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 […]
Sonnet VII. 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, In flowery slopes, its river’s crystal swell, May seem a span; let me thy vigils keep ‘Mongst boughs pavilioned, where the deer’s swift leap Startles […]
Sonnet VI. 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, […]
Sonnet V. To A Friend Who Sent Me Some Roses poem – John Keats poems
As late I rambled in the happy fields, What time the skylark shakes the tremulous dew From his lush clover covert;-when anew Adventurous knights take up their dinted shields; I saw the sweetest flower wild nature yields, A fresh-blown musk-rose; ’twas the first that threw Its sweets upon the summer: graceful it grew […]
Sonnet 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 […]
Sonnet To Spenser poem – John Keats poems
Spenser! a jealous honourer of thine, A forester deep in thy midmost trees, Did last eve ask my promise to refine Some English that might strive thine ear to please. But Elfin Poet ’tis impossible For an inhabitant of wintry earth To rise like Phoebus with a golden quill Fire-wing’d and make a […]
Sonnet 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 […]
Sonnet To Mrs. Reynolds’s 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 […]
Sonnet 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 […]
Sonnet 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 […]
Sonnet To George Keats: Written In Sickness poem – John Keats poems
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 […]
Sonnet To Chatterton poem – John Keats poems
O Chatterton! how very sad thy fate! Dear child of sorrow — son of misery! How soon the film of death obscur’d that eye, Whence Genius mildly falsh’d, and high debate. How soon that voice, majestic and elate, Melted in dying numbers!Oh! how nigh Was night to thy fair morning.Thou didst die A […]
Sonnet To Byron poem – John Keats poems
Byron! how sweetly sad thy melody! Attuning still the soul to tenderness, As if soft Pity, with unusual stress, Had touch’d her plaintive lute, and thou, being by, Hadst caught the tones, nor suffer’d them to die. O’ershadowing sorrow doth not make thee less Delightful: thou thy griefs dost dress With a bright […]
Sonnet. To A Young Lady Who Sent Me A Laurel Crown poem – John Keats poems
Fresh morning gusts have blown away all fear From my glad bosom, — now from gloominess I mount for ever — not an atom less Than the proud laurel shall content my bier. No! by the eternal stars! or why sit here In the Sun’s eye, and ‘gainst my temples press Apollo’s very […]
Sonnet. To A Lady Seen For A Few Moments At Vauxhall poem – John Keats poems
Time’s sea hath been five years at its slow ebb, Long hours have to and fro let creep the sand, Since I was tangled in thy beauty’s web, And snared by the ungloving of thine hand. And yet I never look on midnight sky, But I behold thine eyes’ well memory’d light; I […]
Sonnet. The Human Seasons poem – John Keats poems
Four Seasons fill the measure of the year; There are four seasons in the mind of man: He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear Takes in all beauty with an easy span: He has his Summer, when luxuriously Spring’s honied cud of youthful thought he loves To ruminate, and by such dreaming […]
Sonnet. The Day Is Gone poem – John Keats poems
The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone! Sweet voice, sweet lips, soft hand, and softer breast, Warm breath, light whisper, tender semitone, Bright eyes, accomplished shape, and lang’rous waist! Faded the flower and all its budded charms, Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes, Faded the shape of beauty […]
Sonnet. On The Sea poem – John Keats poems
It keeps eternal whisperings around Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell Gluts twice ten thousand caverns, till the spell Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound. Often ’tis in such gentle temper found That scarcely will the very smallest shell Be mov’d for days from whence it sometime fell, When last […]
Sonnet On Sitting Down To Read King Lear Once Again 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 […]
Sonnet. On Peace poem – John Keats poems
O PEACE! and dost thou with thy presence bless The dwellings of this war-surrounded Isle; Soothing with placid brow our late distress, Making the triple kingdom brightly smile? Joyful I hail thy presence; and I hail The sweet companions that await on thee; Complete my joy let not my first wish fail, Let […]
Sonnet. On Leigh Hunt’s Poem ‘The Story of Rimini’ poem – John Keats poems
Who loves to peer up at the morning sun, With half-shut eyes and comfortable cheek, Let him with this sweet tale full often seek For meadows where the little rivers run; Who loves to linger with that brightest one Of Heaven — Hesperus — let him lowly speak These numbers to the night […]
Sonnet. On A Picture Of Leander poem – John Keats poems
Come hither all sweet Maidens soberly Down looking aye, and with a chasten’d light Hid in the fringes of your eyelids white, And meekly let your fair hands joined be, As if so gentle that ye could not see, Untouch’d, a victim of your beauty bright, Sinking away to his young spirit’s night, […]
Sonnet: Oh! How I Love, On A Fair Summer’s Eve poem – John Keats poems
Oh! how I love, on a fair summer’s eve, When streams of light pour down the golden west, And on the balmy zephyrs tranquil rest The silver clouds, far — far away to leave All meaner thoughts, and take a sweet reprieve From little cares; to find, with easy quest, A fragrant wild, […]
