This poem was written in the winter of 1818 and first published in 1820. Keats copied it into the 2 January 1819 letter sent to George and Georgiana Keats.<\/p>\n
Ever let the Fancy roam,
\nPleasure never is at home:
\nAt a touch sweet Pleasure melteth,
\nLike to bubbles when rain pelteth;
\nThen let winged Fancy wander
\nThrough the thought still spread beyond her:
\nOpen wide the mind’s cage-door,
\nShe’ll dart forth, and cloudward soar.
\nO sweet Fancy! let her loose;
\nSummer’s joys are spoilt by use,
\nAnd the enjoying of the Spring
\nFades as does its blossoming;
\nAutumn’s red-lipp’d fruitage too,
\nBlushing through the mist and dew,
\nCloys with tasting: What do then?
\nSit thee by the ingle, when
\nThe sear faggot blazes bright,
\nSpirit of a winter’s night;
\nWhen the soundless earth is muffled,
\nAnd the caked snow is shuffled
\nFrom the ploughboy’s heavy shoon;
\nWhen the Night doth meet the Noon
\nIn a dark conspiracy
\nTo banish Even from her sky.
\nSit thee there, and send abroad,
\nWith a mind self-overaw’d,
\nFancy, high-commission’d:–send her!
\nShe has vassals to attend her:
\nShe will bring, in spite of frost,
\nBeauties that the earth hath lost;
\nShe will bring thee, all together,
\nAll delights of summer weather;
\nAll the buds and bells of May,
\nFrom dewy sward or thorny spray;
\nAll the heaped Autumn’s wealth,
\nWith a still, mysterious stealth:
\nShe will mix these pleasures up
\nLike three fit wines in a cup,
\nAnd thou shalt quaff it:–thou shalt hear
\nDistant harvest-carols clear;
\nRustle of the reaped corn;
\nSweet birds antheming the morn:
\nAnd, in the same moment, hark!
\n‘Tis the early April lark,
\nOr the rooks, with busy caw,
\nForaging for sticks and straw.
\nThou shalt, at one glance, behold
\nThe daisy and the marigold;
\nWhite-plum’d lillies, and the first
\nHedge-grown primrose that hath burst;
\nShaded hyacinth, alway
\nSapphire queen of the mid-May;
\nAnd every leaf, and every flower
\nPearled with the self-same shower.
\nThou shalt see the field-mouse peep
\nMeagre from its celled sleep;
\nAnd the snake all winter-thin
\nCast on sunny bank its skin;
\nFreckled nest-eggs thou shalt see
\nHatching in the hawthorn-tree,
\nWhen the hen-bird’s wing doth rest
\nQuiet on her mossy nest;
\nThen the hurry and alarm
\nWhen the bee-hive casts its swarm;
\nAcorns ripe down-pattering,
\nWhile the autumn breezes sing.<\/p>\n
Oh, sweet Fancy! let her loose;
\nEvery thing is spoilt by use:
\nWhere’s the cheek that doth not fade,
\nToo much gaz’d at? Where’s the maid
\nWhose lip mature is ever new?
\nWhere’s the eye, however blue,
\nDoth not weary? Where’s the face
\nOne would meet in every place?
\nWhere’s the voice, however soft,
\nOne would hear so very oft?
\nAt a touch sweet Pleasure melteth
\nLike to bubbles when rain pelteth.
\nLet, then, winged Fancy find
\nThee a mistress to thy mind:
\nDulcet-ey’d as Ceres’ daughter,
\nEre the God of Torment taught her
\nHow to frown and how to chide;
\nWith a waist and with a side
\nWhite as Hebe’s, when her zone
\nSlipt its golden clasp, and down
\nFell her kirtle to her feet,
\nWhile she held the goblet sweet
\nAnd Jove grew languid.–Break the mesh
\nOf the Fancy’s silken leash;
\nQuickly break her prison-string
\nAnd such joys as these she’ll bring.–
\nLet the winged Fancy roam,
\nPleasure never is at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This poem was written in the winter of 1818 and first published in 1820. Keats copied it into the 2 January 1819 letter sent to George and Georgiana Keats. Ever let the Fancy roam, Pleasure never is at home: At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth, Like to bubbles when rain pelteth; Then let winged Fancy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}