Endymion: Book I Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A B CA D EEFFGGHHIIJKAALLGGLL MMGG LLAANOPPP PAAAAAAAALLQQLLPPLLR RPPPPLLPP PPLLFFLLPPEEPPLLRRRR SSTTPP RRPPUUEERRRRRRRRPP RRPPPRPPRRVVGGR RPPPPEERRPWGG GGPPRRXXPRPPRRRPPPPP RRRRYYPPPPEERRRREERR PPRRZZPPPP PPGGEERRPPRRRRWWRRA2 A2RREEB2B2C2C2RRRRPP PPPR EEPPRRPPG GC2C2RRRRRRC2C2RRRR RRPPWWRRRRRREERR RRPPWWRRRRGGRRGG RRRRRRRRRRRB2RR D2D2RRC2C2PRRRGGRR RRRRRRGGRRPPRRRRPPPP C2C2PPRRPPB2B2RE2GGB 2B2PPEERRPPRRE2F2GGP PEERREEPPRRRRRRRRRRG GRRPPE2E2RRGGRRPPWWR RPPF2F2RRPPRR RRPPERRRRF2F2RRG2G2P PGGPPPPH2H2GGEP PPRRGGPPRRRRPPGGP PPPE2RRRPPEERRH2H2RR WWPPRRRREERRE2F2PPPP R RWWWWPPEEPPRRRRPPRRP PPPRRRR PPRRI2I2RRB2B2H2H2RR PPRRRREEPP PWPPRRRREERRPPPPWWRR GGC2C2PPWWPPWWWWWWGG WWRRPPRRPPH2H2J2J2EE WWPPRRPPRRRRRREERRPP PPE2E2RRRRWWPPRRRRPP I2I2PPK2K2RRRRC2C2RR GGPPPPRRH2H2PPPPRRB2 B2EERRRRPP WWGGWWB2B2RRGGPPRRPP RRRRRRRRPPPPRRRRRRWW H2 C2C2RRRRWWH2H2RRRRH2 H2PPPPH2H2C2C2RRPPPP RRRRRRPPRRWWRRPPWWGG C2C2RRRRPPG GRRPPB2B2RRPPPPRRRRR RH2H2PPRRPPPEERRGPC2 C2B2B2RRPPPPC2C2PPPP WWEPWWRRPPRRPPC2C2WW WWRRPP GGWWWWPPRREEPPWWPPPP RRPPPPWWPPPPRRPPPPRR PPPPPPEEPPPPB2B2PPRR PPRRPPC2C2EEPPPPPPPP H2H2RRRRPPPPRRGGPPH2 H2GGPPWWPPRRRRPPRRPP RRGGPPPPWWEERREEPPPP PPGGPPPPRRPPRRE EPP

ENDYMION	A
	-
A Poetic Romance	B
	-
THE STRETCHED METRE OF AN AN ANTIQUE SONG	C
INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS CHATTERTON	A
	-
Book I	D
	-
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever	E
Its loveliness increases it will never	E
Pass into nothingness but still will keep	F
A bower quiet for us and a sleep	F
Full of sweet dreams and health and quiet breathing	G
Therefore on every morrow are we wreathing	G
A flowery band to bind us to the earth	H
Spite of despondence of the inhuman dearth	H
Of noble natures of the gloomy days	I
Of all the unhealthy and o'er darkened ways	I
Made for our searching yes in spite of all	J
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall	K
From our dark spirits Such the sun the moon	A
Trees old and young sprouting a shady boon	A
For simple sheep and such are daffodils	L
With the green world they live in and clear rills	L
That for themselves a cooling covert make	G
'Gainst the hot season the mid forest brake	G
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk rose blooms	L
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms	L
We have imagined for the mighty dead	M
All lovely tales that we have heard or read	M
An endless fountain of immortal drink	G
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink	G
	-
Nor do we merely feel these essences	L
For one short hour no even as the trees	L
That whisper round a temple become soon	A
Dear as the temple's self so does the moon	A
The passion poesy glories infinite	N
Haunt us till they become a cheering light	O
Unto our souls and bound to us so fast	P
That whether there be shine or gloom o'ercast	P
They alway must be with us or we die	P
	-
Therefore 'tis with full happiness that I	P
Will trace the story of Endymion	A
The very music of the name has gone	A
Into my being and each pleasant scene	A
Is growing fresh before me as the green	A
Of our own vallies so I will begin	A
Now while I cannot hear the city's din	A
Now while the early budders are just new	A
And run in mazes of the youngest hue	A
About old forests while the willow trails	L
Its delicate amber and the dairy pails	L
Bring home increase of milk And as the year	Q
Grows lush in juicy stalks I'll smoothly steer	Q
My little boat for many quiet hours	L
With streams that deepen freshly into bowers	L
Many and many a verse I hope to write	P
Before the daisies vermeil rimm'd and white	P
Hide in deep herbage and ere yet the bees	L
Hum about globes of clover and sweet peas	L
I must be near the middle of my story	R
O may no wintry season bare and hoary	R
See it half finished but let Autumn bold	P
With universal tinge of sober gold	P
Be all about me when I make an end	P
And now at once adventuresome I send	P
My herald thought into a wilderness	L
There let its trumpet blow and quickly dress	L
My uncertain path with green that I may speed	P
Easily onward thorough flowers and weed	P
	-
Upon the sides of Latmos was outspread	P
A mighty forest for the moist earth fed	P
So plenteously all weed hidden roots	L
Into o'er hanging boughs and precious fruits	L
And it had gloomy shades sequestered deep	F
Where no man went and if from shepherd's keep	F
A lamb strayed far a down those inmost glens	L
Never again saw he the happy pens	L
Whither his brethren bleating with content	P
Over the hills at every nightfall went	P
Among the shepherds 'twas believed ever	E
That not one fleecy lamb which thus did sever	E
From the white flock but pass'd unworried	P
By angry wolf or pard with prying head	P
Until it came to some unfooted plains	L
Where fed the herds of Pan ay great his gains	L
Who thus one lamb did lose Paths there were many	R
Winding through palmy fern and rushes fenny	R
And ivy banks all leading pleasantly	R
To a wide lawn whence one could only see	R
Stems thronging all around between the swell	S
Of turf and slanting branches who could tell	S
The freshness of the space of heaven above	T
Edg'd round with dark tree tops through which a dove	T
Would often beat its wings and often too	P
A little cloud would move across the blue	P
	-
Full in the middle of this pleasantness	R
There stood a marble altar with a tress	R
Of flowers budded newly and the dew	P
Had taken fairy phantasies to strew	P
Daisies upon the sacred sward last eve	U
And so the dawned light in pomp receive	U
For 'twas the morn Apollo's upward fire	E
