It is to be observed, moreover, that the trance of
Adonis attended by Cupids forms an incident in Keats's own poem of
_Endymion_, book ii--
'For on a silken couch of rosy pride,
In midst of all, there lay a sleeping youth
Of fondest beauty; fonder, in fair sooth,
Than sighs could fathom or contentment reach.
* * * * *
... Hard by
Stood serene Cupids, watching silently.
One, kneeling to a lyre, touched the strings,
Muffling to death the pathos with his wings,
And ever and anon uprose to look
At the youth's slumber; while another took
A willow-bough distilling odorous dew,
And shoot it on his hair; another flew
In through the woven roof, and fluttering-wise
Rained violets upon his sleeping eyes.'
1. 2. _The passion-winged ministers of thought._ The 'Dreams' are here
defined as being thoughts (or ministers of thought) winged with passion;
not mere abstract cogitations, but thoughts warm with the heart's blood,
emotional conceptions--such thoughts as subserve the purposes of poetry,
and enter into its structure: in a word, poetic thoughts.
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