Published 1817. Addressed to G. F. Mathew, who had written some verses to accompany his cousin’s gifts of a ‘Dome shaped’ sea shell and a copy of Moore’s The Wreath and the Chain (1801).

1 Golconda Indian city, west of Hyderabad, famous for its diamonds. In fact, Golconda had no mines, but diamonds were cut and polished there.

8 Armida… Rinaldo heroine and hero of Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata.

12 Britomartis heroine of The Faerie Queene III, representing chastity and purity.

17 Sir Knight i.e., G. F. Mathew.

21 Refers to Moore’s poem (see headnote).

24 trammels shacklcs.

25 This canopy that is, its shell, which is later called ‘this little dome’ (l. 33).

25–30 A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the obvious source, but Mathew introduced Keats to W. Sotheby’s translation (1798) of Wieland’s Oberon (1780), and the influence of its romantic pathos is evident here – see W. Beyer, Keats and the Demon King (1947). The idea of fairies held a strong interest for Keats: in 1815–16 he is reported as saying, ‘the other day… during the lecture [at St Thomas’s Hospital], there came a sunbeam into the room, and with it a whole troop of creatures floating in the ray, and I was off with them to Oberon – and fairyland’ (Cowden Clarke, pp. 131–2).

41 Eric a playful nickname for Mathew.

TO EMMA

Probably written in summer 1815. Published Forman (1883). It is likely that the poem was addressed to one of two Mathew sisters, though neither was called ‘Emma’. De Selincourt, p. 563, suggests that Keats borrows the name from Wordsworth, who had used it when addressing his sister Dorothy. George Keats later used the poem, with the name appropriately changed, during his courtship (see headnote To G[eorgiana] A[ugusta] W[ylie], p. 578).

Text from autograph MS in Morgan Library, reproduced by M. A. E. Steele, KSJ, I (1952), pp. 57–63, who argues that the poem was written at the same time as ‘Fill for me a brimming bowl’ and ‘O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell’.

1 dearest ] my dear W2, G.

5 ] O come! let us haste to the freshening shades W2, G.

6 freshening shades] opening glades W2, G.

17 Then] Ah! W2, G, Allott.

17 lovely ] dearest W2, G.

SONG (‘Stay, ruby-breasted warbler, stay’)

Dated ‘About 1815/6’ (W3); Bate (1963), p. 40n, thinks it was written before autumn 1815. Published 1876. ‘This song was written at the request of some young ladies who were tired of singing the words printed with the air and desired fresh words to the same tune’ (W3). The ‘young ladies’ are identified as the Misses Mathew. Forman rejected this poem. Allott, p. 744, thinks the attribution doubtful, and considers it may be by his brother, George. Woodhouse, however, transcribed the poem, which argues in favour of Keats’s authorship.