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1
Stillinger silently changes indentation in sixteen poems from the three original Keats volumes. Affected are eight 1817 poems in couplets (including "I stood tip-toe" and "Sleep and Poetry"), Endymion, three 1817 sonnets ("How many bards gild the lapses of time," "O Solitude," "To Kosciusko"), and four 1820 odes ("Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode on a Grecian Urn," "To Autumn," "Ode on Melancholy"). Although the sonnets and odes are more strikingly affected by Stillinger's policy than the narrative and epistolary poems, I will present all the evidence so that readers may judge for themselves the aesthetic and interpretive implications of each emendation.
To insure that all verse paragraphs begin with indentions (a goal he articulates in his apparatus, see silent emendation four, above), Stillinger emends the following 1817 poems in couplets and Endymion: "I stood tiptoe"[4] (indenting ll. 29, 35, 47, 57, 61, 107, 163, 181, 193, 205, 211), "Specimen
In the 1817 sonnets, Stillinger emends the sestets of three poems, apparently to match rhyming lines. (He agrees with 1817 in identing ll. 2-3, 6-7 of the octave.) To be specific, 1817 indents 10, 12, 14 of "How many bards" and "O Solitude," while Stillinger indents 10, 11, 13. As both poems have a CDDCDC rhyme scheme in the sestet, juxtaposition of Stillinger's and 1817's versions of the sestet from "O Solitude" will visualize Stillinger's emendation of the two sonnets:
10 Yet the sweet converse of an innocent mind,
Whose words are images of thoughts refin'd,
Is my soul's pleasure; and it sure must be
Almost the highest bliss of human-kind,
When to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee. (1817)
10 Yet the sweet converse of an innocent mind,
Whose words are images of thoughts refin'd,
Is my soul's pleasure; and it sure must be
Almost the highest bliss of human-kind,
When to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee. (Stillinger)
10 When some good spirit walks upon the earth,
Thy name with Alfred's, and the great of yore
Gently commingling, gives tremendous birth
To a loud hymn, that sounds far, far away
To where the great God lives for evermore. (1817)
10 When some good spirit walks upon the earth,
Thy name with Alfred's and the great of yore
Gently commingling, gives tremendous birth
To a loud hymn, that sounds far, far away
To where the great God lives for evermore. (Stillinger)
As in the octave of the 1817 sonnets, Stillinger's indenting of the 1820 odes agrees with copy-text in the opening of each stanza. Like 1820, he indents ll. 2, 4 of all stanzas, presenting these first four lines as, in Miriam
55 To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstacy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain— (1820)
To thy high requiem become a sod. (1820)
55 To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstacy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod. (Stillinger)
In his edition of "Ode on a Grecian Urn," Stillinger silently emends indentation in the final three lines of stanzas two and five. Whereas 1820 indents 19 and double-indents 20, Stillinger indents 20 and double-indents 19. And 1820 leaves 41 unindented, indenting 49 and double-indenting 50, while Stillinger leaves 49 unindented, indenting 48 and double-indenting 50:
Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
20 For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! (1820)
Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
20 For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! (Stillinger)
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"—that is all
50 Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. (1820)
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"—that is all
50 Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. (Stillinger)
Finally, Stillinger differs from 1820 in stanza one of "To Autumn": although 1820 leaves 8 unindented and indents 9, 10, Stillinger indents 8 and leaves 9, 10 unindented. And in stanza three of "Ode on Melancholy," 1820 indents 29 and double-indents 30, whereas Stillinger indents 28, leaves 29 unindented, and double-indents 30.
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