by Keats · Cluster: Appearance vs Reality · Beauty · Eyes and Sight
Abstract
A fragment in which the lover frets that his idealized beloved may have ordinary flaws, comparing her to Dian and Juno. It treats romantic idealization, doubt, and appearance versus reality.
Connections
Themes & Concepts: Doubt, Appearance vs Reality, Romantic Love, Beauty Forms & Genres: Fragment Historical References: Greek Mythology
Testo integrale / Full text
Oh, I am frighten’d with most hateful thoughts!
Perhaps her voice is not a nightingale’s,
Perhaps her teeth are not the fairest pearl;
Her eye-lashes may be, for aught I know,
Not longer than the mayfly’s small fan-horns;
There may not be one dimple on her hand;
And freckles many; ah! a careless nurse,
In haste to teach the little thing to walk,
May have crumpt2 up a pair of Dian’s legs,
And warpt the ivory of a Juno’s neck.