biographer, states that the young poet profited by the attacks of the critics, their effect being to purify his style, correct his tendency to exaggeration, enlarge his poetical studies, and produce, among other improved efforts, that very Hyperion' which called forth from Byron a eulogy as violent and unqualified as the former onslaught.' Byron had termed the juvenile poetry of Keats, the drivelling idiotism of the manikin.' Keats's poetry falling into the hands of Jeffrey, he criticised it in the 'Edinburgh Review,' in a spirit of kindliness and just appreciation which formed a strong contrast to the criticism in the Quarterly.' But this genial critique did not appear till 1820, too late to cheer the then dying poet. Mr. Keats,' says the eloquent critic, 'is, we understand, still a very young man; and his whole works, indeed, bear evidence enough of the fact. They manifestly require, therefore, all the indulgence that can be claimed for a first attempt; but we think it no less plain that they deserve it; for they are flushed all over with the rich lights of fancy, and so coloured and bestrown with the flowers of poetry, that, even while perplexed and bewildered in their labyrinths, it is impossible to resist the intoxication of their sweetness, or to shut our hearts to the enchantments they so lavishly present. The "The models upon which he has formed himself in the "Endymion," the earliest and by much the most considerable of his poems, are obviously the "Faithful Shepherdess" of Fletcher, and the "Sad Shepherd" of Ben Jonson, the exquisite metres and inspired diction of which he has copied with great boldness and fidelity; and, like his great originals, has also contrived to impart to the whole piece that true rural and poetical air which breathes only in them and in Theocritus-which is at once homely and majestic, luxurious and rude, and sets before us the genuine sights, and sounds, and smells of the country, with all the magic and grace of Elysium.’ genius of the poet was still further displayed in his latest volume, Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes,' &c. This volume was well received. The state of the poet's health now became so alarming that, as a last effort for life, he was advised to try the milder climate of Italy. A young friend, Mr. Severn, an artist (now British consul at Rome), generously abandoned his professional prospects at home, in order to accompany Keats; and they sailed in September 1820. The invalid suffered severely during the voyage, and he had to endure a ten days' quarantine at Naples. The thoughts of a young lady to whom he was betrothed, and the too great probability that he would see her no more, added a deeper gloom to his mind, and he seems never to have rallied from this depression. At Rome, Mr. Severn watched over him with affectionate care; Dr. Clark also was unremitting in his attendance; but he daily got worse, and died on the 23d of February 1821. Keats was buried in the Protestant cemetery at Rome, one of the most beautiful spots on which the eye and heart of man can rest. 'It is,' says Lord Houghton, 'a grassy slope amid verdurous ruins of the Honorian walls of the diminished city, and surmounted by the pyramidal tomb which Petrarch attributed to Remus, but which antiquarian truth has ascribed to the humbler name of Caius Cestius, a tribune of the people only remembered by his sepulchre. In one of those mental voyages into the past which often precede death, Keats had told Severn that "he thought the intensest pleasure he had received in life was in watching the growth of flowers;" and another time, after lying a while still and peaceful, he said: "I feel the flowers growing over me." And there they do grow even all the winter long-violets and daisies mingling with the fresh herbage, and, in the words of Shelley, "making one in love with death to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place." Keats had a few days before his death expressed a wish to Mr. Severn that on his gravestone should be the inscription: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water." Shelley honoured the memory of Keats with his exquisite elegy 'Adonais.' Even Byron felt that the young poet's death was a loss to literature. The fragment of 'Hyperion,' he said, seems actually inspired by the Titans: it is as sublime as Æschylus." 