Made every eastern cloud a silvery pyre	E
Of brightness so unsullied that therein	R
A melancholy spirit well might win	R
Oblivion and melt out his essence fine	R
Into the winds rain scented eglantine	R
Gave temperate sweets to that well wooing sun	R
The lark was lost in him cold springs had run	R
To warm their chilliest bubbles in the grass	R
Man's voice was on the mountains and the mass	R
Of nature's lives and wonders puls'd tenfold	P
To feel this sun rise and its glories old	P
	-
Now while the silent workings of the dawn	R
Were busiest into that self same lawn	R
All suddenly with joyful cries there sped	P
A troop of little children garlanded	P
Who gathering round the altar seemed to pry	P
Earnestly round as wishing to espy	R
Some folk of holiday nor had they waited	P
For many moments ere their ears were sated	P
With a faint breath of music which ev'n then	R
Fill'd out its voice and died away again	R
Within a little space again it gave	V
Its airy swellings with a gentle wave	V
To light hung leaves in smoothest echoes breaking	G
Through copse clad vallies ere their death oer taking	G
The surgy murmurs of the lonely sea	R
	-
And now as deep into the wood as we	R
Might mark a lynx's eye there glimmered light	P
Fair faces and a rush of garments white	P
Plainer and plainer shewing till at last	P
Into the widest alley they all past	P
Making directly for the woodland altar	E
O kindly muse let not my weak tongue faulter	E
In telling of this goodly company	R
Of their old piety and of their glee	R
But let a portion of ethereal dew	P
Fall on my head and presently unmew	W
My soul that I may dare in wayfaring	G
To stammer where old Chaucer used to sing	G
	-
Leading the way young damsels danced along	G
Bearing the burden of a shepherd song	G
Each having a white wicker over brimm'd	P
With April's tender younglings next well trimm'd	P
A crowd of shepherds with as sunburnt looks	R
As may be read of in Arcadian books	R
Such as sat listening round Apollo's pipe	X
When the great deity for earth too ripe	X
Let his divinity o'er flowing die	P
In music through the vales of Thessaly	R
Some idly trailed their sheep hooks on the ground	P
And some kept up a shrilly mellow sound	P
With ebon tipped flutes close after these	R
Now coming from beneath the forest trees	R
A venerable priest full soberly	R
Begirt with ministring looks alway his eye	P
Stedfast upon the matted turf he kept	P
And after him his sacred vestments swept	P
From his right hand there swung a vase milk white	P
Of mingled wine out sparkling generous light	P
And in his left he held a basket full	R
Of all sweet herbs that searching eye could cull	R
Wild thyme and valley lilies whiter still	R
Than Leda's love and cresses from the rill	R
His aged head crowned with beechen wreath	Y
Seem'd like a poll of ivy in the teeth	Y
Of winter hoar Then came another crowd	P
Of shepherds lifting in due time aloud	P
Their share of the ditty After them appear'd	P
Up followed by a multitude that rear'd	P
Their voices to the clouds a fair wrought car	E
Easily rolling so as scarce to mar	E
The freedom of three steeds of dapple brown	R
Who stood therein did seem of great renown	R
Among the throng His youth was fully blown	R
Shewing like Ganymede to manhood grown	R
And for those simple times his garments were	E
A chieftain king's beneath his breast half bare	E
Was hung a silver bugle and between	R
His nervy knees there lay a boar spear keen	R
A smile was on his countenance he seem'd	P
To common lookers on like one who dream'd	P
Of idleness in groves Elysian	R
But there were some who feelingly could scan	R
A lurking trouble in his nether lip	Z
And see that oftentimes the reins would slip	Z
Through his forgotten hands then would they sigh	P
And think of yellow leaves of owlets cry	P
Of logs piled solemnly Ah well a day	P
Why should our young Endymion pine away	P
	-
Soon the assembly in a circle rang'd	P
Stood silent round the shrine each look was chang'd	P
To sudden veneration women meek	G
Beckon'd their sons to silence while each cheek	G
Of virgin bloom paled gently for slight fear	E
Endymion too without a forest peer	E
Stood wan and pale and with an awed face	R
Among his brothers of the mountain chase	R
In midst of all the venerable priest	P
Eyed them with joy from greatest to the least	P
And after lifting up his aged hands	R
Thus spake he Men of Latmos shepherd bands	R
Whose care it is to guard a thousand flocks	R
Whether descended from beneath the rocks	R
That overtop your mountains whether come	W
From vallies where the pipe is never dumb	W
Or from your swelling downs where sweet air stirs	R
Blue hare bells lightly and where prickly furze	R
Buds lavish gold or ye whose precious charge	A2
Nibble their fill at ocean's very marge	A2
Whose mellow reeds are touch'd with sounds forlorn	R
By the dim echoes of old Triton's horn	R
Mothers and wives who day by day prepare	E
The scrip with needments for the mountain air	E
And all ye gentle girls who foster up	B2
Udderless lambs and in a little cup	B2
Will put choice honey for a favoured youth	C2
Yea every one attend for in good truth	C2
Our vows are wanting to our great god Pan	R
Are not our lowing heifers sleeker than	R
Night swollen mushrooms Are not our wide plains	R
Speckled with countless fleeces Have not rains	R
Green'd over April's lap No howling sad	P
Sickens our fearful ewes and we have had	P
Great bounty from Endymion our lord	P
The earth is glad the merry lark has pour'd	P
His early song against yon breezy sky	P
That spreads so clear o'er our solemnity	R
	-
