John Keats (1795-1821). From the ode to Sorrow in Endymion. Robert Bridges, ed. 1916. The Spirit of Man: An Anthology

Robert Bridges, ed. (1844–1930). The Spirit of Man: An Anthology. 1916.

From the ode to Sorrow in Endymion

John Keats (1795–1821)


.. TO 1 Sorrow
I bade good morrow,
And thought to leave her far away behind;
But cheerly, cheerly,
She loves me dearly;	5
She is so constant to me, and so kind:
I would deceive her,
And so leave her,
But ah! she is so constant and so kind.

Beneath my palm-trees, by the river side,	10
I sat a-weeping: in the whole world wide
There was no one to ask me why I wept—
And so I kept
Brimming the water-lily cups with tears
Cold as my fears …	15

Come then, Sorrow,
Sweetest Sorrow!
Like an own babe I nurse thee on my breast:
I thought to leave thee,
And deceive thee,	20
But now of all the world I love thee best.

There is not one,
No, no, not one
But thee to comfort a poor lonely maid;
Thou art her mother,	25
And her brother,
Her playmate, and her wooer in the shade.

Note 1. Keats. From the ode to Sorrow in ‘Endymion’. [back]