The Poetical Works of John Keats/Written before Re-reading King Lear
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For other versions of this work, see On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again.
WRITTEN BEFORE RE-READING KING LEAR.
O golden-tongued Romance with serene lute!
Fair plumed Syren! Queen! if far away!
Leave melodizing on this wintry day,
Shut up thine olden volume, and be mute.
Adieu! for once again the fierce dispute,
Betwixt Hell torment and impassioned clay
Must I burn through; once more assay
The bitter sweet of this Shakespearian fruit
Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion,
Begetters of our deep eternal theme,
When I am through the old oak forest gone
Let me not wander in a barren dream,
But when I am consumed with the Fire,
Give me new Phœnix-wings to fly at my desire.