Thus ending on the shrine he heap'd a spire	E
Of teeming sweets enkindling sacred fire	E
Anon he stain'd the thick and spongy sod	P
With wine in honour of the shepherd god	P
Now while the earth was drinking it and while	R
Bay leaves were crackling in the fragrant pile	R
And gummy frankincense was sparkling bright	P
'Neath smothering parsley and a hazy light	P
Spread greyly eastward thus a chorus sang	G
	-
O THOU whose mighty palace roof doth hang	G
From jagged trunks and overshadoweth	C2
Eternal whispers glooms the birth life death	C2
Of unseen flowers in heavy peacefulness	R
Who lov'st to see the hamadryads dress	R
Their ruffled locks where meeting hazels darken	R
And through whole solemn hours dost sit and hearken	R
The dreary melody of bedded reeds	R
In desolate places where dank moisture breeds	R
The pipy hemlock to strange overgrowth	C2
Bethinking thee how melancholy loth	C2
Thou wast to lose fair Syrinx do thou now	R
By thy love's milky brow	R
By all the trembling mazes that she ran	R
Hear us great Pan	R
	-
O thou for whose soul soothing quiet turtles	R
Passion their voices cooingly 'mong myrtles	R
What time thou wanderest at eventide	P
Through sunny meadows that outskirt the side	P
Of thine enmossed realms O thou to whom	W
Broad leaved fig trees even now foredoom	W
Their ripen'd fruitage yellow girted bees	R
Their golden honeycombs our village leas	R
Their fairest blossom'd beans and poppied corn	R
The chuckling linnet its five young unborn	R
To sing for thee low creeping strawberries	R
Their summer coolness pent up butterflies	R
Their freckled wings yea the fresh budding year	E
All its completions be quickly near	E
By every wind that nods the mountain pine	R
O forester divine	R
	-
Thou to whom every fawn and satyr flies	R
For willing service whether to surprise	R
The squatted hare while in half sleeping fit	P
Or upward ragged precipices flit	P
To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw	W
Or by mysterious enticement draw	W
Bewildered shepherds to their path again	R
Or to tread breathless round the frothy main	R
And gather up all fancifullest shells	R
For thee to tumble into Naiads' cells	R
And being hidden laugh at their out peeping	G
Or to delight thee with fantastic leaping	G
The while they pelt each other on the crown	R
With silvery oak apples and fir cones brown	R
By all the echoes that about thee ring	G
Hear us O satyr king	G
	-
O Hearkener to the loud clapping shears	R
While ever and anon to his shorn peers	R
A ram goes bleating Winder of the horn	R
When snouted wild boars routing tender corn	R
Anger our huntsman Breather round our farms	R
To keep off mildews and all weather harms	R
Strange ministrant of undescribed sounds	R
That come a swooning over hollow grounds	R
And wither drearily on barren moors	R
Dread opener of the mysterious doors	R
Leading to universal knowledge see	R
Great son of Dryope	B2
The many that are come to pay their vows	R
With leaves about their brows	R
	-
Be still the unimaginable lodge	D2
For solitary thinkings such as dodge	D2
Conception to the very bourne of heaven	R
Then leave the naked brain be still the leaven	R
That spreading in this dull and clodded earth	C2
Gives it a touch ethereal a new birth	C2
Be still a symbol of immensity	P
A firmament reflected in a sea	R
An element filling the space between	R
An unknown but no more we humbly screen	R
With uplift hands our foreheads lowly bending	G
And giving out a shout most heaven rending	G
Conjure thee to receive our humble Paean	R
Upon thy Mount Lycean	R
	-
Even while they brought the burden to a close	R
A shout from the whole multitude arose	R
That lingered in the air like dying rolls	R
Of abrupt thunder when Ionian shoals	R
Of dolphins bob their noses through the brine	R
Meantime on shady levels mossy fine	R
Young companies nimbly began dancing	G
To the swift treble pipe and humming string	G
Aye those fair living forms swam heavenly	R
To tunes forgotten out of memory	R
Fair creatures whose young children's children bred	P
Thermopyl its heroes not yet dead	P
But in old marbles ever beautiful	R
High genitors unconscious did they cull	R
Time's sweet first fruits they danc'd to weariness	R
And then in quiet circles did they press	R
The hillock turf and caught the latter end	P
Of some strange history potent to send	P
A young mind from its bodily tenement	P
Or they might watch the quoit pitchers intent	P
On either side pitying the sad death	C2
Of Hyacinthus when the cruel breath	C2
Of Zephyr slew him Zephyr penitent	P
Who now ere Phoebus mounts the firmament	P
Fondles the flower amid the sobbing rain	R
The archers too upon a wider plain	R
Beside the feathery whizzing of the shaft	P
And the dull twanging bowstring and the raft	P
Branch down sweeping from a tall ash top	B2
Call'd up a thousand thoughts to envelope	B2
Those who would watch Perhaps the trembling knee	R
And frantic gape of lonely Niobe	E2
Poor lonely Niobe when her lovely young	G
Were dead and gone and her caressing tongue	G
Lay a lost thing upon her paly lip	B2
And very very deadliness did nip	B2
Her motherly cheeks Arous'd from this sad mood	P
By one who at a distance loud halloo'd	P
Uplifting his strong bow into the air	E
Many might after brighter visions stare	E
After the Argonauts in blind amaze	R
Tossing about on Neptune's restless ways	R
Until from the horizon's vaulted side	P
There shot a golden splendour far and wide	P
Spangling those million poutings of the brine	R
With quivering ore 'twas even an awful shine	R
From the exaltation of Apollo's bow	E2
A heavenly beacon in their dreary woe	F2
