You Say You Love poem – John Keats poems
I You say you love ; but with a voice Chaster than a nun’s, who singeth The soft Vespers to herself While the chime-bell ringeth- O love me truly! II You say you love; but with a smile Cold as sunrise in September, As you were Saint Cupid ‘s nun, And kept his […]
Written In The Cottage Where Burns Was Born poem – John Keats poems
This mortal body of a thousand days Now fills, O Burns, a space in thine own room, Where thou didst dream alone on budded bays, Happy and thoughtless of thy day of doom! My pulse is warm with thine old barley-bree, My head is light with pledging a great soul, My eyes are […]
Woman! When I Behold Thee Flippant, Vain poem – John Keats poems
Woman! when I behold thee flippant, vain, Inconstant, childish, proud, and full of fancies; Without that modest softening that enhances The downcast eye, repentant of the pain That its mild light creates to heal again: E’en then, elate, my spirit leaps, and prances, E’en then my soul with exultation dances For that to […]
What The Thrush Said. Lines From A Letter To John Hamilton Reynolds poem – John Keats poems
O thou whose face hath felt the Winter’s wind, Whose eye has seen the snow-clouds hung in mist And the black elm tops ‘mong the freezing stars, To thee the spring will be a harvest-time. O thou, whose only book has been the light Of supreme darkness which thou feddest on Night after […]
Two Sonnets. To Haydon, With A Sonnet Written On Seeing The Elgin Marbles poem – John Keats poems
I. Haydon! forgive me that I cannot speak Definitively of these mighty things; Forgive me, that I have not eagle’s wings, That what I want I know not where to seek, And think that I would not be over-meek, In rolling out upfollowed thunderings, Even to the steep of Heliconian springs, Were I […]
Two Sonnets On Fame poem – John Keats poems
I. Fame, like a wayward girl, will still be coy To those who woo her with too slavish knees, But makes surrender to some thoughtless boy, And dotes the more upon a heart at ease; She is a Gypsy,-will not speak to those Who have not learnt to be content without her; A […]
Two Or Three poem – John Keats poems
Two or three Posies With two or three simples– Two or three Noses With two or three pimples– Two or three wise men And two or three ninny’s– Two or three guineas– Two or three raps At two or three doors– Two or three naps Of two or three hours– Two or three […]
Translated From A Sonnet Of Ronsard poem – John Keats poems
Nature withheld Cassandra in the skies For more adornment a full thousand years; She took their cream of Beauty’s fairest dyes, And shap’d and tinted her above all Peers: Meanwhile Love kept her dearly with his wings, And underneath their shadow fill’d her eyes With such a richness that the cloudy Kings Of […]
To The Ladies Who Saw Me Crowned poem – John Keats poems
WHAT is there in the universal Earth More lovely than a Wreath from the bay tree? Haply a Halo round the Moon a glee Circling from three sweet pair of Lips in Mirth; And haply you will say the dewy birth Of morning Roses ripplings tenderly Spread by the Halcyon’s breast upon the […]
To Some Ladies poem – John Keats poems
What though while the wonders of nature exploring, I cannot your light, mazy footsteps attend; Nor listen to accents, that almost adoring, Bless Cynthia’s face, the enthusiast’s friend: Yet over the steep, whence the mountain stream rushes, With you, kindest friends, in idea I rove; Mark the clear tumbling crystal, its passionate gushes, […]
To George Felton Mathew poem – John Keats poems
Sweet are the pleasures that to verse belong, And doubly sweet a brotherhood in song; Nor can remembrance, Mathew! bring to view A fate more pleasing, a delight more true Than that in which the brother Poets joy’d, Who with combined powers, their wit employ’d To raise a trophy to the drama’s muses. […]
To Charles Cowden Clarke poem – John Keats poems
Oft have you seen a swan superbly frowning, And with proud breast his own white shadow crowning; He slants his neck beneath the waters bright So silently, it seems a beam of light Come from the galaxy: anon he sports,– With outspread wings the Naiad Zephyr courts, Or ruffles all the surface of […]
The Gadfly poem – John Keats poems
1. All gentle folks who owe a grudge To any living thing Open your ears and stay your t[r]udge Whilst I in dudgeon sing. 2. The Gadfly he hath stung me sore– O may he ne’er sting you! But we have many a horrid bore He may sting black and blue. 3. Has […]
The Eve Of Saint Mark. A Fragment poem – John Keats poems
Upon a Sabbath-day it fell; Twice holy was the Sabbath-bell That call’d the folk to evening prayer; The city streets were clean and fair From wholesome drench of April rains; And, on the western window panes, The chilly sunset faintly told Of unmatur’d green vallies cold, Of the green thorny bloomless hedge, Of […]
