Poetry By John Keats

 

Endymion  ~  A Poetic Romance



           
   
 
  Aye, so delicious is the unsating food,
That men, who might have tower'd in the van
Of all the congregated world, to fan
And winnow from the coming step of time
All chaff of custom, wipe away all slime
Left by men-slugs and human serpentry,
Have been content to let occasion die,
Whilst they did sleep in love's elysium.
And, truly, I would rather be struck dumb,
Than speak against this ardent listlessness:
For I have ever thought that it might bless
The world with benefits unknowingly;
As does the nightingale, upperched high,
And cloister'd among cool and bunched leaves-
She sings but to her love, nor e'er conceives
How tiptoe Night holds back her dark-grey hood.

 
   
           

 

Endymion  ~  A Poetic Romance,  Book 1

 
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