by Keats · Cluster: Rose · Desire · Value and Scarcity
Abstract
A clandestine night-song of lovers tiptoeing past a jealous old guardian to a stolen tryst. It joins secret desire, night, and the rose with the topos of love evading the jealous watcher.
Connections
Motifs: Night, Rose, Moon Themes & Concepts: Desire (2), Romantic Love Forms & Genres: Comic Verse Song
Testo integrale / Full text
I
Hush, hush! tread softly! hush, hush my dear!
All the house is asleep, but we know very well
That the jealous, the jealous old bald-pate may hear,
Tho’ you’ve padded his nightcap - O sweet Isabel!
Tho’ your feet are more light than a Fairy’s feet,
Who dances on bubbles where brooklets meet. -
Hush, hush! soft tiptoe! hush, hush my dear!
For less than a nothing the jealous can hear.
II
No leaf doth tremble, no ripple is there
On the river, - all’s still, and the night’s sleepy eye
Closes up, and forgets all its Lethean care,
Charm’d to death by the drone of the humming Mayfly;
And the moon, whether prudish or complaisant,
Has fled to her bower, well knowing I want
No light in the dusk, no torch in the gloom,
But my Isabel’s eyes, and her lips pulp’d with bloom.
III
Lift the latch! ah gently! ah tenderly - sweet!
We are dead if that latchet gives one little clink!
Well done - now those lips, and a flowery seat -
The old man may sleep, and the planets may wink;
The shut rose shall dream of our loves, and awake
Full blown, and such warmth for the morning’s take
The stock-dove shall hatch her soft brace and shall coo,
While I kiss to the melody, aching all through!