I call this as high an example of fancy
as could well be found; it is picture and sentiment combined--the very
essence of the picturesque.
But when Keats calls Mercury "the star of Lethe," the word "star" makes
us see him as the poor ghosts do who are awaiting his convoy, while the
word "Lethe" intensifies our sympathy by making us feel his coming as
they do who are longing to drink of forgetfulness. And this again reacts
upon the word "star," which, as it before expressed only the shining of
the god, acquires a metaphysical significance from our habitual
association of star with the notions of hope and promise. Again nothing
can be more fanciful than this bit of Henry More the Platonist:
What doth move
The nightingale to sing so fresh and clear?
The thrush or lark that, mounting high above,
Chants her shrill notes to heedless ears of corn
Heavily hanging in the dewy morn?
But compare this with Keats again:
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown;
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn.
The imagination has touched that word "alien," and we see the field
through Ruth's eyes, as she looked round on the hostile spikes, not
merely through those of the poet.
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