Who thus were ripe for high contemplating	G
Might turn their steps towards the sober ring	G
Where sat Endymion and the aged priest	P
'Mong shepherds gone in eld whose looks increas'd	P
The silvery setting of their mortal star	E
There they discours'd upon the fragile bar	E
That keeps us from our homes ethereal	R
And what our duties there to nightly call	R
Vesper the beauty crest of summer weather	E
To summon all the downiest clouds together	E
For the sun's purple couch to emulate	P
In ministring the potent rule of fate	P
With speed of fire tailed exhalations	R
To tint her pallid cheek with bloom who cons	R
Sweet poesy by moonlight besides these	R
A world of other unguess'd offices	R
Anon they wander'd by divine converse	R
Into Elysium vieing to rehearse	R
Each one his own anticipated bliss	R
One felt heart certain that he could not miss	R
His quick gone love among fair blossom'd boughs	R
Where every zephyr sigh pouts and endows	R
Her lips with music for the welcoming	G
Another wish'd mid that eternal spring	G
To meet his rosy child with feathery sails	R
Sweeping eye earnestly through almond vales	R
Who suddenly should stoop through the smooth wind	P
And with the balmiest leaves his temples bind	P
And ever after through those regions be	E2
His messenger his little Mercury	E2
Some were athirst in soul to see again	R
Their fellow huntsmen o'er the wide champaign	R
In times long past to sit with them and talk	G
Of all the chances in their earthly walk	G
Comparing joyfully their plenteous stores	R
Of happiness to when upon the moors	R
Benighted close they huddled from the cold	P
And shar'd their famish'd scrips Thus all out told	P
Their fond imaginations saving him	W
Whose eyelids curtain'd up their jewels dim	W
Endymion yet hourly had he striven	R
To hide the cankering venom that had riven	R
His fainting recollections Now indeed	P
His senses had swoon'd off he did not heed	P
The sudden silence or the whispers low	F2
Or the old eyes dissolving at his woe	F2
Or anxious calls or close of trembling palms	R
Or maiden's sigh that grief itself embalms	R
But in the self same fixed trance he kept	P
Like one who on the earth had never stept	P
Aye even as dead still as a marble man	R
Frozen in that old tale Arabian	R
	-
Who whispers him so pantingly and close	R
Peona his sweet sister of all those	R
His friends the dearest Hushing signs she made	P
And breath'd a sister's sorrow to persuade	P
A yielding up a cradling on her care	E
Her eloquence did breathe away the curse	R
She led him like some midnight spirit nurse	R
Of happy changes in emphatic dreams	R
Along a path between two little streams	R
Guarding his forehead with her round elbow	F2
From low grown branches and his footsteps slow	F2
From stumbling over stumps and hillocks small	R
Until they came to where these streamlets fall	R
With mingled bubblings and a gentle rush	G2
Into a river clear brimful and flush	G2
With crystal mocking of the trees and sky	P
A little shallop floating there hard by	P
Pointed its beak over the fringed bank	G
And soon it lightly dipt and rose and sank	G
And dipt again with the young couple's weight	P
Peona guiding through the water straight	P
Towards a bowery island opposite	P
Which gaining presently she steered light	P
Into a shady fresh and ripply cove	H2
Where nested was an arbour overwove	H2
By many a summer's silent fingering	G
To whose cool bosom she was used to bring	G
Her playmates with their needle broidery	E
And minstrel memories of times gone by	P
	-
So she was gently glad to see him laid	P
Under her favourite bower's quiet shade	P
On her own couch new made of flower leaves	R
Dried carefully on the cooler side of sheaves	R
When last the sun his autumn tresses shook	G
And the tann'd harvesters rich armfuls took	G
Soon was he quieted to slumbrous rest	P
But ere it crept upon him he had prest	P
Peona's busy hand against his lips	R
And still a sleeping held her finger tips	R
In tender pressure And as a willow keeps	R
A patient watch over the stream that creeps	R
Windingly by it so the quiet maid	P
Held her in peace so that a whispering blade	P
Of grass a wailful gnat a bee bustling	G
Down in the blue bells or a wren light rustling	G
Among seer leaves and twigs might all be heard	P
	-
O magic sleep O comfortable bird	P
That broodest o'er the troubled sea of the mind	P
Till it is hush'd and smooth O unconfin'd	P
Restraint imprisoned liberty great key	E2
To golden palaces strange minstrelsy	R
Fountains grotesque new trees bespangled caves	R
Echoing grottos full of tumbling waves	R
And moonlight aye to all the mazy world	P
Of silvery enchantment who upfurl'd	P
Beneath thy drowsy wing a triple hour	E
But renovates and lives Thus in the bower	E
Endymion was calm'd to life again	R
Opening his eyelids with a healthier brain	R
He said I feel this thine endearing love	H2
All through my bosom thou art as a dove	H2
Trembling its closed eyes and sleeked wings	R
About me and the pearliest dew not brings	R
Such morning incense from the fields of May	W
As do those brighter drops that twinkling stray	W
From those kind eyes the very home and haunt	P
Of sisterly affection Can I want	P
Aught else aught nearer heaven than such tears	R
Yet dry them up in bidding hence all fears	R
That any longer I will pass my days	R
Alone and sad No I will once more raise	R
My voice upon the mountain heights once more	E
Make my horn parley from their foreheads hoar	E
Again my trooping hounds their tongues shall loll	R
Around the breathed boar again I'll poll	R
The fair grown yew tree for a chosen bow	E2
And when the pleasant sun is getting low	F2
