10. GOLDEN KEYS. Keys of office of state.

11. MOULD. As a minister of the Crown.

14. CROWNING SLOPE. A felicitous phrase. If it were a precipice it
could not be climbed.

15. PILLAR. That on which they build, and which supports them.

21. NARROWER. When he was still in his "low estate."

28. REMEMBER ME. Bradley notes that "the pathetic effect is increased by
the fact that in the two preceding stanzas we are not told that his old
friend does remember him."


LXXXIII

"With the dawning of the New Year, fresh hope quickens in the poet's
breast. He would fain hasten its laggard footsteps, longing for the
flowers of spring and for the glory of summer. Can trouble live in the
spring--the season of life and love and music? Let the spring come, and
he will sing 'for Arthur a sweeter, richer requiem.'"--_Elizabeth R.
Chapman_.

1. NORTHERN SHORE. Robertson explains: "The north being the last to be
included in the widening circle of lengthening daylight as it readies
further and further down from the equator."

2. NEW-YEAR. The natural, not the calendar year. The re-awakening of