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John Keats

Fragment of an Ode to Maia
(Written on May-Day, 1818)

MOTHER of Hermes! and still youthful Maia!
                    May I sing to thee
As thou wast hymned on the shores of Baiae?
                    Or may I woo thee
In earlier Sicilian? or thy smiles
Seek as they once were sought, in Grecian isles,
By bards who died content on pleasant sward,
    Leaving great verse unto a little clan?
O give me their old vigour! and unheard
    Save of the quiet primrose, and the span
                    Of heaven, and few ears,
Rounded by thee, my song should die away
                    Content as theirs,
Rich in the simple worship of a day.

About the poet

John KeatsJohn Keats
1795-1821

 
By the same poet
On first looking into Chapman's Homer
The Realm of Fancy
Ode on a Grecian Urn
Ode to a Nightingale
Ode to Psyche
To Autumn
Ode on Melancholy
Bards of Passion and of Mirth
Stanzas
La Belle Dame sans Merci
When I have Fears that I may cease to be
To Sleep
Last Sonnet
 
Related books
John Keats at amazon.co.uk

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