[Page 83]. ll. [5-6]. told His rosary. Cf. Isabella, ll. [87-8].
l. 8. without a death. The 'flight to heaven' obscures the simile of the incense, and his breath is thought of as a departing soul.
[Page 84]. l. [12]. meagre, barefoot, wan. Such a compression of a description into three bare epithets is frequent in Keats's poetry. He shows his marvellous power in the unerring choice of adjective; and their enumeration in this way has, from its very simplicity, an extraordinary force.
l. [15]. purgatorial rails, rails which enclose them in a place of torture.
l. [16]. dumb orat'ries. The transference of the adjective from person to place helps to give us the mysterious sense of life in inanimate things. Cf. Hyperion, iii. [8]; Ode to a Nightingale, l. [66].
l. [22]. already . . . rung. He was dead to the world. But this hint should also prepare us for the conclusion of the poem.
[Page 85]. l. [31]. 'gan to chide. l. [32]. ready with their pride. l. [34]. ever eager-eyed. l. [36]. with hair . . . breasts. As if trumpets, rooms, and carved angels were all alive. See Introduction, p. [212].
l. [37]. argent, silver. They were all glittering with rich robes and arms.
[Page 86]. l. [56]. yearning . . . pain, expressing all the exquisite beauty and pathos of the music; and moreover seeming to give it conscious life.
[Page 87]. l. [64]. danc'd, conveying all her restlessness and impatience as well as the lightness of her step.