Dialect Dictionary.)

rock. Edinburgh Castle stands on a high rock above the city. 27. Mons Meg and her marrows. Mons

25. Castle

Meg"

466. 703. The Niobe of nations. Niobe, all of

whose children were slain by Apollo and Diana because of her pride, stands as a

symbol of grief and suffering. 467. 732. When Brutus, etc. The reference

is to the murder of Julius Cæsar by
Brutus and the other conspirators. See
North's translation of Plutarch, p. 91,
this volume.
734. Tully. Marcus Tullius Cicero.
1252. I see before me the gladiator lie.
Byron seems to have had in mind the
statue of the “ Dying Gaul,” now known
to have no connection with gladiatorial

combats. 469. 1648. I have loved thee, Ocean. Byron

was a swimmer of extraordinary ability.

DON JUAN: DEDICATION 460. 1. Bob Southey! You're a Poet. The

satiric dedication to Robert Southey was
only one shot in the war between the two
men. See the Introduction to Byron's
Vision of Judgment.
3. You turned out a Tory. Southey, like
Coleridge, was an enthusiastic republican
in his young manhood; later he became
strongly conservative.
5. My Epic Renegade. Byron probably
has in mind Southey's early work, Wat
Tyler, which was strongly republican,
and was published contrary to Southey's
wishes after he had given up his re-
publicanism.
13. Coleridge ... explaining meta-
physics to the nation. During the latter
part of his life Coleridge all but aban-
doned poetry in favor of philosophy.
The Biographia Literaria was published
in 1817.
25. Wordsworth, in a rather long “Ex-
cursion." Wordsworth's philosophical
poem, The Excursion, was published in
1814.
132. Buff and blue. Here used, as often,
as symbolic of republicanism.

461. 730. Thermopylæ. The most famous

battle at the pass of Thermopylæ was
the contest in 480 B. C. between Leonidas
and three hundred Spartans, and the
Persian army of Xerxes.
743. Pyrrhic dance. A martial dance.
744. Pyrrhic phalanx. Pyrrhus (318?-
272 B. C.), King of Epirus, achieved
several military successes through his use
of the closely massed phalanx.
747. You have the letters Cadmus gave.
Cadmus, one of the world's “culture
heroes,” was supposed to have given the
alphabet to men.
751. Anacreon's song : .. Polycrates.
Anacreon, Greek eulogist of love and
wine, lived at the court of Polycrates,
Tyrant of Samos.
755. Tyrant of the Chersonese. Mil-
tiades, who, as leader of the Greeks at
Marathon, was “ freedom's best and
bravest friend."
762. Suli's rock and Parga's shore. The
first a mountain district, the second a
seaport, in Albania. Both were famous
for their warlike inhabitants.
764. Doric. Spartan.
766. Heracleidan. Of Hercules.
779. Sunium's marbled steep. A ruined
temple at Sunium, or Cape Colonna,
served as a landmark for vessels approach-

ing the southern extremity of Attica. 462. 813. Troy owes to Homer what whist

owes to Hoyle. Edmund Hoyle (1672–
1769), whose Short Treatise on W'hist
was published in 1742, was long the un-
questioned authority on the game.
815. The great Marlborough. : Life
by Archdeacon Coxe. William Coxe
(1747–1828), archdeacon of Wiltshire,
published his Memoirs of John, Duke of
Marlborough in the years 1818 and 1819.
Marlborough is, of course, Queen Anne's
great general.
819. An independent being. Probably a
pun; during the latter part of his life
Milton was a member of the religious
sect known as “ Independents.”
821. His life falling into Johnson's way,
Dr. Johnson's life of Milton, in his Lives
of the Poets, is unsympathetic.
826. Lord Bacon's bribes.

These are
facts; the stories concerning Cæsar,
Shakespeare, etc., may be apocryphal.
828. Burns (whom Doctor Currie well
describes). Dr. James Currie (1756-
1805) published an edition of Burns's
works, with a memoir, in 1800.
833. Southey . Pantisocracy. Southey
and Coleridge were the two leaders in
an attempt, which came to naught, to
found an ideal commonwealth on the
banks of the Susquehanna River.
835. Wordsworth unexcised, unhired. In
the year 1812 Wordsworth was appointed
Distributor of Stamps for the county of
Westmoreland. The office was worth
£400 per year.

CANTO III 690. Sappho. The only woman among the world's great poets. She lived approximately 600 B. C. 692. Delos.

A Greek island, the birthplace of Phæbus Apollo. 695. The Scian and the Teian muse. Homer and Anacreon, so called from their birthplaces, real or supposed, Scio and Teos, respectively. 701. Marathon. The battle of Marathon, fought in 490 B. C. between the Persians and the Greeks, resulted in an overwhelming victory for the latter. It took place on the plains of Marathon, overlooking the sea. 708. Salamis. In 480 B. C. the Greek fleet under Themistocles defeated the Persian fleet. The battle was fought in the strait between the island of Salamis and the mainland of Attica.

hand of the sculptor and the heart of the king.

ODE TO THE WEST WIND

473. 21. Mænad. A priestess of Bacchus.

32. Baiæ's bay. Baiæ, near Naples,
was a famous watering place during the
Roman empire.
43. If I were, etc. The first stanza of the
poem has to do chiefly with the effect of
the West Wind on the leaves; the second,
with its effect on the clouds; and the third,
with its effect on the waves. In the first
three lines of this stanza these three ideas
are woven together.

THE INDIAN SERENADE

474. 11. Champak. An Indian tree, somewhat

like a magnolia.

THE CLOUD

476. 81. Cenotaph. A monument built in

honor of a person who is buried in some other place.

PROMETHEUS UNBOUND: ACT IV

479. 1. This is the day, etc. Demogorgon's

speech gives Shelley's idea of the reconstructed universe for which he was always longing.

ADONAIS Shelley's elegy, reminiscent of Milton's Lycidas, was written in memory of John Keats, who died at Rome, February 22, 1821. 12. Urania. The heavenly Muse, prop

erly the patroness of Astronomy: 480. 30. The Sire of an immortal strain. John

Milton.
55. That high Capital. Keats, was buried

in the Protestant cemetery at Rome. 481. 133. She pined away;

Narcissus disdained the love of the nymph Echo;

Echo died of grief. 482. 140. To Phæbus was not Hyacinth so

dear. The youth Hyacinth, greatly be-
loved by Apollo, was turned into the
flower that bears his name.
141. Nor to himself Narcissus. Narcissus
fell in love with his own reflection in a
pool, and was turned into a flower.
151, 2. The curse of Cain Light on his
head. On the head of the critic who,
according to the belief of the times,

killed Keats with his brutal reviews. 483. 238. The unpastured dragon. The world. 244 ff. The herded wolves, ravens,

vultures. Critics “ to the conqueror's banner true," i. e., subservient to the political party in power. Keats's friendship with Leigh Hunt, a very advanced Liberal, brought many attacks

9