matters of punctuation, &c., I do not consider myself bound to reproduce
the first or any other edition, but I follow the plan which appears to
myself most reasonable and correct; any point worthy of discussion in
these details will also receive attention in the Notes.




ADONAIS:

ITS ARGUMENT.


The poem of _Adonais_ can of course be contemplated from different
points of view. Its biographical relations have been already considered
in our preceding sections: its poetical structure and value, its ideal
or spiritual significance, and its particular imagery and diction, will
occupy us much as we proceed. At present I mean simply to deal with the
Argument of _Adonais_. It has a thread--certainly a slender thread--of
narrative or fable; the personation of the poetic figure Adonais, as
distinct from the actual man John Keats, and the incidents with which
that poetic figure is associated. The numerals which I put in
parentheses indicate the stanzas in which the details occur.

(1) Adonais is now dead: the Hour which witnessed his loss mourns him,
and is to rouse the other Hours to mourn. (2) He was the son of the
widowed Urania, (6) her youngest and dearest son. (2) He was slain by a
nightly arrow--'pierced by the shaft which flies in darkness.' At the
time of his death Urania was in her paradise (pleasure-garden),
slumbering, while Echoes listened to the poems which he had written as