11. 6, 7. _Came, veiling all the lightnings of his song In sorrow._ No
doubt it would have been satisfactory to Shelley if he could have
found that Byron entertained or expressed any serious concern
at Keats's premature death, and at the hard measure which had
been meted out to him by critics. Byron did in fact admire
_Hyperion_; writing (in November 1821, not long after the publication
of _Adonais_)--'His fragment of _Hyperion_ seems actually inspired
by the Titans, and is as sublime as Aeschylus'; and other
utterances of his show that--being with difficulty persuaded to
suppose that Keats's health and life had succumbed to the attack
in the _Quarterly_--he fittingly censured the want of feeling or
want of reflection on the critic's part which had produced so
deplorable a result. But on the whole Byron's feeling towards
Keats was one of savage contempt during the young poet's life,
and of bantering levity after his death. Here are some specimens.
(From a letter to Mr. Murray, 12 October, 1820). 'There is such
a trash of Keats and the like upon my tables that I am ashamed
to look at them.
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