Answer to a Sonnet by J.H.Reynolds, Ending
by John Keats

English Romantic lyric poet. His first published volume (1817) included On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer and Sleep and Poetry; Endymion followed (1818); many of his best-known poems including The Eve of St Agnes, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode of a Grecian Urn and To Autumn were written between 1818-1819 and published in a volume in 1820. His letters have also come to be considered as part of his works. Keats is one of the principal poets of the English Romantic movement. Other Romantic poets include Burns, Coleridge, Wordsworth and Blake.

← Previous Poem John Keats Next Poem →

Answer to a Sonnet by J.H.Reynolds, Ending
by John Keats

"Dark eyes are dearer far
Than those that mock the hyacinthine bell."

Blue! 'Tis the life of heaven, -the domain
Of Cynthia, -the wide palace of the sun, -
The tent of Hesperus, and all his train, -
The bosomer of clouds, gold, gray, and dun.
Blue! 'Tis the life of waters: -Ocean
And all its vassal streams, pools numberless,
May rage, and foam, and fret, but never can
Subside, if not to dark-blue nativeness.
Blue! gentle cousin of the forest-green,
Married to green in all the sweetest flowers -
Forget-me-not, -the blue-bell, -and, that queen
Of secrecy, the violet: what strange powers
Hast thou, as a mere shadow! But how great,
When in an Eye thou art alive with fate!

← Previous Poem John Keats Next Poem →

Answer to a Sonnet by J.H.Reynolds, Ending by John Keats