To Homer

John Keats(1795–1821)

The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats, 1818

Standing aloof in giant ignorance,Of thee I hear and of the Cyclades,As one who sits ashore and longs perchanceTo visit dolphin-coral in deep seas.So thou wast blind!—but then the veil was rent,For Jove uncurtain'd Heaven to let thee live,And Neptune made for thee a spumy tent,And Pan made sing for thee his forest-hive;Ay on the shores of darkness there is light,And precipices show untrodden green;There is a budding morrow in midnight;There is a triple sight in blindness keen:Such seeing hadst thou, as it once befellTo Dian, Queen of Earth, and Heaven, and Hell.

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

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