religious faith.

His poems, consisting of three successive volumes, have been already
referred to here. The first volume, the _Poems_ of 1817, is mostly of a
juvenile kind, containing only scattered suggestions of rich endowment
and eventual excellence. _Endymion_ is lavish and profuse, nervous and
languid, the wealth of a prodigal scattered in largesse of baubles and
of gems. The last volume--comprising the _Hyperion_--is the work of a
noble poetic artist, powerful and brilliant both in imagination and in
expression. Of the writings published since their author's death, the
only one of first-rate excellence is the fragmentary _Eve of St. Mark_.
There is also the drama of _Otho the Great_, written in co-operation
with Armitage Brown; and in Keats's letters many admirable thoughts are
admirably worded.

As to the relations between Shelley and Keats, I have to refer back to
the preceding memoir of Shelley.

ADONAIS:

ITS COMPOSITION AND BIBLIOGRAPHY.

For nearly two months after the death of Keats, 23 February, 1821,
Shelley appears to have remained in ignorance of the event: he knew it
on or before 19 April. The precise date when he began his Elegy does not
seem to be recorded: one may suppose it to have been in the latter half
of May. On 5 June he wrote to Mr. and Mrs. Gisborne: 'I have been
engaged these last days in composing a poem on the death of Keats, which
will shortly be finished; and I anticipate the pleasure of reading it to
you, as some of the very few persons who will be interested in it and
understand it. It is a highly wrought piece of art, and perhaps better,
in point of composition, than anything I have written.'

A letter to Mr. Ollier followed immediately afterwards.

'Pisa, June 8th, 1821,

'You may announce for publication a poem entitled _Adonais_. It is a
lament on the death of poor Keats, with some interspersed stabs on the
assassins of his peace and of his fame; and will be preceded by a
criticism on _Hyperion_, asserting the due claims which that fragment
gives him to the rank which I have assigned him. My poem is finished,
and consists of about forty Spenser stanzas [fifty-five as published]. I
shall send it to you, either printed at Pisa, or transcribed in such a
manner as it shall be difficult for the reviser to leave such errors as
assist the obscurity of the _Prometheus_. But in case I send it printed,
it will be merely that mistakes may be avoided. I shall only have a f