ABSTRACT

These lines are written in pencil parallel to the spine of Nbk 11 and crosswise over The world is dreary (no. 203) which is also drafted in pencil. Nancy Goslee comments that they ‘might be an abandoned part of Panthea's speech in [PU] Act II, scene 5, spoken to Asia at her transfiguration; or more likely they may be a draft related to the unused lines [in Nbk 11 p. 89], presumably to follow [PU] IV 69’ (BSMxviii p. xlvi). This would place them in November or December 1819 (see headnote to PU (no. 195)). However, a later date and alternative context may be proposed. These lines have similarities with other unfinished poems and fragments concerning liberty written in the second half of March, after S. became aware of the success of the revolution in Spain (see headnote to Liberty (no. 300)). If this context is given weight, ‘Thou’ in the opening line may refer to liberty, whose luminosity features in OL (no. 322) 151–65 and possibly also in Time who outruns and oversoars whatever (no. 301).