To Jane (‘The keen stars were twinkling’)

S.’s draft of To Jane (‘The keen stars were twinkling’) is in Box 1, on three separate pages, f. 56^r (ll. 1–10), f. 33^v (ll. 11–18), and f. 38^v reverso (ll. 19–24), which are interspersed among various passages of the draft of TL. The TL draft is mostly on Italian paper bearing the watermark ‘BENEDETTO PARODI’; it is greenish-yellowish paper in sheets measuring approximately 255 x 390 mm, which have been folded once to form a conjugate pair of leaves (i.e. a booklet of four pages). When placed with the fold to the left from the writer’s perspective, page 1 of the booklet shows the watermark PARODI correctly (backwards on page 2), while page 4 shows the BENEDETTO watermark correctly (backwards on page 3). It is almost certainly the case that S. used this paper between no earlier than the end of May 1822 and his departure for Livorno on 1 July to meet the newly arrived Leigh Hunt and his family. ‘The keen stars’ must therefore date from this period, but as with all of the material in the 40 leaves which comprise the TL draft (including, in addition to this poem, The earthquake is rocking (Longman vi, no. 451), Bright wanderer, fair coquette of Heaven, and The hours are flying (Longman vi, no. 455)), establishing a more specific date of composition within that period is difficult (see headnote to TL). It may however be conjectured that ‘The keen stars’ was written on or about 4 June, when there was a full moon which rose at 20:21, the only full moon within the composition period, following a day of ‘excessive heat’ (Gisborne Jnl 153). The draft of the opening 10 lines of the poem on f. 56^r is written on the bottom half of the third page of the Parodi bifolium ff. 55^r-56^v, the top half of which contains draft of S.’s discarded opening B to TL (see Lines connected with The Triumph of Life (Longman vi, no. 452 Appendix) Appendix B), which was probably written around 28 May (the draft of B covers the first three pages of the booklet, with S.’s first attempt A to write the opening of TL on the fourth page, f. 56^v. S. therefore began to use the booklet ‘right way up’, then inverted it — i.e. so that the watermarks appear upside-down and backwards — such that the ‘correct’ page 4 became page 1). The draft of ‘The keen stars’ is written in the blank space left as S.’s draft of discarded TL opening B peters out, and at right angles to it; the ink draft of‘The keen stars’ slightly crosses over the bottom line of the TL draft and therefore postdates it. To continue his draft of ‘The keen stars’, S. then used another Parodi bifolium, ff. 32^r-33^v; this bifolium is part of a gathering which S. formed by enclosing 2 bifolia within a third, to create a twelve-page booklet ff. 29^r-34^v (S. may have created this longer booklet to facilitate his renewed effort to make progress with TL after returning to his draft after a pause of a week or so in the first half of June: see headnote to TL). It is therefore possible that the positioning of this booklet within the current foliation of the TL MS, where it contains draft of TL 252–80, gives a misleading impression that the draft of ‘The keen stars’ ll. 11–18 on f. 33^v was written at the same time as the surrounding TL draft (i.e. sometime in the second half of June). In fact, S. probably simply utilised a new Parodi booklet to continue the poem (in early June he would not have been concerned about conserving the paper, as he clearly did become towards the end of the TL composition period), and then later repurposed the unused remainder of the booklet when he marshalled the paper into the twelve-page booklet ff. 29^r-34^v. The remainder of the draft of ‘The keen stars’, ll. 19–24, also presents something of a puzzle. This is on another Parodi booklet, ff. 37^r-38^v, which on its inside two pages contains draft of TL 281–306, again appearing to imply a date in the second half of June. But the first page of this Parodi booklet, f. 37^r, contains various calculations in ink in S.’s hand, and the dates ‘June 4’ (twice) and ‘July 4’; also on this page is S.’s pencil draft of The hours are flying (see headnote to that poem). The draft of ‘The keen stars’ ll. 19–24 is written in ink reverso on the back page of the booklet, f. 38^v, suggesting that S. first used the booklet to finish drafting ‘The keen stars’, then reversed it to make calculations, before at a subsequent date realising he needed more paper to continue the draft of TL and using the blank inside pages for that purpose. Thus, all three separate pages containing draft of ‘The keen stars’ are consistent with a date in early June, notwithstanding their contiguity with TL draft which is later.