ll. [215-29]. Cf. The Winter's Tale, iv. iv. 73, &c., where Perdita gives to each guest suitable flowers. Cf. also Ophelia's flowers, Hamlet, iv. v. 175, etc.
l. [217]. osier'd gold. The gold was woven into baskets, as though it were osiers.
l. [224]. willow, the weeping willow, so-called because its branches with their long leaves droop to the ground, like dropping tears. It has always been sacred to deserted or unhappy lovers. Cf. Othello, iv. iii. 24 seq.
adder's tongue. For was she not a serpent?
l. [226]. thyrsus. A rod wreathed with ivy and crowned with a fir-cone, used by Bacchus and his followers.
l. [228]. spear-grass . . . thistle. Because of what he is about to do.
[Page 41]. ll. [229-38]. Not to be taken as a serious expression of Keats's view of life. Rather he is looking at it, at this moment, through the eyes of the chief actors in his drama, and feeling with them.
[Page 43]. l. [263]. Notice the horror of the deadly hush and the sudden fading of the flowers.
l. [266]. step by step, prepares us for the thought of the silence as a horrid presence.
ll. [274-5]. to illume the deep-recessed vision. We at once see her dull and sunken eyes.