On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again

John Keats(1795–1821)

The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats, 1818

O golden-tongued Romance, with serene lute!Fair plumèd Syren, Queen of far away!Leave melodizing 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 assayThe bitter sweet of this Shakespearean fruit:Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion,Begetters of our deep eternal theme!When through the old oak forest I am gone,Let me not wander in a barren dream,But when I am consumèd in the Fire,Give me new Phœnix-wings to fly at my desire.

From The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats (1818), via the English Wikisource transcription.

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