66 It was the misfortune of Keats, as a poet, to be either extravagantly praised or unmercifully condemned. The former was owing to the generous partialities of friendship, somewhat obtrusively displayed; the latter, in some degree, to resentment of that friendship, connected as it was with party politics and peculiar views of society as well as of poetry. In the one case his faults, and in the other his merits, were entirely overlooked. A few years dispelled these illusions and prejudices. Keats was a true poet. If we consider his extreme youth and delicate health, his solitary and interesting selfinstruction, the severity of the attacks made upon him by his hostile and powerful critics, and, above all, the original richness and picturesqueness of his conceptions and imagery, even when they run to waste, he appears to be one of the greatest of the young poets-resembling the Milton of Lycidas,' or the Spencer of the Tears of the Muses.' What easy, finished, statuesque beauty and classic expression, for example, are displayed in this picture of Saturn and Thea! Byron could not, however, resist the seeming smartness of saying in Don Juan that Keats was killed off by one critique: 'Tis strange the mind. that very fiery particle, Mr. Croker, writing to a friend about this article,' in a letter which we have seen, said: Gifford added some pepper to my grill.'. A miserable piece of cookery they made of it! High as is now the fame of Keats, it is said he died admired only by his personal friends and by Shelley; and even ten years after his death.when the first Memoir was proposed, the woman he had loved had so little belief in his poetical reputation, that she wrote to Mr. Dilke: The kindest act would be to let him rest for ever in the obscurity to which circumstances have condemned him."-Papers of a Critic, vol. i. p. II. Saturn and Thea.- From Hyperion.' Deep in the shady sadness of a vale Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn, Robs not one light seed from the feathered grass, Spreading a shade: the Naiad 'mid her reeds Along the margin sand large footmarks went It seemed no force could wake him from his place; But there came one, who with a kindred hand Touched his wide shoulders, after bending low With reverence, though to one who knew it not. She was a goddess of the infant world; By her in stature the tall Amazon Had stood a pigmy's height: she would have ta'en Achilles by the hair, and bent his neck; Or with a finger stayed Ixion's wheel. Her face was large as that of Memphian sphinx, When sages looked to Egypt for their lore. As if the vanward clouds of evil days Leaning with parted lips, some words she spake "Thy thunder, conscious of the new command, Rumbles reluctant o'er our fallen house, As when, upon a tranced summer night, Which comes upon the silence, and dies off, So came these words and went. The antique grace and solemnity of passages like this must be felt by every lover of poetry. The chief defects of Keats are his want of distinctness and precision, and the carelessness of his style. There would seem to have been even affectation in his disregard of order and regularity; and he heaps up images and conceits in such profu. sion, that they often form grotesque and absurd combinations, which fatigue the reader. Deep feeling and passion are rarely given to young poets redolent of fancy, and warm from the perusal of the ancient authors. The difficulty with which Keats had mastered the classic mythology gave it an undue importance in his mind; a more perfect knowledge would have harmonised its materials, and shewn him the beauty of chasteness and simplicity of style; but Mr. Leigh Hunt is right in his opinion that the poems of Keats, with all their defects, will be the 'sure companions in field and grove' of those who love to escape out of the strife of commonplaces into the haven of solitude and imagination.' One line in Endymion' has become familiar as a 'household word' wherever the English language is spoken A thing of beauty is a joy for ever. The Lady Madeline at her Devotions.-From the Eve of St. Agnes.' Out went the taper as she hurried in; As though a tongueless nightingale should swell A casement high and triple-arched there was Of fruit, and flowers, and bunches of knot-grass, A shielded scutcheon blushed with blood of queens and kings. Full on this casement shone the wintry moon, And on her hair a glory like a saint: She seemed a splendid angel newly drest, Hymn to Pan.-From Endymion.' O thou, whose mighty palace-roof doth hang Who lovest to see the hamadryads dress Their ruffled locks where meeting hazels darken; And through whose solemn hours dost sit, and hearken The dreary melody of bedded reeds In desolate places, where dank moisture breeds The pipy hemlock to strange overgrowth, Thou wast to lose fair Syrinx-do thou now, By all the trembling mazes that she ran, O thou for whose soul-soothing quiet turtles Their freckled wings; yea, the fresh budding year By every wind that nods the mountain pine, Thou to whom every faun and satyr flies To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw; Bewildered shepherds to their path again; |