l. [288]. Like . . . among. Take this line word by word, and see how many different ideas go to create the incomparably ghostly effect.
ll. [289 seq.] Horror is skilfully kept from this picture and only tragedy left. The horror is for the eyes of his murderers, not for his love.
l. [292]. unthread . . . woof. His narration and explanation of what has gone before is pictured as the disentangling of woven threads.
l. [293]. darken'd. In many senses, since their crime was (1) concealed from Isabella, (2) darkly evil, (3) done in the darkness of the wood.
[Page 68]. ll. [305 seq.] The whole sound of this stanza is that of a faint and far-away echo.
l. [308]. knelling. Every sound is like a death-bell to him.
[Page 69]. l. [316]. That paleness. Her paleness showing her great love for him; and, moreover, indicating that they will soon be reunited.
l. [317]. bright abyss, the bright hollow of heaven.
l. [322]. The atom . . . turmoil. Every one must know the sensation of looking into the darkness, straining one's eyes, until the darkness itself seems to be composed of moving atoms. The experience with which Keats, in the next lines, compares it, is, we are told, a common experience in the early stages of consumption.
[Page 70]. l. [334]. school'd my infancy. She was as a child in her ignorance of evil, and he has taught her the hard lesson that our misery is not always due to the dealings of a blind fate, but sometimes to the deliberate crime and cruelty of those whom we have trusted.