To One Who Has Been Long in City Pent

John Keats(1795–1821)

The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats, 1816

To one who has been long in city pent,'T is very sweet to look into the fairAnd open face of heaven,—to breathe a prayerFull in the smile of the blue firmament.Who is more happy, when, with hearts content,Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lairOf wavy grass, and reads a debonairAnd gentle tale of love and languishment?Returning home at evening, with an earCatching the notes of Philomel,—an eyeWatching the sailing cloudlet's bright career,He mourns that day so soon has glided by:E'en like the passage of an angel's tearThat falls through the clear ether silently.

From The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats (1816), via the English Wikisource transcription.

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