VII. TO HAMPSTEAD. ["Examiner," Nov. 12th, 1815. "Foliage," 1818. "Rimini," &c., 1844.] STEEPLE issuing from a leafy rise, With farmy fields in front, and sloping green, Dear Hampstead, is thy southern face serene, Silently smiling on approaching eyes, Then northward what a range,—with heath and pond, Nature's own ground; woods that let mansions through, And cottaged vales with pillowy fields beyond, And clump of darkening pines, and prospects blue, And that clear path through all, where daily meet Cool cheeks, and brilliant eyes, and morn-elastic feet. TO KOSCIUSKO.1 Who took part neither with Bonaparte in the height of his power, nor with the allies in the height of theirs. ["Examiner," Nov. 19th, 1815. "Foliage," 1818. "Living Poets of England" (Paris), 1827. "Works,' 1832, 1844, 1857, 1860. "Book of Sonnets," 1867. "Canterbury Poets," 1889.] IS like thy patient valour thus to keep, Pretence for old aggression, and a heap Nature, 'twould seem, would leave to man's worse wit, The small and noisier part of this world's frame, And keep the calm, green amplitudes of it Sacred from fopperies and inconstant blame. Cities may change, and sovereigns, but 'tis fit, Thou and the country old be still the same! 1 In the 1832 and later editions the second verse was printed thus: "There came a wanderer, borne from land to land His brow with patient pain dulcetly sour. To think how sovereign her enduring hour." THE POETS. [The "Examiner," Dec. 24th, 1815.] ERE I to name, out of the times gone by, The poets dearest to me, I should say, Pulci for spirits, and a fine free way; Chaucer for manners, and close, silent eye; Milton for classic taste, and harp strung high; Spenser for luxury, and sweet, sylvan play; Horace for chatting with from day to day; Shakespeare for all, but most society. But which take with me, could I take but one? Shakespeare-as long as I was unoppressed With the world's weight, making sad thoughts intenser ; But did I wish, out of the common sun, To lay a wounded heart in leafy rest, And dream of things far off and healing-Spenser. PROVIDENCE. FROM THE ITALIAN OF FILICIA. ["Examiner," March 10th, 1816.] UST as a mother with sweet pious face from her seat, Gives one a kiss, another an embrace, Takes this upon her knee, that on her feet; And while from actions, looks, complaints, pre tences She learns their feelings and their various will, To this a look, to that a word dispenses, And whether stern or smiling, loves them still : So Providence for us, high, infinite, Makes our necessities its watchful task, Hearkens to all our prayers, helps all our wants; ON A LOCK OF MILTON'S HAIR.1 ["Foliage," 1818. "Works," 1832, 1844, 1857, 1860. "Book of Sonnets," 1867. "Favourite Poems," 1877. Kent, 1889. "Canterbury Poets," 1889.] T lies before me there, and my own breath Stirs its thin outer threads, as though beside The living head I stood in honoured pride, Talking of lovely things that conquer death. Perhaps he pressed it once, or underneath Ran his fine fingers, when he leant, blank-eyed, And saw, in fancy, Adam and his bride With their rich locks, or his own Delphic wreath. 1 Leigh Hunt refers to this particular lock, and to his collection of the hair of great men, in one of the "New Wishing-Cap Papers," in "Tait's Magazine," 1833. Keats also wrote a few verses on this subject, perhaps inspired by the same lock, for he speaks of only seeing one, not possessing it.-ED. There seems a love in hair, though it be dead. It is the gentlest, yet the strongest thread Of our frail plant,-Surviving the proud trunk :—as though it said Patience and Gentleness is Power. Behold affectionate eternity. --a blossom from the tree In me THE NILE.1 ["Foliage," 1818. "Living Poets of England" (Paris), 1827. "Works," 1832, 1857, 1860. "Book of Sonnets," 1867. "Rimini," &c., 1844. "Canterbury Poets," 1889. "Macmillan's Magazine," 1889.] T flows through old hushed Ægypt and its sands, Like some grave mighty thought threading a dream, And times and things, as in that vision, seem Keeping along it their eternal stands, Caves, pillars, pyramids, the shepherd bands extreme Of high Sesostris, and that southern beam, The laughing queen that caught the world's great hands. Then comes a mightier silence, stern and strong, As of a world left empty of its throng, 1 "The Wednesday before last, Shelley, Hunt, and I, wrote each a sonnet on the river Nile; some day you shall read them all." Letter of John Keats, February, 1818. All three sonnets are printed in the Aldine Edition of Keats' Works.-ED. |