| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | On Fame, II | | By John Keats (1795–1821) |
| | ‘You cannot eat your cake and have it too.’—Proverb |
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HOW fever’d is the man, who cannot look | |
| Upon his mortal days with temperate blood, | |
| Who vexes all the leaves of his life’s book, | |
| And robs his fair name of its maidenhood; | |
| It is as if the rose should pluck herself, | 5 |
| Or the ripe plum finger its misty bloom, | |
| As if a Naiad, like a meddling elf, | |
| Should darken her pure grot with muddy gloom: | |
| But the rose leaves herself upon the briar, | |
| For winds to kiss and grateful bees to feed, | 10 |
| And the ripe plum still wears its dim attire, | |
| The undisturbèd lake has crystal space; | |
| Why then should man, teasing the world for grace, | |
| Spoil his salvation for a fierce miscreed? | | | |
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