Again I'll linger in a sloping mead	P
To hear the speckled thrushes and see feed	P
Our idle sheep So be thou cheered sweet	P
And if thy lute is here softly intreat	P
My soul to keep in its resolved course	R
	-
Hereat Peona in their silver source	R
Shut her pure sorrow drops with glad exclaim	W
And took a lute from which there pulsing came	W
A lively prelude fashioning the way	W
In which her voice should wander 'Twas a lay	W
More subtle cadenced more forest wild	P
Than Dryope's lone lulling of her child	P
And nothing since has floated in the air	E
So mournful strange Surely some influence rare	E
Went spiritual through the damsel's hand	P
For still with Delphic emphasis she spann'd	P
The quick invisible strings even though she saw	R
Endymion's spirit melt away and thaw	R
Before the deep intoxication	R
But soon she came with sudden burst upon	R
Her self possession swung the lute aside	P
And earnestly said Brother 'tis vain to hide	P
That thou dost know of things mysterious	R
Immortal starry such alone could thus	R
Weigh down thy nature Hast thou sinn'd in aught	P
Offensive to the heavenly powers Caught	P
A Paphian dove upon a message sent	P
Thy deathful bow against some deer herd bent	P
Sacred to Dian Haply thou hast seen	R
Her naked limbs among the alders green	R
And that alas is death No I can trace	R
Something more high perplexing in thy face	R
	-
Endymion look'd at her and press'd her hand	P
And said Art thou so pale who wast so bland	P
And merry in our meadows How is this	R
Tell me thine ailment tell me all amiss	R
Ah thou hast been unhappy at the change	I2
Wrought suddenly in me What indeed more strange	I2
Or more complete to overwhelm surmise	R
Ambition is no sluggard 'tis no prize	R
That toiling years would put within my grasp	B2
That I have sigh'd for with so deadly gasp	B2
No man e'er panted for a mortal love	H2
So all have set my heavier grief above	H2
These things which happen Rightly have they done	R
I who still saw the horizontal sun	R
Heave his broad shoulder o'er the edge of the world	P
Out facing Lucifer and then had hurl'd	P
My spear aloft as signal for the chace	R
I who for very sport of heart would race	R
With my own steed from Araby pluck down	R
A vulture from his towery perching frown	R
A lion into growling loth retire	E
To lose at once all my toil breeding fire	E
And sink thus low but I will ease my breast	P
Of secret grief here in this bowery nest	P
	-
This river does not see the naked sky	P
Till it begins to progress silverly	W
Around the western border of the wood	P
Whence from a certain spot its winding flood	P
Seems at the distance like a crescent moon	R
And in that nook the very pride of June	R
Had I been used to pass my weary eves	R
The rather for the sun unwilling leaves	R
So dear a picture of his sovereign power	E
And I could witness his most kingly hour	E
When he doth lighten up the golden reins	R
And paces leisurely down amber plains	R
His snorting four Now when his chariot last	P
Its beams against the zodiac lion cast	P
There blossom'd suddenly a magic bed	P
Of sacred ditamy and poppies red	P
At which I wondered greatly knowing well	W
That but one night had wrought this flowery spell	W
And sitting down close by began to muse	R
What it might mean Perhaps thought I Morpheus	R
In passing here his owlet pinions shook	G
Or it may be ere matron Night uptook	G
Her ebon urn young Mercury by stealth	C2
Had dipt his rod in it such garland wealth	C2
Came not by common growth Thus on I thought	P
Until my head was dizzy and distraught	P
Moreover through the dancing poppies stole	W
A breeze most softly lulling to my soul	W
And shaping visions all about my sight	P
Of colours wings and bursts of spangly light	P
The which became more strange and strange and dim	W
And then were gulph'd in a tumultuous swim	W
And then I fell asleep Ah can I tell	W
The enchantment that afterwards befel	W
Yet it was but a dream yet such a dream	W
That never tongue although it overteem	W
With mellow utterance like a cavern spring	G
Could figure out and to conception bring	G
All I beheld and felt Methought I lay	W
Watching the zenith where the milky way	W
Among the stars in virgin splendour pours	R
And travelling my eye until the doors	R
Of heaven appear'd to open for my flight	P
I became loth and fearful to alight	P
From such high soaring by a downward glance	R
So kept me stedfast in that airy trance	R
Spreading imaginary pinions wide	P
When presently the stars began to glide	P
And faint away before my eager view	H2
At which I sigh'd that I could not pursue	H2
And dropt my vision to the horizon's verge	J2
And lo from opening clouds I saw emerge	J2
The loveliest moon that ever silver'd o'er	E
A shell for Neptune's goblet she did soar	E
So passionately bright my dazzled soul	W
Commingling with her argent spheres did roll	W
Through clear and cloudy even when she went	P
At last into a dark and vapoury tent	P
Whereat methought the lidless eyed train	R
Of planets all were in the blue again	R
To commune with those orbs once more I rais'd	P
My sight right upward but it was quite dazed	P
By a bright something sailing down apace	R
Making me quickly veil my eyes and face	R
Again I look'd and O ye deities	R
Who from Olympus watch our destinies	R
Whence that completed form of all completeness	R
Whence came that high perfection of all sweetness	R
Speak stubborn earth and tell me where O Where	E
Hast thou a symbol of her golden hair	E
Not oat sheaves drooping in the western sun	R
Not thy soft hand fair sister let me shun	R
Such follying before thee yet she had	P