The Devon Maid: Stanzas Sent In A Letter To B. R. Haydon poem – John Keats poems
1. Where be ye going, you Devon maid? And what have ye there i’ the basket? Ye tight little fairy, just fresh from the dairy, Will ye give me some cream if I ask it? 2. I love your meads, and I love your flowers, And I love your junkets mainly, But ‘hind […]
The Cap And Bells; Or, The Jealousies: A Faery Tale — Unfinished poem – John Keats poems
John Keats I. In midmost Ind, beside Hydaspes cool, There stood, or hover’d, tremulous in the air, A faery city ‘neath the potent rule Of Emperor Elfinan; fam’d ev’rywhere For love of mortal women, maidens fair, Whose lips were solid, whose soft hands were made Of a fit mould and beauty, ripe and […]
Teignmouth: “Some Doggerel,” Sent In A Letter To B. R. Haydon poem – John Keats poems
I. Here all the summer could I stay, For there’s Bishop’s teign And King’s teign And Coomb at the clear Teign head– Where close by the stream You may have your cream All spread upon barley bread. II. There’s Arch Brook And there’s Larch Brook Both turning many a mill, And cooling the […]
Stanzas To Miss Wylie poem – John Keats poems
1. O come Georgiana! the rose is full blown, The riches of Flora are lavishly strown, The air is all softness, and crystal the streams, The West is resplendently clothed in beams. 2. O come! let us haste to the freshening shades, The quaintly carv’d seats, and the opening glades; Where the faeries […]
Stanzas. In A Drear-Nighted December poem – John Keats poems
1. In drear-nighted December, Too happy, happy tree, Thy branches ne’er remember Their green felicity: The north cannot undo them With a sleety whistle through them; Nor frozen thawings glue them From budding at the prime. 2. In drear-nighted December, Too happy, happy brook, Thy bubblings ne’er remember Apollo’s summer look; But with […]
Staffa poem – John Keats poems
Not Aladdin magian Ever such a work began; Not the wizard of the Dee Ever such a dream could see; Not St. John, in Patmos’ Isle, In the passion of his toil, When he saw the churches seven, Golden aisl’d, built up in heaven, Gaz’d at such a rugged wonder. As I stood […]
Spenserian Stanzas On Charles Armitage Brown poem – John Keats poems
I. He is to weet a melancholy carle: Thin in the waist, with bushy head of hair, As hath the seeded thistle when in parle It holds the Zephyr, ere it sendeth fair Its light balloons into the summer air; Therto his beard had not begun to bloom, No brush had touch’d his […]
Spenserian Stanza. Written At The Close Of Canto II, Book V, Of “The Faerie Queene” poem – John Keats poems
In after-time, a sage of mickle lore Yclep’d Typographus, the Giant took, And did refit his limbs as heretofore, And made him read in many a learned book, And into many a lively legend look; Thereby in goodly themes so training him, That all his brutishness he quite forsook, When, meeting Artegall and […]
Specimen Of An Induction To A Poem poem – John Keats poems
Lo! I must tell a tale of chivalry; For large white plumes are dancing in mine eye. Not like the formal crest of latter days: But bending in a thousand graceful ways; So graceful, that it seems no mortal hand, Or e’en the touch of Archimago’s wand, Could charm them into such an […]
Sonnet XVII. Happy Is England poem – John Keats poems
Happy is England! I could be content To see no other verdure than its own; To feel no other breezes than are blown Through its tall woods with high romances blent: Yet do I sometimes feel a languishment For skies Italian, and an inward groan To sit upon an Alp as on a […]
Sonnet XVI. To Kosciusko poem – John Keats poems
Good Kosciusko, thy great name alone Is a full harvest whence to reap high feeling; It comes upon us like the glorious pealing Of the wide spheres — an everlasting tone. And now it tells me, that in worlds unknown, The names of heroes, burst from clouds concealing, And changed to harmonies, for […]
Sonnet XV. On The Grasshopper And Cricket poem – John Keats poems
The poetry of earth is never dead: When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead; That is the Grasshopper’s — he takes the lead In summer luxury, — he has never done With his […]
Sonnet XIV. Addressed To The Same (Haydon) poem – John Keats poems
Great spirits now on earth are sojourning; He of the cloud, the cataract, the lake, Who on Helvellyn’s summit, wide awake, Catches his freshness from Archangel’s wing: He of the rose, the violet, the spring, The social smile, the chain for Freedom’s sake: And lo!–whose stedfastness would never take A meaner sound than […]