Sonnet IX. Keen, Fitful Gusts Are poem – John Keats poems
Keen, fitful gusts are whisp’ring here and there Among the bushes half leafless, and dry; The stars look very cold about the sky, And I have many miles on foot to fare. Yet feel I little of the cool bleak air, Or of the dead leaves rustling drearily, Or of those silver lamps […]
Sonnet IV. How Many Bards Gild The Lapses Of Time! poem – John Keats poems
How many bards gild the lapses of time! A few of them have ever been the food Of my delighted fancy,-I could brood Over their beauties, earthly, or sublime: And often, when I sit me down to rhyme, These will in throngs before my mind intrude: But no confusion, no disturbance rude Do […]
Sonnet III. Written On The Day That Mr. Leigh Hunt Left Prison poem – John Keats poems
What though, for showing truth to flatter’d 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 unturn’dst the […]
Sonnet II. To ****** poem – John Keats poems
Had I a man’s fair form, then might my sighs Be echoed swiftly through that ivory shell Thine ear, and find thy gentle heart; so well Would passion arm me for the enterprize: But ah! I am no knight whose foeman dies; No cuirass glistens on my bosom’s swell; I am no happy […]
Sonnet. If By Dull Rhymes Our English Must Be Chain’d poem – John Keats poems
If by dull rhymes our English must be chain’d, And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet Fetter’d, in spite of pained loveliness; Let us find out, if we must be constrain’d, Sandals more interwoven and complete To fit the naked foot of poesy; Let us inspect the lyre, and weigh the stress Of every […]
Sonnet I. 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 […]
Sonnet: Before He Went poem – John Keats poems
BEFORE he went to feed with owls and bats Nebuchadnezzar had an ugly dream, Worse than an Hus’if’s when she thinks her cream Made a Naumachia for mice and rats. So scared, he sent for that “Good King of Cats” Young Daniel, who soon did pluck away the beam From out his eye, […]
Sonnet: As From The Darkening Gloom A Silver Dove poem – John Keats poems
As from the darkening gloom a silver dove Upsoars, and darts into the eastern light, On pinions that nought moves but pure delight, So fled thy soul into the realms above, Regions of peace and everlasting love; Where happy spirits, crown’d with circlets bright Of starry beam, and gloriously bedight, Taste the high […]
Sonnet: After Dark Vapors Have Oppress’d Our Plains poem – John Keats poems
After dark vapors have oppress’d our plains For a long dreary season, comes a day Born of the gentle South, and clears away From the sick heavens all unseemly stains. The anxious month, relieved of its pains, Takes as a long-lost right the feel of May; The eyelids with the passing coolness play […]
Sonnet. A Dream, After Reading Dante’s Episode Of Paulo And Francesca poem – John Keats poems
As Hermes once took to his feathers light, When lulled Argus, baffled, swooned and slept, So on a Delphic reed, my idle spright So played, so charmed, so conquered, so bereft The dragon-world of all its hundred eyes; And seeing it asleep, so fled away– Not to pure Ida with its snow-cold skies, […]
Song. Written On A Blank Page In Beaumont And Fletcher’s Works poem – John Keats poems
1. Spirit here that reignest! Spirit here that painest! Spirit here that burneth! Spirit here that mourneth! Spirit! I bow My forehead low, Enshaded with thy pinions! Spirit! I look All passion struck, Into thy pale dominions! 2. Spirit here that laughest! Spirit here that quaffest! Spirit here that danceth! Spirit here that […]
Song Of Four Faries poem – John Keats poems
Fire, Air, Earth, and Water, Salamander, Zephyr, Dusketha, and Breama. Salamander. Happy, happy glowing fire! Zephyr. Fragrant air! delicious light! Dusketha. Let me to my glooms retire! Breama. I to the green-wood rivers bright! Salamander. Happy, happy glowing fire! Dazzling bowers of soft retire, Ever let my nourish’d wing, Like a bat’s, still […]
Song. I Had A Dove poem – John Keats poems
I had a dove, and the sweet dove died; And I have thought it died of grieving: O, what could it grieve for? its feet were tied With a single thread of my own hand’s weaving; Sweet little red feet, why should you die– Why should you leave me, sweet bird, why? You […]
Song. Hush, Hush! Tread Softly! poem – John Keats poems
1. Hush, hush! tread softly! hush, hush my dear! All the house is asleep, but we know very well That the jealous, the jealous old bald-pate may hear. Tho’ you’ve padded his night-cap — O sweet Isabel! Tho’ your feet are more light than a Fairy’s feet, Who dances on bubbles where brooklets […]
Sharing Eve’s Apple poem – John Keats poems
1. O Blush not so! O blush not so! Or I shall think you knowing; And if you smile the blushing while, Then maidenheads are going. 2. There’s a blush for want, and a blush for shan’t, And a blush for having done it; There’s a blush for thought, and a blush for […]
Otho The Great – Act V poem – John Keats poems
SCENE I. A part of the Forest. Enter CONRAD and AURANTHE. Auranthe. Go no further; not a step more; thou art A master-plague in the midst of miseries. Go I fear thee. I tremble every limb, Who never shook before. There’s moody death In thy resolved looks Yes, I could kneel To pray […]
Otho The Great – Act IV poem – John Keats poems
SCENE I. AURANTHE’S Apartment. AURANTHE and CONRAD discovered. Conrad. Well, well, I know what ugly jeopardy We are cag’d in; you need not pester that Into my ears. Prythee, let me be spared A foolish tongue, that I may bethink me Of remedies with some deliberation. You cannot doubt but ’tis in Albert’s […]