by Keats · Cluster: Self-Knowledge · Immortality · Self-Reliance
Abstract
A sonnet bidding farewell to golden romance to burn through the tragic fire of King Lear and asking for new Phoenix wings; tragedy, Shakespeare, suffering and poetic rebirth.
Connections
Topoi: Immortality Through Verse Motifs: Fire, Book Reading, Birds Themes & Concepts: Imagination, Grief and Loss Forms & Genres: Sonnet Historical References: Greek Mythology
Testo integrale / Full text
O golden tongued Romance, with serene lute!
Fair plumed Syren, Queen of far-away!
Leave melodising on this wintry day,
Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute:
Adieu! for, once again, the fierce dispute
Betwixt damnation and impassion’d clay
Must I burn through; once more humbly assay
The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit:
Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion,
Begetters of our deep eternal theme!
10
When through the old oak forest I am gone,
Let me not wander in a barren dream,
But, when I am consumed in the fire,
Give me new Phoenix wings’ to fly at my desire.