by Keats · Cluster: Sea · Water
Abstract
A sonnet on the eternal whisperings and mighty swell of the sea, invoking Hecate and the sea-nymphs as solace for the weary; the sea, nature, the sublime and classical myth.
Connections
Motifs: Sea, Water, Nature Themes & Concepts: Sublime, Wonder and Gratitude Forms & Genres: Sonnet Historical References: Greek Mythology Settings: Sea (2)
Testo integrale / Full text
It keeps eternal whisperings around
Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell
Gluts twice ten thousand Caverns, till the spell
Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound.
Often ’tis in such gentle temper found,
That scarcely will the very smallest shell
Be mov’d for days from where it sometime fell,
When last the winds of Heaven were unbound.
Oh ye! who have your eyeballs vex’d and tir’d,
Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;
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Oh ye! whose ears are dinn’d with uproar rude,
Or fed too much with cloying melody -
Sit ye near some old cavern’s mouth, and brood
Until ye start, as if the sea-nymphs quir’d!