CXLVIII.—TO JOHN TAYLOR.
Reading edition
[Wesleyan Place, Kentish Town][114] June 11 [1820].
My dear Taylor—In reading over the proof of St. Agnes’s Eve since I left Fleet Street, I was struck with what appears to me an alteration in the seventh stanza very much for the worse. The passage I mean stands thus—
her maiden eyes incline Still on the floor, while many a sweeping train Pass by.
’Twas originally written—
her maiden eyes divine Fix’d on the floor, saw many a sweeping train Pass by.
My meaning is quite destroyed in the alteration. I do not use train for concourse of passers by, but for skirts sweeping along the floor.
In the first stanza my copy reads, second line—
bitter chill it was,
to avoid the echo cold in the second line.
Ever yours sincerely John Keats.