Indeed locks bright enough to make me mad	P
And they were simply gordian'd up and braided	P
Leaving in naked comeliness unshaded	P
Her pearl round ears white neck and orbed brow	E2
The which were blended in I know not how	E2
With such a paradise of lips and eyes	R
Blush tinted cheeks half smiles and faintest sighs	R
That when I think thereon my spirit clings	R
And plays about its fancy till the stings	R
Of human neighbourhood envenom all	W
Unto what awful power shall I call	W
To what high fane Ah see her hovering feet	P
More bluely vein'd more soft more whitely sweet	P
Than those of sea born Venus when she rose	R
From out her cradle shell The wind out blows	R
Her scarf into a fluttering pavilion	R
'Tis blue and over spangled with a million	R
Of little eyes as though thou wert to shed	P
Over the darkest lushest blue bell bed	P
Handfuls of daisies Endymion how strange	I2
Dream within dream She took an airy range	I2
And then towards me like a very maid	P
Came blushing waning willing and afraid	P
And press'd me by the hand Ah 'twas too much	K2
Methought I fainted at the charmed touch	K2
Yet held my recollection even as one	R
Who dives three fathoms where the waters run	R
Gurgling in beds of coral for anon	R
I felt upmounted in that region	R
Where falling stars dart their artillery forth	C2
And eagles struggle with the buffeting north	C2
That balances the heavy meteor stone	R
Felt too I was not fearful nor alone	R
But lapp'd and lull'd along the dangerous sky	G
Soon as it seem'd we left our journeying high	G
And straightway into frightful eddies swoop'd	P
Such as ay muster where grey time has scoop'd	P
Huge dens and caverns in a mountain's side	P
There hollow sounds arous'd me and I sigh'd	P
To faint once more by looking on my bliss	R
I was distracted madly did I kiss	R
The wooing arms which held me and did give	H2
My eyes at once to death but 'twas to live	H2
To take in draughts of life from the gold fount	P
Of kind and passionate looks to count and count	P
The moments by some greedy help that seem'd	P
A second self that each might be redeem'd	P
And plunder'd of its load of blessedness	R
Ah desperate mortal I ev'n dar'd to press	R
Her very cheek against my crowned lip	B2
And at that moment felt my body dip	B2
Into a warmer air a moment more	E
Our feet were soft in flowers There was store	E
Of newest joys upon that alp Sometimes	R
A scent of violets and blossoming limes	R
Loiter'd around us then of honey cells	R
Made delicate from all white flower bells	R
And once above the edges of our nest	P
An arch face peep'd an Oread as I guess'd	P
	-
Why did I dream that sleep o'er power'd me	W
In midst of all this heaven Why not see	W
Far off the shadows of his pinions dark	G
And stare them from me But no like a spark	G
That needs must die although its little beam	W
Reflects upon a diamond my sweet dream	W
Fell into nothing into stupid sleep	B2
And so it was until a gentle creep	B2
A careful moving caught my waking ears	R
And up I started Ah my sighs my tears	R
My clenched hands for lo the poppies hung	G
Dew dabbled on their stalks the ouzel sung	G
A heavy ditty and the sullen day	P
Had chidden herald Hesperus away	P
With leaden looks the solitary breeze	R
Bluster'd and slept and its wild self did teaze	R
With wayward melancholy and r thought	P
Mark me Peona that sometimes it brought	P
Faint fare thee wells and sigh shrilled adieus	R
Away I wander'd all the pleasant hues	R
Of heaven and earth had faded deepest shades	R
Were deepest dungeons heaths and sunny glades	R
Were full of pestilent light our taintless rills	R
Seem'd sooty and o'er spread with upturn'd gills	R
Of dying fish the vermeil rose had blown	R
In frightful scarlet and its thorns out grown	R
Like spiked aloe If an innocent bird	P
Before my heedless footsteps stirr'd and stirr'd	P
In little journeys I beheld in it	P
A disguis'd demon missioned to knit	P
My soul with under darkness to entice	R
My stumblings down some monstrous precipice	R
Therefore I eager followed and did curse	R
The disappointment Time that aged nurse	R
Rock'd me to patience Now thank gentle heaven	R
These things with all their comfortings are given	R
To my down sunken hours and with thee	W
Sweet sister help to stem the ebbing sea	W
Of weary life	H2
	-
Thus ended he and both	C2
Sat silent for the maid was very loth	C2
To answer feeling well that breathed words	R
Would all be lost unheard and vain as swords	R
Against the enchased crocodile or leaps	R
Of grasshoppers against the sun She weeps	R
And wonders struggles to devise some blame	W
To put on such a look as would say Shame	W
On this poor weakness but for all her strife	H2
She could as soon have crush'd away the life	H2
From a sick dove At length to break the pause	R
She said with trembling chance Is this the cause	R
This all Yet it is strange and sad alas	R
That one who through this middle earth should pass	R
Most like a sojourning demi god and leave	H2
His name upon the harp string should achieve	H2
No higher bard than simple maidenhood	P
Singing alone and fearfully how the blood	P
Left his young cheek and how he used to stray	P
He knew not where and how he would say nay	P
If any said 'twas love and yet 'twas love	H2
What could it be but love How a ring dove	H2
Let fall a sprig of yew tree in his path	C2
And how he died and then that love doth scathe	C2
The gentle heart as northern blasts do roses	R
And then the ballad of his sad life closes	R
With sighs and an alas Endymion	P
Be rather in the trumpet's mouth anon	P
Among the winds at large that all may hearken	P
