John Keats (1795-1821)
Keen, Fitful Gusts are Whisp'ring Here and There
1Keen, fitful gusts are whisp'ring here and there
2 Among the bushes half leafless, and dry;
3 The stars look very cold about the sky,
4And I have many miles on foot to fare.
5Yet feel I little of the cool bleak air,
6 Or of the dead leaves rustling drearily,
7 Or of those silver lamps that burn on high,
8Or of the distance from home's pleasant lair:
9For I am brimfull of the friendliness
10 That in a little cottage I have found;
11Of fair-hair'd Milton's eloquent distress,
12 And all his love for gentle Lycid drown'd;
13Of lovely Laura in her light green dress,
14 And faithful Petrarch gloriously crown'd.
Notes
11] Milton: English poet, author of "Lycidas."
14] Petrarch: Italian humanist poet (1304-74), who wrote love poems in praise of a woman named Laura whom he saw first in Avignon in 1327.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: The Poetical Works of John Keats, ed. H. W. Garrod, 2nd edn. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958): 44.
First publication date:
1817
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2007
Recent editing: 1:2007/8/22
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: abbaabbacdcdcd
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