X.

I saw pale kings, and princes too,

Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd-"La belle Dame sans merci
Hath thee in thrall!"

XI.

I saw their starv'd lips in the gloam
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke, and found me here

On the cold hill side.

XII.

And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,

Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

SONG OF FOUR FAERIES,

FIRE, AIR, EARTH, AND WATER,

SALAMANDER, ZEPHYR, DUSKETHA, AND BREAMA.

SALAMANDER.

HAPPY, happy glowing fire!

ZEPHYR.

Fragrant air! delicious light!

DUSKETHA.

Let me to my glooms retire!

in the journal-letter Keats says-"Why four kisses-you will say -why four because I wish to restrain the headlong impetuosity of my Muse-she would have fain said 'score' without hurting the rhyme-but we must temper the Imagination as the Critics say with Judgment."

X The Draft reads They for Who in line 3, and
Thee hath in thrall.

XI 1 gloam Draft, Woodhouse, and Houghton: gloom "Indicator." Hunt probably made that small change. Line 2 of the stanza had been begun with All tremble and had then been written

With horrid warning wide agape

before the reading of the text was adopted.

XII 1 And this is why I wither.- Draft, rejected.

The "Song of Four Faeries" also occurs in the journal-letter containing "La Belle Dame."

BREAMA.

I to green-weed rivers bright!

SALAMANDER.

Happy, happy glowing fire!
Dazzling bowers of soft retire,
Ever let my nourish'd wing,
Like a bat's, still wandering,
Faintless fan your fiery spaces,
Spirit sole in deadly places.
In unhaunted roar and blaze,
Open eyes that never daze,
Let me see the myriad shapes

Of men, and beasts, and fish, and apes,
Portray'd in many a fiery den,

And wrought by spumy bitumen.
On the deep intenser roof,
Arched every way aloof,

Let me breathe upon their skies,
And anger their live tapestries;
Free from cold, and every care,
Of chilly rain, and shivering air.

ZEPHYR.

Spirit of Fire! away! away!
Or your very roundelay

Will sear my plumage newly budded
From its quilled sheath, all studded
With the self-same dews that fell
On the May-grown Asphodel.

Spirit of Fire--away! away!

BREAMA.

Spirit of Fire-away! away!
Zephyr, blue-eyed Faery, turn,
And see my cool sedge-bury'd urn,
Where it rests its mossy brim
'Mid water-mint and cresses dim;
And the flowers, in sweet troubles,
Lift their eyes above the bubbles,
Like our Queen, when she would please
To sleep, and Oberon will teaze.

10

20

30

Love me, blue-eyed Faery, true!
Soothly I am sick for you.

ZEPHYR.

Gentle Breama! by the first
Violet young nature nurst,
I will bathe myself with thee,
So you sometimes follow me
To my home, far, far, in west,
Beyond the nimble-wheeled quest
Of the golden-browed sun:
Come with me, o'er tops of trees,
To my fragrant palaces,
Where they ever floating are
Beneath the cherish of a star

Call'd Vesper, who with silver veil
Ever hides his brilliance pale,
Ever gently-drows'd doth keep
Twilight for the Fayes to sleep.
Fear not that your watery hair
Will thirst in drouthy ringlets there;
Clouds of stored summer rains
Thou shalt taste, before the stains
Of the mountain soil they take,
And too unlucent for thee make.
I love thee, crystal Faery, true!
Sooth I am as sick for you!

SALAMANDER.

Out, ye aguish Faeries, out!
Chilly lovers, what a rout

Keep ye with your frozen breath,
Colder than the mortal death.
Adder-eyed Dusketha, speak,
Shall we leave these, and go seek
In the earth's wide entrails old
Couches warm as their's are cold?
O for a fiery gloom and thee,
Dusketha, so enchantingly
Freckle-wing'd and lizard-sided!

46 Far beyond the search and quest Journal-letter. 65 Chillier than the water Journal-letter, cancelled.

40

50

60

70

DUSKETHA.

By thee, Sprite, will I be guided!
I care not for cold or heat;

Frost and flame, or sparks, or sleet,

To my essence are the same ;—
But I honour more the flame.
Sprite of Fire, I follow thee
Wheresoever it may be,

To the torrid spouts and fountains,
Underneath earth-quaked mountains;
Or, at thy supreme desire,
Touch the very pulse of fire
With my bare unlidded eyes.

SALAMANDER.

Sweet Dusketha! paradise!
Off, ye icy Spirits, fly!

Frosty creatures of the sky!

DUSKETHA.

Breathe upon them, fiery sprite !

ZEPHYR AND BREAMA.

Away! away to our delight!

SALAMANDER.

Go, feed on icicles, while we
Bedded in tongue-flames will be.

DUSKETHA.

Lead me to those feverous glooms,
Sprite of Fire!

80

90

BREAMA.

Me to the blooms,

Blue-eyed Zephyr, of those flowers

Far in the west where the May-cloud lowers;
And the beams of still Vesper, when winds

are all wist,

Are shed thro' the rain and the milder mist,
And twilight your floating bowers.

82 To the very torrid fountains— Journal-letter, rejected. 98 when] where Journal-letter.

100

TWO SONNETS ON FAME

I

FAME, like a wayward Girl, will still be coy
To those who woo her with too slavish knees,
But makes surrender to some thoughtless Boy,
And dotes the more upon a heart at ease;
She is a Gipsey, will not speak to those

Who have not learnt to be content without her ; A Jilt, whose ear was never whisper'd close,

Who thinks they scandal her who talk about her; A very Gipsey is she, Nilus-born,

Sister-in-law to jealous Potiphar;

Ye love-sick Bards, repay her scorn for scorn,
Ye Artists lovelorn, madmen that ye are!
Make your best bow to her and bid adieu,
Then, if she likes it, she will follow you.

II

"You cannot eat your cake and have it too."—Proverb.

How fever'd is the man, who cannot look

Upon his mortal days with temperate blood, Who vexes all the leaves of his life's book, And robs his fair name of its maidenhood;

It is as if the rose should pluck herself,

Or the ripe plum finger its misty bloom, As if a Naiad, like a meddling elf,

10

Should darken her pure grot with muddy gloom, But the rose leaves herself upon the briar,

For winds to kiss and grateful bees to feed,

10

And the ripe plum still wears its dim attire,
The undisturbed lake has crystal space,
Why then should man, teasing the world for grace,
Spoil his salvation for a fierce miscreed?

These two sonnets also occur in the Journal-letter.

II 7-8 As if a clear Lake meddling with itself

Should cloud its pureness with a muddy gloom

Journal-letter.

13-14 Why then should man his own bright name deface And burn our pleasures in his selfish fire

Journal-letter, rejected.