by Keats · Cluster: Unrequited Frustrated Love · Unattainable Beloved · Petrarchan Sonnet
Abstract
A fragment wishing for an Olympian decree rewarding the lover’s quest after a veiled beauty with ever-ripening kisses. It joins the toil after unattainable beauty with romantic love and Greek myth.
Connections
Topoi: Unattainable Beloved, Quest Motifs: Desire Themes & Concepts: Romantic Love, Beauty Forms & Genres: Fragment Historical References: Greek Mythology
Testo integrale / Full text
O! Were I one of the Olympian twelve,
Their godships should pass this into a law, -
That when a man doth set himself in toil
After some beauty veiled far away,
Each step he took should make his lady’s hand
More soft, more white, and her fair cheek more fair;
And for each briar-berry he might eat,
A kiss should bud upon the tree of love,
And pulp and ripen richer every hour,
To melt away upon the traveller’s lips.
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