Although before the crystal heavens darken	P
I watch and dote upon the silver lakes	R
Pictur'd in western cloudiness that takes	R
The semblance of gold rocks and bright gold sands	R
Islands and creeks and amber fretted strands	R
With horses prancing o'er them palaces	R
And towers of amethyst would I so tease	R
My pleasant days because I could not mount	P
Into those regions The Morphean fount	P
Of that fine element that visions dreams	R
And fitful whims of sleep are made of streams	R
Into its airy channels with so subtle	W
So thin a breathing not the spider's shuttle	W
Circled a million times within the space	R
Of a swallow's nest door could delay a trace	R
A tinting of its quality how light	P
Must dreams themselves be seeing they're more slight	P
Than the mere nothing that engenders them	W
Then wherefore sully the entrusted gem	W
Of high and noble life with thoughts so sick	G
Why pierce high fronted honour to the quick	G
For nothing but a dream Hereat the youth	C2
Look'd up a conflicting of shame and ruth	C2
Was in his plaited brow yet his eyelids	R
Widened a little as when Zephyr bids	R
A little breeze to creep between the fans	R
Of careless butterflies amid his pains	R
He seem'd to taste a drop of manna dew	P
Full palatable and a colour grew	P
Upon his cheek while thus he lifeful spake	G
	-
Peona ever have I long'd to slake	G
My thirst for the world's praises nothing base	R
No merely slumberous phantasm could unlace	R
The stubborn canvas for my voyage prepar'd	P
Though now 'tis tatter'd leaving my bark bar'd	P
And sullenly drifting yet my higher hope	B2
Is of too wide too rainbow large a scope	B2
To fret at myriads of earthly wrecks	R
Wherein lies happiness In that which becks	R
Our ready minds to fellowship divine	P
A fellowship with essence till we shine	P
Full alchemiz'd and free of space Behold	P
The clear religion of heaven Fold	P
A rose leaf round thy finger's taperness	R
And soothe thy lips hist when the airy stress	R
Of music's kiss impregnates the free winds	R
And with a sympathetic touch unbinds	R
Eolian magic from their lucid wombs	R
Then old songs waken from enclouded tombs	R
Old ditties sigh above their father's grave	H2
Ghosts of melodious prophecyings rave	H2
Round every spot where trod Apollo's foot	P
Bronze clarions awake and faintly bruit	P
Where long ago a giant battle was	R
And from the turf a lullaby doth pass	R
In every place where infant Orpheus slept	P
Feel we these things that moment have we stept	P
Into a sort of oneness and our state	P
Is like a floating spirit's But there are	E
Richer entanglements enthralments far	E
More self destroying leading by degrees	R
To the chief intensity the crown of these	R
Is made of love and friendship and sits high	G
Upon the forehead of humanity	P
All its more ponderous and bulky worth	C2
Is friendship whence there ever issues forth	C2
A steady splendour but at the tip top	B2
There hangs by unseen film an orbed drop	B2
Of light and that is love its influence	R
Thrown in our eyes genders a novel sense	R
At which we start and fret till in the end	P
Melting into its radiance we blend	P
Mingle and so become a part of it	P
Nor with aught else can our souls interknit	P
So wingedly when we combine therewith	C2
Life's self is nourish'd by its proper pith	C2
And we are nurtured like a pelican brood	P
Aye so delicious is the unsating food	P
That men who might have tower'd in the van	P
Of all the congregated world to fan	P
And winnow from the coming step of time	W
All chaff of custom wipe away all slime	W
Left by men slugs and human serpentry	E
Have been content to let occasion die	P
Whilst they did sleep in love's elysium	W
And truly I would rather be struck dumb	W
Than speak against this ardent listlessness	R
For I have ever thought that it might bless	R
The world with benefits unknowingly	P
As does the nightingale upperched high	P
And cloister'd among cool and bunched leaves	R
She sings but to her love nor e'er conceives	R
How tiptoe Night holds back her dark grey hood	P
Just so may love although 'tis understood	P
The mere commingling of passionate breath	C2
Produce more than our searching witnesseth	C2
What I know not but who of men can tell	W
That flowers would bloom or that green fruit would swell	W
To melting pulp that fish would have bright mail	W
The earth its dower of river wood and vale	W
The meadows runnels runnels pebble stones	R
The seed its harvest or the lute its tones	R
Tones ravishment or ravishment its sweet	P
If human souls did never kiss and greet	P
	-
Now if this earthly love has power to make	G
Men's being mortal immortal to shake	G
Ambition from their memories and brim	W
Their measure of content what merest whim	W
Seems all this poor endeavour after fame	W
To one who keeps within his stedfast aim	W
A love immortal an immortal too	P
Look not so wilder'd for these things are true	P
And never can be born of atomies	R
That buzz about our slumbers like brain flies	R
Leaving us fancy sick No no I'm sure	E
My restless spirit never could endure	E
To brood so long upon one luxury	P
Unless it did though fearfully espy	P
A hope beyond the shadow of a dream	W
My sayings will the less obscured seem	W
When I have told thee how my waking sight	P
Has made me scruple whether that same night	P
Was pass'd in dreaming Hearken sweet Peona	P
Beyond the matron temple of Latona	P
Which we should see but for these darkening boughs	R
Lies a deep hollow from whose ragged brows	R
Bushes and trees do lean all round athwart	P
And meet so nearly that with wings outraught	P
And spreaded tail a vulture could not glide	P
