by Keats · Cluster: Bible · Sin and the Fall · Fall from Innocence
Abstract
A playful seduction song urging a blushing maiden to seize the prime of youth and share the apple before it is too late; carpe diem, desire, innocence and the Eden allusion.
Connections
Topoi: Carpe Diem, Fall from Innocence Themes & Concepts: Lust Sexual Desire, Temptation, Innocence and Experience, Sin and the Fall Forms & Genres: Comic Verse Song Historical References: Bible
Testo integrale / Full text
I
O blush not so! O blush not so!
Or I shall think you knowing;
And if you smile the blushing while,
Then maidenheads are going.
II
There’s a blush for won’t, and a blush for shan’t,
And a blush for having done it:
There’s a blush for thought and a blush for naught,
And a blush for just begun it.
III
O sigh not so! O sigh not so!
For it sounds of Eve’s sweet pippin;
By these loosen’d lips you have tasted the pips
And fought in an amorous nipping.
IV
Will you play once more at nice-cut-core,
For it only will last our youth out,
And we have the prime of the kissing time,
We have not one sweet tooth out.
V
There’s a sigh for yes, and a sigh for no,
And a sigh for I can’t bear it!
O what can be done, shall we stay or run?
O cut the sweet apple and share it!