by Keats · Cluster: Grief and Loss · Elegy · Clothing and Costume
Abstract
A short song mourning a pet dove that died, perhaps of grieving over its tethered captivity. It treats grief, death, and birds, with a hint of love’s confinement.
Connections
Motifs: Birds, Death Themes & Concepts: Grief and Loss, Romantic Love Forms & Genres: Comic Verse Song
Testo integrale / Full text
I had a dove and the sweet dove died;
And I have thought it died of grieving:
O, what could it grieve for? Its feet were tied,
With a silken thread of my own hand’s weaving;
Sweet little red feet! why should you die -
Why should you leave me, sweet bird! why?
You liv’d alone in the forest-tree,
Why, pretty thing! would you not live with me?
I kiss’d you oft and gave you white peas;
Why not live sweetly, as in the green trees?
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