421. Looks towards England.
422. The feelings of the exile are the same as those of the poet.
423-38. Lines 361-422 have been in the nature of a digression, and the poet now returns to his original subject as presented in the first hundred lines of the poem. He has come to the conclusion that happiness does not depend upon external conditions, but upon the individual himself; and this conclusion is summed up in lines 431-2.
425. Why have I tried to find the source of happiness in the government rather than in the mind, which is the centre of pleasure and repose?
431. Consigned modifies felicity. We are entrusted with the making of our own happiness.
433-4. The joy which any man feels in his life from day to day comes from his own innermost feelings, and external events cannot disturb it.
435-8. Even though a man be put to torture, it cannot rob him of the truest sources of happiness in his life—reason, faith and conscience.
434. The lifted axe. The executioner’s axe.
the agonizing wheel. An instrument of torture causing extreme agony. The victim was fastened to a wheel or a cross, and his legs were broken with an iron bar.
436. Luke’s iron crown. In 1513 two brothers, George and Luke Dosa, were taken prisoners in a rebellion. George (not Luke) Dosa was put to death by having a red hot crown placed on his head, in mockery of his desire to become king.