THE COLISEUM BY MOONLIGHT. I-7. These lines refer to the scenery of the Higher Alps, upon which Manfred gazes from his castle. 8-45. the blue midnight. The vault of heaven, with the moon shining on it, looked blue contrasted with the trees, which looked black. Similarly, trees that intervene between us and the setting sun look black, not green. the Cæsars' palace. West of the Coliseum rises the Palatine Hill, with ruins of the palaces of Augustus, Tiberius and Caligula. Notice with what beautiful pathos the poet interprets for us the associations of the past. Remove the human element from this description and more than half the charm is lost. Compare this description with an account of the Coliseum in Baedeker or in Murray, and we see that Idealism is truer than Realism. ST. PETER'S. 1-9. the dome the building. See note on this word in The Deserted Village, 319. The original design of St. Peter's was by Bramante. The corner stone was laid in 1506, and the church was consecrated in 1626. Among the distinguished architects employed upon it was Michael Angelo. Diana's marvel. The temple of Diana at Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of antiquity. For a vivid portrayal of the feeling of the Greeks towards this shrine, see Acts xix. 23-41. his martyr's tomb. The church is built on the site of the Circus of Nero, where St. Peter is said to have suffered martydom. Sophia. The mosque of St .Sophia in Constantinople, formerly a Christian church. The length of this building is 354 feet; of Milan Cathedral, 444 feet; of St. Paul's in London, 510 feet; of St. Peter's, 639 feet; of the Capitol at Washington, 751 feet. = 10-36. Zion's desolation. Jerusalem was taken by Titus in 70 A.D. only find a fit abode = find only a fit abode. This unfortunate word ‘only' is abused by more careful writers than Byron. so defined = just as clearly. 'See' must be supplied after 'now.' dome (34) must refer specifically to the dome of St. Peter's, constructed from designs by Michael Angelo. Its diameter is 138 feet; from the ground to the top of the cross is 435 feet. 37-45. That ask the eye That demand your attention. 46-54. About half of this slovenly stanza needs to be translated into English. The meaning (such as it is) seems to be: Just as the most intense feeling outstrips expression, so this mighty edifice baffles the foolish gaze that would pierce its mysteries; being so great, it cannot be grasped in its entirety by us little men until, etc. It is curious to notice how Byron, as soon as he gets away from the objective and concrete and begins to analyze, becomes not only dull, but sometimes even ungrammatical. 55-63. Line 60 utters a doubtful truth. Judging by what they did accomplish, there is nothing in St. Peter's which the architects of Greece and Rome could not have accomplished had they chosen - but they chose to accomplish better things. For the impression made by St. Peter's upon Hawthorne, see his Italian Note Book for 1858; Feb. 7 and 19, March 27, April 10. can (63) = are able to accomplish. to; THE OCEAN. Byron's love of the ocean dates from childhood. He was a daring swimmer and many instances are recorded of his achievements in that line, such as his swimming the Hellespont to see if Leander could have done it. He was never so happy as when sailing the blue Ægean; in this Apostrophe to the Ocean, he has given voice to those feelings of awe and sublimity which the ocean brings to all who love it, but which no poet has ever expressed so well as he. 1-27. unknelled, uncoffin'd and unknown (18). An echo from Hamlet i. 5, 76-77: Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, spurning him to the skies (23). Compare Vergil's description of the fleet of Æneas in a storm off the coast of Sicily: Tollimur in cælum curvato gurgite et idem Eneid, iii. 564-567. lay (27). This verb is the causal of 'lie;' as used in this line it is an indefensible solecism. 28-81. Armada; Trafalgar (36). Consult a History of England under the years 1588 and 1805. Thy waters washed them power (39). In the first edition this line was printed by mistake, 'Thy waters wasted them,' and the error has been repeated in many subsequent editions. sandal (79). The sandal is of Oriental origin and hence became associated with pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulchre; for scallop-shell, see Brewer under that title, and compare the description of the Palmer in Marmion, i. 27. The scallop shell his cap did deck, Was from Loretto brought; THE ISLES OF GREECE. For an account of the struggle for Greek independence, see Müller's Political History of Recent Times, Period i. § 5. 