by Keats · Cluster: Joy · Animals · Comic Verse Song
Abstract
A two-part invocation song addressing first a mournful spirit then a Bacchanal spirit of revelry, written into a volume of Beaumont and Fletcher. It pairs melancholy with festive wine and song.
Connections
Motifs: Wine and Drink, Supernatural Themes & Concepts: Melancholy, Joy Forms & Genres: Comic Verse Song Historical References: Classical Antiquity
Testo integrale / Full text
Written on a blank page in Beaumont and Fletcher’s Works, between
‘Cupid’s Revenge’ and ‘The Two Noble Kinsmen’
I
Spirit here that reignest!
Spirit here that painest!
Spirit here that burnest!
Spirit here that mournest!
Spirit, I bow
My forehead low,
Enshaded with thy pinions.
Spirit, I look
All passion-struck
Into thy pale dominions.
II
Spirit here that laughest!
Spirit here that quaffest!
Spirit here that dancest!
Noble soul that prancest!
Spirit, with thee
I join in the glee
A-nudging the elbow of Momus.
Spirit, I flush
With a Bacchanal blush
Just fresh from the Banquet of Comus.