ABSTRACT
These lines, some of which are incomplete, are roughly drafted beneath Mine eyes [ ] like two ever-bleeding wounds (no. 226) in Nbk 12, but in lighter ink. They may have been written at the same time, i.e. late summer or early autumn 1819. However, it is possible that ‘thy name’ and ‘thy glory’ (ll. 6 and 7) refer to liberty and, since the vocabulary of these lines bears comparison with Liberty, they may date, like that poem, from the second half of March 1820 (see headnote to no. 300). Forman's suggestion that this fragment ‘may belong to Charles I ’ (Huntington Nbks i 185) is improbable, given the date-range of Nbk 12. The metre is uncertain, though the complete lines seem to be varied iambic pentameters. There is no discernible pattern of rhyme.
