Brother belov’d if health shall smile again,

Upon this wasted form and fever’d cheek:

If e’er returning vigour bid these weak

And languid limbs their gladsome strength regain,

Well may thy brow the placid glow retain

Of sweet content and thy pleas’d eye may speak

The conscious self applause, but should I seek

To utter what this heart can feel, Ah! vain

Were the attempt!Yet kindest friends while o’er

My couch ye bend, and watch with tenderness

The being whom your cares could e’en restore,

From the cold grasp of Death, say can you guess

The feelings which these lips can ne’er express;

Feelings, deep fix’d in grateful memory’s store.

 

***

John Keats

More poems by John Keats