1-6. Sappho; the lyric poetess of Lesbos, who flourished in the seventh century B.C. Only fragments of her poetry have come down to us. Some idea of her sentiment and rhythm may be gained from the following translation (Symonds) of her Ode to Anactoria. Peer of gods he seemeth to me, the blissful Man who sits and gazes at thee before him, Silverly speaking, Laughing love's low laughter. Oh this, this only Straight is my voice hushed; Yea, my tongue is broken, and through and through me Nothing see mine eyes, and a noise of roaring Waves in my ear sounds; Sweat runs down in rivers, a tremor seizes Compare Tennyson's imitation in his Eleänore. Delos, in the Ægean Sea, the birth-place of Phœbus Apollo, was fabled to have risen from the sea. See the Æneid, iii. 73-77, and Spenser's Fairy Queen, II, xii, 13. 7-42. Scian. Scio (Chios) is one of the seven cities that claimed the honor of being the birth-place of Homer. Teian. Anacreon the lyric poet (sixth century B.C.) was born at Teos in Asia Minor. See line 63. Islands of the Blest. The classic tradition about the Islands of the Blest may have been based upon the tale of some adventurous trader who got as far as Madeira or the Azores. Marathon. See note on this word in Childe Harold, ii. 78. Salamis; Thermopylae. Consult a History of Greece under the year 480 B.C. 43-48. Byron's consecration to the cause of Greek independence proves how sincerely he felt these lines. They were written only three years before his death; five years after that event, by the aid of England, France and Russia, Greece regained her freedom. 49-72. Pyrrhic dance; said to be named from the inventor Pyrrhicus. It is accompanied by the flute and is intended to imitate the motions of a combatant. Pyrrhic phalanx; so called from Pyrrhus (= The Red-haired) King of Epirus. See the History of Rome under the years 281-275 B.C. Cadmus, is fabled to have brought the alphabet from Egypt to Greece. This story corresponds with the teachings of Comparative Alphabetics. Polycrates: Tyrant (Prince) of Samos, a generous patron of the Arts and of Letters. Miltiades: Commander of the Greek army at Marathon. 73-96. Suli; Parga; in Epirus. = Doric Spartan. Her acleidan blood- the heroic race descended from Herakles (Hercules). There may be an allusion here to the myth of the Heracleida. the Franks the French. a king: Louis XVIII. HEBREW MELODIES. With these two little lyrics, each indicative of a constantly recurring mood, we may appropriately close our study of Byron. 'Farewell, thou Titan fairer than the Gods! Farewell, farewell, thou swift and lovely spirit, Like him at length thy peace dost thou inherit; Than all the steadfast stars the wandering star.' (Andrew Lang.) JOHN KEATS. JOHN KEATS, the son of a livery-stable keeper, was born in London in 1795. He was removed from school at fifteen and apprenticed to a surgeon. His imaginative faculties were roused by reading the Faerie Queene, and when he came of age he resolved to devote himself to Literature. Cowden-Clarke and Leigh Hunt early discovered his genius; the latter published the Sonnet on Chapman's Homer in The Examiner, Dec. 1, 1816. Keats' first volume of poems (1817) attracted little attention-which is not wonderful when we remember that Scott and Byron were publishing at this time. Endymion (1818) is Greek only in its central conception of Beauty as a thing to be worshipped. In execution it is Gothic: like Alph, the sacred river, it runs Through caverns measureless to man, Blackwood's and The Quarterly descended like mastodons on this poem, tearing up its luxuriant over-growth and trampling under foot the tender flowerets that gave promise of so glorious a summer. Financial troubles, his own delicate health, the death of a brother and a distracting love-affair tightened the strain upon Keats' sensitive nature, already overwrought. While struggling against these ills, he produced his most beautiful work, the Ode on a Grecian Urn, the Ode to a Nightingale and The Eve of St. Agnes. After many experiments, he had at length found subjects suited to the display of his peculiar genius. To what more aërial heights he might have soared, we can only in sorrow conjecture. Consumption laid upon him its cruel grasp; the unfinished Hyperion is his swan-song. A voyage to Italy gave no relief; in the twenty-sixth year of his age, in the Eternal City he closed his eyes in easeful death. He was buried 'in the romantic and lonely cemetery of the Protestants in that city, under the pyramid which is the tomb of Cestius, and the massy walls and towers, now mouldering and desolate, which formed the circuit of ancient Rome. The cemetery is an open space among the ruins, covered in winter with violets and daisies. It might make one in love with death to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place.' 1 LIFE AND TIMES. BIBLIOGRAPHY. The tendency of this generation to think over-highly of Keats and his work comes out plainly in Sidney Colvin's Keats (E. M. L.), which 1 Shelley: Preface to Adonais. |