of August 23, 1820, some taste of its quality, possibly
meaning to print more of it anon.

The last verses which Keats ever wrote formed the sonnet here ensuing.
He composed this late in September 1820, after landing on the
Dorsetshire coast, probably near Lulworth, and returning to the ship
which bore him to his doom in Italy; and he wrote it down on a blank
page in Shakespeare's Poems, facing "A Lover's Complaint."

"Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art;
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature's patient sleepless eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors:--
No, yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest;
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death."

Of poetic projects which remained unfulfilled when Keats died we
hear--leaving out of count the works which he had begun and left
uncompleted--of only one. During his voyage to Naples he often spoke of
wishing to write the story of Sabrina, as indicated in Milton's "Comus,"
connecting it with some points in English history and character.

In prose--apart from his letters, which are noticeably various in mood,
matter, and manner, and contain many admirable things--Keats wrote
extremely little. In a weekly paper with which Reynolds was connected,
_The Champion_, December 1817, he published two articles on "Kean as a
Shakespearean Actor:" they are not remarkable. With the above-named
articles are now associated some "Notes on Shakespeare," not written
with a view to publication; these appear to me somewhat strained and
bloated. There are also some "Notes on Milton's 'Paradise Lost.'" On
September 22, 1819, Keats addressed to Mr. Dilke a letter, which however
does not appear to have been actually sent off. As it shows a definite
intention of writing in prose for regular publication and for an income,
a few sentences are worth quoting.

"It concerns a resolution I have taken to endeavour to acquire
something by temporary writing in periodical works. You must
agree with me how unwise it is to keep feeding upon hopes which,
depending so