ABSTRACT
The sonnet may also, or alternatively, have been revised as one of the accompanying poems sent with f&M to Oilier in November 1820 as one of S's saddest verses. The poem also shares with the following poem, which is drafted a few pages later in Nbk 11, the possible influence of Barthelemy, which Mary and S were reading in June and July 1818. It is possible that the mood of isolated and disappointed dejection in the second part of the sonnet is related to the vindictive personal attack on S. The poem's central symbol has attracted commentary which discerns a heavily Platonic influence. The sonnet is formally interesting, in its inversion of the Petrarchan structure, and in its experimental rhymes; commentary however has been relatively slight. Lift not the painted veil which those who liveCall Life; though unreal shapes be pictured there, and it but mimic all we would believe with colours idly spread.
