Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, KEATS (1821-1921), by CHRISTOPHER DARLINGTON MORLEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

KEATS (1821-1921), by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: When sometimes, on a moony night, I've passed
Last Line: Perfectly happy ... Talking about keats.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hall, Galway
Subject(s): Keats, John (1795-1821); Poetry & Poets


WHEN sometimes, on a moony night, I've passed
A street-lamp, seen my doubled shadow flee,
I've noticed how much darker, clearer cast,
The full moon poured her silhouette of me.

Just so of spirits. Beauty's silver light
Limns with a ray more pure, and tenderer too:
Men's clumsy gestures, to unearthly sight,
Surpass the shapes they show by human view.

On this brave world, where few such meteors fell,
Her youngest son, to save us, Beauty flung.
He suffered and descended into hell --
And comforts yet the ardent and the young.

Drunken of moonlight, dazed by draughts of sky,
Dizzy with stars, his mortal fever ran:
His utterance a moon-enchanted cry
Not free from folly -- for he too was man.

And now and here, a hundred years away,
Where topless towers shadow golden streets,
The young men sit, nooked in a cheap cafe,
Perfectly happy ... talking about Keats.





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