‘Is it that in some?[happier] sphere

Relics (82) printed a version of these tetrameter couplets dated 1819 as no. xxiii in the section ‘Miscellaneous Fragments’. The ink draft on the outside back cover of Nbk 14 has deteriorated with time and is now very difficult to read. It appears to continue for eight further lines but these are almost completely illegible; BSM v deciphers only three additional words, widely separated: ‘one whose’, ‘fan’. Five lines in the same metre and rhyme-scheme drafted on the front cover might also belong to the poem on the back, but the degraded physical state of the writing on both covers precludes a connection being made with any confidence. See [?] [sweet flower that I had sung] (no. 332). The position of the fragment makes it extremely difficult to date within the time-frame of the nbk's use—from summer 1818 to early autumn 1820. Eds have followed Garnett's date of 1819, but formal and thematic similarities to Is there more on earth than we (no. 309) rather suggest a date around April 1820. Both fragments speculate on the significance of those experiences which make an impact on us that cannot be accounted for rationally. ‘When I sate in that’, which is cancelled before the opening line given below, might provide a hint at a generating incident for the speculations that follow.