Perhaps Keats had some recollection of Wordsworth's sonnet 'Upon the sight of a beautiful picture,' beginning 'Praised be the art.'
[Page 113]. l. [2]. foster-child. The child of its maker, but preserved and cared for by these foster-parents.
l. [7]. Tempe was a famous glen in Thessaly.
Arcady. Arcadia, a very mountainous country, the centre of the Peloponnese, was the last stronghold of the aboriginal Greeks. The people were largely shepherds and goatherds, and Pan was a local Arcadian god till the Persian wars (c. 400 b.c.). In late Greek and in Roman pastoral poetry, as in modern literature, Arcadia is a sort of ideal land of poetic shepherds.
[Page 114]. ll. [17-18]. Bold . . . goal. The one thing denied to the figures—actual life. But Keats quickly turns to their rich compensations.
[Page 115]. ll. [28-30]. All . . . tongue. Cf. Shelley's To a Skylark:
Thou lovest—but ne'er knew love's sad satiety.
ll. [31 seq.] Keats is now looking at the other side of the urn. This verse strongly recalls certain parts of the frieze of the Parthenon (British Museum).
[Page 116]. l. [41]. Attic, Greek.
brede, embroidery. Cf. Lamia, i. [159]. Here used of carving.
