Note 156 — JOHN KEATS
Reading edition
120. Witch's sieve. This refers to the superstition that witches could hold water in sieves and could sail in them. Cf. Macbeth, I. 3. 1, 8:—
"But in a sieve I'll thither sail, And, like a rat without a tail, I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do."