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Look up, and.....voice of Saturn: (Book I, Lines 97-100)
Summary
The passage before us explains Saturn’s sense of despair as he feels it. He has suffered such a decline in his strength and dignity that his present identity does not seem plausible to him. He wants Thea (Hyperion’s wife who had come to console Saturn) confirm to him that he is no other than Saturn himself, the same Saturn who was the supreme ruler of the universe once, but whom, his dethronement has reduced to “this feeble shape.” His voice does not have any dignity or strength left in it. Even Thea’s wearing such a sad look that Saturn cannot but see for himself, in the face of Thea, the final doom of the Titans.
Critical Analysis
Saturn’s questions pertaining to the confirmation of his identity remind us of how King Lear, having lost his kingdom and having been ravaged by his thankless daughters goes about trying to confirm if he is the same Lear who was a king once:
“Doth any here know me? This is not Lear: Doth Lear walk thus, speak thus? where are his eyes?Either his notion weakens, his discerningsAre lethargized—Her: waking? ‘Tis not so.Who is it that can tell me who I am?”.
The other remarkable thing about this passage of Keats is its beginning every line with a verb (in the style of Milton) thereby putting, more weight in the lines.