Sonnet X. To One Who Has Been Long In City Pent poem – John Keats poems
To one who has been long in city pent, ‘Tis very sweet to look into the fair And open face of heaven — to breathe a prayer Full in the smile of the blue firmament. Who is more happy, when, with heart’s content, Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair Of wavy grass, […]
Sonnet XIII. Addressed To Haydon poem – John Keats poems
High-mindedness, a jealousy for good, A loving-kindness for the great man’s fame, Dwells here and there with people of no name, In noisome alley, and in pathless wood: And where we think the truth least understood, Oft may be found a “singleness of aim,” That ought to frighten into hooded shame A money-mongering, […]
Sonnet XII. On Leaving Some Friends At An Early Hour poem – John Keats poems
Give me a golden pen, and let me lean On heaped-up flowers, in regions clear, and far; Bring me a tablet whiter than a star, Or hand of hymning angel, when ’tis seen The silver strings of heavenly harp atween: And let there glide by many a pearly car Pink robes, and wavy […]
Sonnet XI. On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer poem – John Keats poems
Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-brow’d Homer ruled as his demesne; Yet did I never breathe its pure […]
Sonnet. Written Upon The Top Of Ben Nevis poem – John Keats poems
Read me a lesson, Muse, and speak it loud Upon the top of Nevis, blind in mist! I look into the chasms, and a shroud Vapourous doth hide them, — just so much I wist Mankind do know of hell; I look o’erhead, And there is sullen mist, — even so much Mankind […]
Sonnet. Written On A Blank Space At The End Of Chaucer’s Tale Of ‘The Floure And The Lefe’ poem – John Keats poems
This pleasant tale is like a little copse: The honied lines do freshly interlace, To keep the reader in so sweet a place, So that he here and there full hearted stops; And oftentimes he feels the dewy drops Come cool and suddenly against his face, And by the wandering melody may trace […]
Sonnet. Written On A Blank Page In Shakespeare’s Poems, Facing ‘A Lover’s Complaint’ poem – John Keats poems
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art — Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite, The moving waters at their priest-like task Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores, Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask Of snow upon […]
Sonnet. Written In Disgust Of Vulgar Superstition poem – John Keats poems
The church bells toll a melancholy round, Calling the people to some other prayers, Some other gloominess, more dreadful cares, More hearkening to the sermon’s horrid sound. Surely the mind of man is closely bound In some black spell; seeing that each one tears Himself from fireside joys, and Lydian airs, And converse […]
Sonnet. Written In Answer To A Sonnet By J. H. Reynolds poem – John Keats poems
Blue! ‘Tis the life of heaven,–the domain Of Cynthia,–the wide palace of the sun,– The tent of Hesperus, and all his train,– The bosomer of clouds, gold, gray, and dun. Blue! ‘Tis the life of waters: — Ocean And all its vassal streams, pools numberless, May rage, and foam, and fret, but never […]
Sonnet. Written Before Re-Read King Lear poem – John Keats poems
O golden-tongued Romance with serene lute! Fair plumed Syren! Queen of far away! Leave melodizing on this wintry day, Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute: Adieu! for once again the fierce dispute, Betwixt damnation and impassion’d clay Must I burn through; once more humbly assay The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit. […]
Sonnet. Why Did I Laugh Tonight? poem – John Keats poems
Why did I laugh to-night?No voice will tell No God, no Demon of severe response, Deigns to reply from Heaven or from Hell Then to my human heart I turn at once: Heart!Thou and I are here sad and alone; I say, why did I laugh?O mortal pain! O Darkness!Darkness! ever must I […]
Sonnet: When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be poem – John Keats poems
When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain, Before high piled books, in charactry, Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain; When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face, Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, And think that I may never live […]
Sonnet VIII. To My Brothers poem – John Keats poems
Small, busy flames play through the fresh laid coals, And their faint cracklings o’er our silence creep Like whispers of the household gods that keep A gentle empire o’er fraternal souls. And while, for rhymes, I search around the poles, Your eyes are fix d, as in poetic sleep, Upon the lore so […]