"And no birds sing"

John Keats wrote La Belle Dame san Merci two years before he died of tuberculosis at the age of 25 in 1821. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was 14 and his younger brother had died of it in 1818. I think he knew he had the illness when he was writing the poem which he began in 1818. Which is why the knight was pale.

So in the first verse the knight was alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, and no birds sing. He goes on to repeat the same words in the last verse. I love that palely loitering having done a fair bit of loitering myself over the years in various and elsewhere. Can't wait to do some more loitering.

Th last four words and no birds sing say more than some people can say in a thousand. Absolutely the work of a genius and imagine what he would have achieved had he lived for longer. The words can be interpreted in so many ways, but he is obviously thinking of the death of his young brother and his mother and perhaps contemplating his own early death. He could have expressed the same thought in so many different ways, but he found those four little words to say it all. Quite remarkable.

I often think of the poem in my own current predicament so try to listen out for the singing birds every day. I will go back to hear the dawn chorus in the Dell in a few weeks. Should anyone want to join me you are welcome, though it will be an early start.

I'm told on good authority that the poem demonstrates Keats's use of  " Negative Capability" in this poem. My good friend John L may give a wee explanation of what it all means and I will add it as a comment. I know you've explained it to me before John but a few short lines to illustrate it from this poem would not go amiss.

Keats was of course a big influence on Bob Dylan. See his song, one of my favourites, Not Dark Yet from the album Time out of Mind, which Professor Christopher Ricks compares to Ode to a Nightingale. Have a listen and a read and see for yourself.

My cancer treatment continues apace. I had my third intravenous dose of chemo on Wednesday this week. No delays this time round, as white cells were behaving themselves and recovering at a good rate. The process lasted from 10 to 4:30 as they decided to slow down the infusion to four hours rather than two. I also have to have various other infusions at the same time which is why I'm there for six and a half hours. It's an exhausting process.

I saw Dr McLean, my oncologist yesterday and she seems quite happy with our progress. That's me half way through with the infusions and on target to finish at the end of May, providing white cells continue to behave. I had thought that I would be having a scan at the end of the chemo treatment but apparently not as my scan will not be done until the anniversary of my operation, which means 7 November at the earliest.

That's very disappointing news but not a lot I can do about it. It means more months of worry of course but will remain positive. She tells me that the fact that some lymph nodes and blood vessels had to be removed means a higher risk of cancer spreading elsewhere, which I think I knew but had managed to blank out for a while. She says that without the lymph node problem she would have been more confident, but still maintains her 70% chance of success. Even if I get a good result in November it will not be until scan on second anniversary that they will be more confident in predicting a cure, but even then will need scans until fifth year. Oh joy.