1-3. _Cassia_ is an unidentified fragrant plant; the wood of the
_sandal_ tree is also fragrant; _labdanum_ or _ladanum_, is a resinous
gum of dark color and pungent odor, exuding from various species of the
cistus, a plant found around the Mediterranean; _aloe-balls_ are made
from a bitter resinous juice extracted from the leaves of aloe-plants;
_nard_ is an ointment made from an aromatic plant and used in the East
Indies. These substances have long been traditionally associated in
literature. In _Psalms_ xlv, 8 we read: "All thy garments smell of
myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they
have made thee glad." Milton in _Paradise Lost_, v, 293, speaks of
"flowering odors, cassia, nard, and balms."
4. _Such balsam_. The meaning of II. 4-8 is obscure. "Sea-side mountain
pedestals" are presumably cliffs. In the tops of the trees on these
cliffs the wind, weary of its rough work on the ocean, has gently
dropped the fragrant things it has swept up from the island.
9-16. In this stanza the faint sweetness from the spices used in
embalming, and the perfume still clinging to the tapestry in an ancient
royal room carry suggestions of vanished power and beauty that add an
appropriate pathos to the richly piled altar on which Paracelsus is to
offer up the "lovely fancies" of his youth. "Shredded" is a transferred
epithet, referring really to "arras," but transferred to the perfume of
the arras.