Wrap thy form in a mantle gray, Blind with thine hair the eyes of Day; When I arose and saw the dawn, I sighed for thee; 5 10 15 TO One word is too often profaned For me to profane it, One feeling too falsely disdained For thee to disdain it. One hope is too like despair For prudence to smother, And pity from thee more dear Than that from another. I can give not what men call love, The worship the heart lifts above The desire of the moth for the star, (1824) WITH A GUITAR, TO JANE Ariel to Miranda.- Take This slave of Music, for the sake In which thou canst, and only thou, Till joy denies itself again, To the throne of Naples, he Lit you o'er the trackless sea, Flitting on, your prow before, Like a living meteor. When you die, the silent Moon, In her interlunar swoon, Is not sadder in her cell Than deserted Ariel. 10 15 35 40 45 And now, alas! the poor sprite is 55 60 65 Of the forests and the mountains, 70 75 80 It talks according to the wit Of its companions; and no more Is heard than has been felt before, By those who tempt it to betray (1832-1833) LINES: WHEN THE LAMP IS SHATTERED When the lamp is shattered The light in the dust lies dead- The rainbow's glory is shed. Sweet tones are remembered not; As music and splendor Survive not the lamp and the lute, That ring the dead seaman's knell. When hearts have once mingled Love first leaves the well-built nest, The weak one is singled To endure what it once possessed. 85 90 5 10 15 20 For your cradle, your home, and your bier? JOHN KEATS (1795-1821). The parents of John Keats were living, at the time of his birth, at the Swan-and-Hoop stable in Finsbury, London. As a boy Keats was a sturdy fellow, with a hot temper, fond of fighting, fond of gold-finches, tomtits, minnows, mice, tickle-backs, dace, cock-salmons, and all the whole tribe of the bushes and the brooks.' It was toward the end of his schooldays that he was set dreaming by Spenser's Faery Queen. He persevered, however, in his medical studies, passed his surgeon's examination with credit in 1815, and proved a skilful operator. But he was excessively sensitive to the nervous strain incident to surgery and, also, he was pining for a poetic career, 'Like a sick eagle looking at the sky. Early in 1816 he met Leigh Hunt and through him numerous poets and artists, including Shelley, Wordsworth, and the painter Haydon. Shelley took a lively interest in him and attempted to show him hospitality. Wordsworth, whom he admired highly, is said to have chilled him by remarking after Keats had recited his Hymn to Pan for the benefit of a company: A pretty piece of Paganism!' To Haydon he owed something of an initiation into art and an opportunity to lend thirty pounds. In May, 1816, Hunt published in his Examiner the sonnet 'O Solitude! if I with thee must dwell,' and Keats had, so to speak, his first taste of blood. He now gave himself with increasing constancy to composition. His first volume came in March, 1817, and a year later Endymion. Chiefly because of Keats's friendship with Hunt, who was hated for his political opinions, these earlier volumes were sneeringly reviewed. Though Keats was indignant, it was by no means, The Quarterly, so savage and tartarly' that killed him. Partially from nursing his brother Tom through his last illness and partially, perhaps, from inherited susceptibility he became a victim of consumption. A few months snatched from the grave, harassed by insufficient means, 'the law's delay,' and 'the pangs of disprized love,' produced the more mature and discreet work which lies between Endymion and his last sonnet ('Bright Star would I were steadfast as thou art'), composed on shipboard as he was leaving for Italy to die. Brief as was Shelley's career, all his poems of real importance were written between his twenty-sixth and thirtieth years; the corresponding years Keats never knew. Yet his poetry is far more than the poetry of promise. Some of it is as final as Shakspere.' Hide in deep herbage; and ere yet the bees 61 |