ABSTRACT
Drafted mostly in ink over three pages of Nbk 14 and amidst drafts for OL, these lines make up an incomplete stanza connected with that poem but not included in 1820. They were therefore almost certainly written between mid-May and late June 1820 (see headnote to OL (no. 322)). Of this fragment, Locock comments that ‘it looks like a preliminary draft for Stanza xviii’ (Locock 1911 i 650), and Adamson agrees (BSM v 405). The first eight lines, on p. 105 rev., are beneath three lines of cancelled verse, also possibly connected with OL. As noted by Carlene Adamson (BSM v 405), on the lower half of the facing page (p. 104 rev.) is a further draft of the seventh line. A further four and a half lines on p. 105 rev., in which the statue in the cavern is described, are cancelled. After re-working, and again cancelling, a description of the statue on p. 104 rev., S. then made a third attempt on the next page of the nbk (p. 103 rev.), yielding four and a half uncancelled lines, thus leaving the stanza unfinished. Beneath, towards the bottom of p. 103 rev., is a draft of OL 259–60.
