by Keats · Cluster: Greek Mythology · Lust Sexual Desire · Desire
Abstract
A sonnet addressing the Nile, questioning whether it is truly fruitful or a desert deceiver, then affirming its green life; nature, the river, Egypt and imagination versus ignorance.
Connections
Motifs: River, Water, Nature Themes & Concepts: Imagination, Wonder and Gratitude Forms & Genres: Sonnet Historical References: Classical Antiquity Settings: Egypt
Testo integrale / Full text
Son of the old moon-mountains African!
Chief of the Pyramid and Crocodile!
We call thee fruitful, and, that very while,
A desert fills our seeing’s inward span;
Nurse of swart nations since the world began,
Art thou so fruitful? or dost thou beguile
Such men to honour thee, who, worn with toil,
Rest for a space ‘twixt Cairo and Decan?
O, O may dark fancies err! they surely do;
’Tis ignorance that makes a barren waste
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Of all beyond itself, thou dost bedew
Green rushes like our rivers, and dost taste
The pleasant sunrise, green isles hast thou too,
And to the sea as happily dost haste.