by Keats · Cluster: Ode · Nature vs Civilization · Pastoral Retreat
Abstract
Sonnet on the sweetness of escaping the city into open countryside to read of love; nature versus the city, transience of the happy day.
Connections
Topoi: Pastoral Retreat Motifs: City Themes & Concepts: Nature vs Civilization, Transience Forms & Genres: Sonnet
Testo integrale / Full text
To one who has been long in city pent,
’Tis very sweet to look into the fair
And open face of heaven, — to breathe a prayer
Full in the smile of the blue firmament.
Who is more happy, when, with hearts content,
Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair
Of wavy grass, and reads a debonair
And gentle tale of love and languishment?
Returning home at evening, with an ear
Catching the notes of Philomel, — an eye
Watching the sailing cloudlet’s bright career,
He mourns that day so soon has glided by:
E’en like the passage of an angel’s tear
That falls through the clear ether silently.