Themes
Drafts and the secret of style
Wilde values the manuscript for what it reveals about making. It shows 'the conditions that preceded the perfected form' and 'that spirit of selection which is the secret of style.' What look like technicalities are 'in their essence spiritual, not mechanical', and though readers care only for the finished form, 'the evolution of the beauty, and the mere making of the music' have their value to the artist. His reading of each correction puts this into practice.
The critic as textual detective
Much of the piece is careful scholarship. Wilde sets Houghton's text against Horwood's transcript and Buxton Forman's opinion, judges which variants are genuine, and explains changes by Keats's habits of ear: avoiding a repeated word, keeping Hesperus free of an echo. He applies the same care to biography, correcting the colour of the poet's eyes from three witnesses.