Past them but he must brush on every side	P
Some moulder'd steps lead into this cool cell	W
Far as the slabbed margin of a well	W
Whose patient level peeps its crystal eye	P
Right upward through the bushes to the sky	P
Oft have I brought thee flowers on their stalks set	P
Like vestal primroses but dark velvet	P
Edges them round and they have golden pits	R
'Twas there I got them from the gaps and slits	R
In a mossy stone that sometimes was my seat	P
When all above was faint with mid day heat	P
And there in strife no burning thoughts to heed	P
I'd bubble up the water through a reed	P
So reaching back to boy hood make me ships	R
Of moulted feathers touchwood alder chips	R
With leaves stuck in them and the Neptune be	P
Of their petty ocean Oftener heavily	P
When love lorn hours had left me less a child	P
I sat contemplating the figures wild	P
Of o'er head clouds melting the mirror through	P
Upon a day while thus I watch'd by flew	P
A cloudy Cupid with his bow and quiver	E
So plainly character'd no breeze would shiver	E
The happy chance so happy I was fain	P
To follow it upon the open plain	P
And therefore was just going when behold	P
A wonder fair as any I have told	P
The same bright face I tasted in my sleep	B2
Smiling in the clear well My heart did leap	B2
Through the cool depth It moved as if to flee	P
I started up when lo refreshfully	P
There came upon my face in plenteous showers	R
Dew drops and dewy buds and leaves and flowers	R
Wrapping all objects from my smothered sight	P
Bathing my spirit in a new delight	P
Aye such a breathless honey feel of bliss	R
Alone preserved me from the drear abyss	R
Of death for the fair form had gone again	P
Pleasure is oft a visitant but pain	P
Clings cruelly to us like the gnawing sloth	C2
On the deer's tender haunches late and loth	C2
'Tis scar'd away by slow returning pleasure	E
How sickening how dark the dreadful leisure	E
Of weary days made deeper exquisite	P
By a fore knowledge of unslumbrous night	P
Like sorrow came upon me heavier still	P
Than when I wander'd from the poppy hill	P
And a whole age of lingering moments crept	P
Sluggishly by ere more contentment swept	P
Away at once the deadly yellow spleen	P
Yes thrice have I this fair enchantment seen	P
Once more been tortured with renewed life	H2
When last the wintry gusts gave over strife	H2
With the conquering sun of spring and left the skies	R
Warm and serene but yet with moistened eyes	R
In pity of the shatter'd infant buds	R
That time thou didst adorn with amber studs	R
My hunting cap because I laugh'd and smil'd	P
Chatted with thee and many days exil'd	P
All torment from my breast 'twas even then	P
Straying about yet coop'd up in the den	P
Of helpless discontent hurling my lance	R
From place to place and following at chance	R
At last by hap through some young trees it struck	G
And plashing among bedded pebbles stuck	G
In the middle of a brook whose silver ramble	P
Down twenty little falls through reeds and bramble	P
Tracing along it brought me to a cave	H2
Whence it ran brightly forth and white did lave	H2
The nether sides of mossy stones and rock	G
'Mong which it gurgled blythe adieus to mock	G
Its own sweet grief at parting Overhead	P
Hung a lush screen of drooping weeds and spread	P
Thick as to curtain up some wood nymph's home	W
Ah impious mortal whither do I roam	W
Said I low voic'd Ah whither 'Tis the grot	P
Of Proserpine when Hell obscure and hot	P
Doth her resign and where her tender hands	R
She dabbles on the cool and sluicy sands	R
Or 'tis the cell of Echo where she sits	R
And babbles thorough silence till her wits	R
Are gone in tender madness and anon	P
Faints into sleep with many a dying tone	P
Of sadness O that she would take my vows	R
And breathe them sighingly among the boughs	R
To sue her gentle ears for whose fair head	P
Daily I pluck sweet flowerets from their bed	P
And weave them dyingly send honey whispers	R
Round every leaf that all those gentle lispers	R
May sigh my love unto her pitying	G
O charitable echo hear and sing	G
This ditty to her tell her so I stay'd	P
My foolish tongue and listening half afraid	P
Stood stupefied with my own empty folly	P
And blushing for the freaks of melancholy	P
Salt tears were coming when I heard my name	W
Most fondly lipp'd and then these accents came	W
'Endymion the cave is secreter	E
Than the isle of Delos Echo hence shall stir	E
No sighs but sigh warm kisses or light noise	R
Of thy combing hand the while it travelling cloys	R
And trembles through my labyrinthine hair	E
At that oppress'd I hurried in Ah where	E
Are those swift moments Whither are they fled	P
I'll smile no more Peona nor will wed	P
Sorrow the way to death but patiently	P
Bear up against it so farewel sad sigh	P
And come instead demurest meditation	P
To occupy me wholly and to fashion	P
My pilgrimage for the world's dusky brink	G
No more will I count over link by link	G
My chain of grief no longer strive to find	P
A half forgetfulness in mountain wind	P
Blustering about my ears aye thou shalt see	P
Dearest of sisters what my life shall be	P
What a calm round of hours shall make my days	R
There is a paly flame of hope that plays	R
Where'er I look but yet I'll say 'tis naught	P
And here I bid it die Have not I caught	P
Already a more healthy countenance	R
By this the sun is setting we may chance	R
Meet some of our near dwellers with my car	E
	-
This said he rose faint smiling like a star	E
Through autumn mists and took Peona's hand	P
They stept into the boat and launch'd from land	P

John Keats

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