Stanza 3 Summary

Lines 21-24

A third time pass'd they by, and, passing, turn'd
  Each one the face a moment whiles to me;
Then faded, and to follow them I burn'd
  And ached for wings, because I knew the three;

• The figures returned a third time, still doing their endless, hand-holding dance.
• But this time they turned to face the speaker, one at a time.
• After they stared him down for a moment, they faded away.
• The speaker wished he had wings in order to follow them. He wanted to follow them so badly, in fact, that he says he "burn'd" to do so.
• Why did he want to follow them? Because, when he saw their faces, he recognized who they were.
• Ready to find out the identities of our mysterious Greek ghosts? Read on…

Lines 25-27

 The first was a fair Maid, and Love her name;
 The second was Ambition, pale of cheek,
And ever watchful with fatiguèd eye;

• The first figure he recognized was Love. She was a lovely young woman.
• That's about all her says about her, though it's pretty telling that this is the form Love chose to take to appeal to the speaker. We say more about him over in our "Speaker" section.
• The second was Ambition, who was pale and tired but very alert. Good point, Keats. Being ambitious can be tiring.
• Both Love and Ambition are qualities, so is Keats using personification to say a little something about how we see these two qualities?

Line 28-30

 The last, whom I love more, the more of blame
  Is heap'd upon her, maiden most unmeek,—
I knew to be my demon Poesy.

• The last one he recognized was his favorite: "Poesy," or the spirit of poetry.
• He also blames her the most. For what?
• Well, he blames her for arriving, disrupting his lazy day, and then… departing.
• He also calls Poesy "unmeek," or bold. She's the most disruptive of the figures.
• She's so disruptive to him, in fact, that he busts out some figurative language and calls her his "demon."
• It seems that his talent (writing poetry) won't leave him alone to enjoy… doing nothing.
• And that really annoys him.