Adonais

Chapter 17

[16] This pa.s.sage of the letter had remained unpublished up to 1890. It then appeared in Mr. Buxton Forman"s volume, _Poetry and Prose by John Keats_. Some authentic information as to Keats"s change of feeling had, however, been published before.

[17] This phrase is lumbering and not grammatical. The words "I confess that I am unable to refuse" would be all that the meaning requires.

[18] This seems to contradict the phrase in _Adonais_ (stanza 20) "Nought we know dies." Probably Sh.e.l.ley, in the prose pa.s.sage, does not intend "perishes" to be accepted in the absolute sense of "dies," or "ceases to have any existence;" he means that all things undergo a process of deterioration and decay, leading on to some essential change or trans.m.u.tation. The French have the word "deperir" as well as "perir": Sh.e.l.ley"s "perishes" would correspond to "deperit."

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