The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats/To Fanny: 'I cry your mercy—pity—love—ay, love!'

by John Keats

TO FANNY

With the date 1819 in Life, Letters and Literary Remains.

I cry your mercy—pity—love—aye, love!
⁠Merciful love that tantalizes not,
One-thoughted, never-wandering, guileless love,
⁠Unmask'd, and being seen—without a blot!
O! let me have thee whole,—all—all—be mine!
⁠That shape, that fairness, that sweet minor zest
Of love, your kiss,—those hands, those eyes divine,
⁠That warm, white, lucent, million-pleasured breast,—
Yourself—your soul—in pity give me all,
⁠Withhold no atom's atom, or I die,
Or living on perhaps, your wretched thrall,
⁠Forget, in the mist of idle misery,
Life's purposes—the palate of my mind
Losing its gust, and my ambition blind!