Annotations of O Solitude by John Keats (1816)

O Solitude (personified, addressed)! (a weary exclamation) 
if (resignation) I must with thee (Solitude) dwell (linger, live), 
Let it not be (not resigned to the parameters of Solitude: something must change)
among the jumbled heap (the city: the present condition described)
Of murky buildings (conventional structures); 
climb with me the steep, -- (first 8 lines, a chained Italian sonnet: ABBA, ABBA)
Nature (personified)'s observatory (an alternative building) 
-- (emphasis added by break in rhythm, a visual dash) whence the dell (valley), 
Its flowery slopes (alternative to grey walls of steel), 
its river's crystal swell (and glass), 
May seem a span (bridge, another alternative structure); 
let me thy (Solitude’s) vigils (diligent (holy) watches) keep (holding on to the beauty)
'Mongst boughs pavilion'd (another alternative building), 
where the deer's swift leap (what the vigilant one sees)
Startles the wild (abrupt rhythm break; startling within while the vigilant one remains detached) 
bee from the foxglove bell (more break in rhythm: emphasis). 
But (sextant, new thought, moving beyond the beauty beheld) though I'll gladly 
trace (outline, scant sketch of the outer profile) these scenes with thee (Solitude), 
Yet the sweet (what Solitude isn’t) converse (what Solitude doesn’t) 
of an innocent (undefiled) mind (rhythm breaks, emphasizing the new thought), 
Whose words (what Solitude lacks) are images 
of thoughts refin'd (purified) (last 6 lines break from Italian sonnet structure: CDD CDC), 
Is my soul's pleasure; 
and it sure must be (trying to be committal)
Almost (non-committal - he doesn’t know) the highest (sweetest, most innocent, most refined) 
bliss of human-kind (not the 19th century “mankind,” thus suggesting womankind), 
When to thy (Solitude’s) haunts 
two kindred spirits (he longs for companionship) flee.


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