The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats/Song: 'I had a dove and the sweet dove died'

by John Keats

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'There is just room, I see, in this page to copy a little thing I wrote off to some Music as it was playing.' Keats to George and Georgiana Keats, January 2, 1819.

I had a dove and the sweet dove died;
⁠And I have thought it died of grieving:
O, what could it grieve for? Its feet were tied,
⁠With a silken thread of my own hand's weaving;
Sweet little red feet! why should you die—
Why should you leave me, sweet bird! why?
You lived alone in the forest-tree,
Why, pretty thing! would you not live with me?
I kiss'd you oft and gave you white peas;
Why not live sweetly, as in the green trees?