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As when, upon a.....words and went (Book I, Lines 72-79)
Summary
This passage very much in the spirit of the passage of the explanation No. 1 emphasizes the stillness of the dark valley in which Saturn lay shocked and disturbed after his fall, with the slight difference that whereas in the former passage:
“No stir of air was there”,in the latter there is onlyOne gradual solitary, gustWhich comes upon the silence and dies of”.
In the same way, the words of Thea did not disturb the calmness of the valley to any significant degree. The oak trees also stand still and motionless.
Critical Analysis
In this passage Keats has again applied the device of creating a harmony between the misery of Saturn and the stillness or gloom in the atmosphere around him, one heightening the effect of the other.
The age of the trees, connecting them with the mysteries of the past, is a fine example of an epic simile thereby lending to the poem, the character of an epic. This also shows how nature and romance had a mixed influence on the mind of Keats.
Note
Branch-charmed: the trees with their branches so charmed into stillness that there was hardly any movement in them.