Extracts From An Opera poem – John Keats poems

O! were I one of the Olympian twelve, Their godships should pass this into law,– That when a man doth set himself in toil After some beauty veiled far away, Each step he took should make his lady’s hand More soft, more white, and her fair cheek more fair; And for each briar-berry […]

Epistle To John Hamilton Reynolds poem – John Keats poems

Dear Reynolds, as last night I lay in bed, There came before my eyes that wonted thread Of shapes, and shadows, and remembrances, That every other minute vex and please: Things all disjointed come from north and south,– Two witch’s eyes above a cherub’s mouth, Voltaire with casque and shield and habergeon, And […]

Endymion: Book I poem – John Keats poems

ENDYMION. A Poetic Romance. “THE STRETCHED METRE OF AN AN ANTIQUE SONG.” INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS CHATTERTON. Book I A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of […]

Dedication To Leigh Hunt, Esq. poem – John Keats poems

Glory and loveliness have pass’d away; For if we wander out in early morn, No wreathed incense do we see upborne Into the east, to meet the smiling day: No crowd of nymphs soft voic’d and young, and gay, In woven baskets bringing ears of corn, Roses, and pinks, and violets, to adorn […]

Dawlish Fair poem – John Keats poems

Over the hill and over the dale, And over the bourn to Dawlish– Where gingerbread wives have a scanty sale And gingerbread nuts are smallish. ————- Rantipole Betty she ran down a hill And kicked up her petticoats fairly; Says I I’ll be Jack if you will be Gill– So she sat on […]

Character Of Charles 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 […]

Calidore: A Fragment poem – John Keats poems

Young Calidore is paddling o’er the lake; His healthful spirit eager and awake To feel the beauty of a silent eve, Which seem’d full loath this happy world to leave; The light dwelt o’er the scene so lingeringly. He bares his forehead to the cool blue sky, And smiles at the far clearness […]

Ben Nevis: A Dialogue poem – John Keats poems

There was one Mrs. Cameron of 50 years of age and the fattest woman in all Inverness-shire who got up this Mountain some few years ago — true she had her servants — but then she had her self.She ought to have hired Sisyphus, — “Up the high hill he heaves a huge […]

Apollo And The Graces poem – John Keats poems

APOLLO WHICH of the fairest three To-day will ride with me? My steeds are all pawing at the threshold of the morn: Which of the fairest three To-day will ride with me Across the gold Autumn’s whole Kingdom of corn? THE GRACES all answer I will, I – I – I young Apollo […]

Answer To A Sonnet By J.H.Reynolds poem – John Keats poems

“Dark eyes are dearer far Than those that mock the hyacinthine bell.” 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, […]

An Extempore poem – John Keats poems

When they were come into Faery’s Court They rang — no one at home — all gone to sport And dance and kiss and love as faerys do For Faries be as human lovers true — Amid the woods they were so lone and wild Where even the Robin feels himself exil’d And […]

Acrostic : Georgiana Augusta Keats poem – John Keats poems

Give me your patience, sister, while I frame Exact in capitals your golden name; Or sue the fair Apollo and he will Rouse from his heavy slumber and instill Great love in me for thee and Poesy. Imagine not that greatest mastery And kingdom over all the Realms of verse, Nears more to […]

A Song About Myself poem – John Keats poems

I. There was a naughty boy, A naughty boy was he, He would not stop at home, He could not quiet be- He took In his knapsack A book Full of vowels And a shirt With some towels, A slight cap For night cap, A hair brush, Comb ditto, New stockings For old […]

A Prophecy: To George Keats In America poem – John Keats poems

‘Tis the witching hour of night, Orbed is the moon and bright, And the stars they glisten, glisten, Seeming with bright eyes to listen — For what listen they? For a song and for a charm, See they glisten in alarm, And the moon is waxing warm To hear what I shall say. […]

A Party Of Lovers poem – John Keats poems

Pensive they sit, and roll their languid eyes, Nibble their toast, and cool their tea with sighs, Or else forget the purpose of the night, Forget their tea — forget their appetite. See with cross’d arms they sit — ah! happy crew, The fire is going out and no one rings For coals, […]

A Galloway Song poem – John Keats poems

Ah! ken ye what I met the day Out oure the Mountains A coming down by craggi[e]s grey An mossie fountains — A[h] goud hair’d Marie yeve I pray Ane minute’s guessing — For that I met upon the way Is past expressing. As I stood where a rocky brig A torrent crosses […]

A Draught Of Sunshine poem – John Keats poems

Hence Burgundy, Claret, and Port, Away with old Hock and madeira, Too earthly ye are for my sport; There’s a beverage brighter and clearer. Instead of a piriful rummer, My wine overbrims a whole summer; My bowl is the sky, And I drink at my eye, Till I feel in the brain A […]

