This pleasant tale is like a little copse:

The honied lines so 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

Which way the tender-legged linnet hops.

Oh! what a power has white Simplicity!

What mighty power has this gentle story!

I, that do ever feel athirst for glory,

Could at this moment be content to lie

Meekly upon the grass, as those whose sobbings

Were heard of none beside the mournful robins.

 

***

John Keats

More poems by John Keats