A Dream, after reading Dante's Episode of Paola and Francesca

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A Dream, after reading Dante's Episode of Paola and Francesca
by John Keats


As Hermes once took to his feathers light,
  When lulled Argus, baffled, swoone'd and slept,
So on a Delphic reed, my idle spright
  So play'd, so charm'd, so conquer'd, so bereft
The dragon-world of all its hundred eyes;
  And, seeing it asleep, so fled away -
Not to pure Ida with its snow-cold skies,
  Nor unto Tempe where Jove griev'd a day;
But to that second circle of sad hell,
  Where 'mid the gust, the whirlwind, and the flaw
Of rain and hail-stones, lovers need not tell
  Their sorrows. Pale were the sweet lips I saw,
Pale were the lips I kiss'd, and fair the form
I floated with, about that melancholy storm.

This work published before January 1, 1923 is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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