Written On The Day That Mr Leigh Hunt Left Prison poem – John Keats poems

What though, for showing truth to flattered state, Kind Hunt was shut in prison, yet has he, In his immortal spirit, been as free As the sky-searching lark, and as elate. Minion of grandeur! think you he did wait? Think you he nought but prison-walls did see, Till, so unwilling, thou unturnedst the key? […]

Written On A Summer Evening 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 harkening to the sermon’s horrid sound. Surely the mind of man is closely bound In some blind spell: seeing that each one tears Himself from fireside joys and Lydian airs, And converse high […]

Written Before Re-Reading 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 impassioned clay Must I burn through; once more humbly assay The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit. Chief […]

Where’s the Poet? poem – John Keats poems

Where’s the Poet? show him! show him, Muses nine! that I may know him. ‘Tis the man who with a man Is an equal, be he King, Or poorest of the beggar-clan Or any other wonderous thing A man may be ‘twixt ape and Plato; ‘Tis the man who with a bird, Wren or […]

Where Be Ye Going, You Devon Maid? poem – John Keats poems

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? I love your meads, and I love your flowers, And I love your junkets mainly, But ‘hind the door, I […]

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 charactery, 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 to […]

To The Nile poem – John Keats poems

Son of the old Moon-mountains African! Chief of the Pyramid and Crocodile! We call thee fruitful, and that very while A desert fills our seeing’s inward span: Nurse of swart nations since the world began, Art thou so fruitful? or dost thou beguile Such men to honour thee, who, worn with toil, Rest for […]

To Solitude poem – John Keats poems

O solitude! if I must with thee dwell, Let it not be among the jumbled heap Of murky buildings; climb with me the steep,— Nature’s observatory—whence the dell, Its flowery slopes, its river’s crystal swell, May seem a span; let me thy vigils keep ‘Mongst boughs pavillion’d, where the deer’s swift leap Startles the […]

To Sleep poem – John Keats poems

O soft embalmer of the still midnight, Shutting, with careful fingers and benign, Our gloom-pleas’d eyes, embower’d from the light, Enshaded in forgetfulness divine: O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close In midst of this thine hymn my willing eyes, Or wait the “Amen,” ere thy poppy throws Around my bed its […]

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, and reads a […]

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 fixed, as in poetic sleep, Upon the lore so voluble and deep, […]

To My Brother George poem – John Keats poems

Many the wonders I this day have seen: The sun, when first he kissed away the tears That filled the eyes of Morn;—the laurelled peers Who from the feathery gold of evening lean;— The ocean with its vastness, its blue green, Its ships, its rocks, its caves, its hopes, its fears, Its voice mysterious, […]

To Mrs Reynolds’ Cat poem – John Keats poems

Cat! who hast pass’d thy grand climacteric, How many mice and rats hast in thy days Destroy’d? How many tit bits stolen? Gaze With those bright languid segments green, and prick Those velvet ears; but pr’ythee do not stick Thy latent talons in me; and upraise Thy gentle mew; and tell me all thy […]

To John Hamilton Reynolds poem – John Keats poems

O that a week could be an age, and we Felt parting and warm meeting every week, Then one poor year a thousand years would be, The flush of welcome ever on the cheek: So could we live long life in little space, So time itself would be annihilate, So a day’s journey in […]

To Hope poem – John Keats poems

When by my solitary hearth I sit, And hateful thoughts enwrap my soul in gloom; When no fair dreams before my “mind’s eye” flit, And the bare heath of life presents no bloom; Sweet Hope, ethereal balm upon me shed, And wave thy silver pinions o’er my head! Whene’er I wander, at the fall […]

To Homer poem – John Keats poems

Standing aloof in giant ignorance, Of thee I hear and of the Cyclades, As one who sits ashore and longs perchance To visit dolphin-coral in deep seas. So thou wast blind;–but then the veil was rent, For Jove uncurtain’d Heaven to let thee live, And Neptune made for thee a spumy tent, And Pan […]

To Haydon poem – John Keats poems

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 of ample […]

To G.A.W. poem – John Keats poems

Nymph of the downward smile and sidelong glance! In what diviner moments of the day Art thou most lovely?—when gone far astray Into the labyrinths of sweet utterance, Or when serenely wandering in a trance Of sober thought? Or when starting away, With careless robe to meet the morning ray, Thou sparest the flowers […]

To Fanny poem – John Keats poems

I cry your mercy—pity—love!—aye, love! Merciful love that tantalizes not, One-thoughted, never-wandering, guileless love, Unmasked, and being seen—without a blot! O! let me have thee whole,—all—all—be mine! That shape, that fairness, that sweet minor zest Of love, your kiss,—those hands, those eyes divine, That warm, white, lucent, million-pleasured breast,— Yourself—your soul—in pity give me […]