This distorts one's mind--makes
one's thoughts bizarre--perplexes one in the standard of Beauty.'
For the text of _Adonais_ in the present edition I naturally have
recourse to the original Pisan edition, but without neglecting such
alterations as have been properly introduced into later issues; these
will be fully indicated and accounted for in my Notes. In the minor
matters of punctuation, &c., I do not consider myself bound to reproduce
the first or any other edition, but I follow the plan which appears to
myself most reasonable and correct; any point worthy of discussion in
these details will also receive attention in the Notes.
ADONAIS:
ITS ARGUMENT.
The poem of _Adonais_ can of course be contemplated from different
points of view. Its biographical relations have been already considered
in our preceding sections: its poetical structure and value, its ideal
or spiritual significance, and its particular imagery and diction, will
occupy us much as we proceed. At present I mean simply to deal with the
Argument of _Adonais_. It has a thread--certainly a slender thread--of
narrative or fable; the personation of the poetic figure Adonais, as
distinct from the actual man John Keats, and the incidents with which
that poetic figure is associated.
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