Weakness may exclude the world by
forgetting it; only strength can conquer the world. What if this law be
also the law of beauty? The thought inspires his last great attempt, the
fragment of _Hyperion_. Men have their dynasties and revolutions; but
the immortals also, whom men worship, must change to live.
So on our heels a fresh perfection treads,
A power more strong in beauty.
And this power cannot be won by those who shirk the challenge of ugly
facts.
O folly! for to bear all naked truths,
And to envisage circumstance, all calm,
That is the top of sovereignty.
As if to enforce his thought by repetition, Keats made an allegorical
framework for his revised version of the poem. There he exhibits himself
as wandering among the delights of the garden of this life, and indulging
himself to the point of drunkenness. Awaked from his swoon, he finds
himself at the steps of the temple of fame. He is told he must climb or
die. After an agony of struggle he mounts to the top, and has speech
there with a veiled figure, who tells him that this temple is all that
has been spared in the war between the rival houses of the Gods. When he
asks why he has been saved from death, the veiled figure makes reply:
"None can usurp this height," return'd that shade,
"But those to whom the miseries of the world
Are misery, and will not let them rest."
* * * * *
"Are there not thousands in the world," said I,
Encourag'd by the sooth voice of the shade,
"Who love their fellows even to the death,
Who feel the giant agony of the world,
And more, like slaves to poor humanity,
Labour for mortal good? I sure should see
Other men here, but I am here alone.
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