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The Poetical Works of John Keats, Given From His Own Editions and Other Authentic Sources and Collated With Many Manuscripts
The Poetical Works of John Keats Given From His Own Editions and Other Authentic Sources and Collated With Many Manuscripts Author:John Keats General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1895 Original Publisher: Crowell Subjects: Literary Criticism / Poetry Poetry / General Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the ... more »General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: ON RECEIVING A CURIOUS SHELL, AND A COPY OF VERSES, FROM THE SAME LADIES. AST thou from the caves of Golconda, a gem Pure as the ice-drop that froze on the mountain ? Bright as the humming-bird's green diadem, When it flutters in sun-beams that shine through a fountain ? Hast thou a goblet for dark sparkling wine? 5 That goblet right heavy, and massy, and gold? And splendidlv mark'd with the story divine Of Armida the fair, and Rinaldo the bold? Hast thou a steed with a mane richly flowing? Hast thou a sword that thine enemy's smart is? 10 Hast thou a trumpet rich melodies blowing? And wear'st thou the shield of the fam'd Britomartis? What is it that hangs from thy shoulder, so brave, Embroider'd with many a spring peering flower? Is it a scarf that thy fair lady gave? 15 And hastest thou now to that fair lady's bower? Ah ! courteous Sir Knight, with large joy thou art crown'd ; Full many the glories that brighten thy youth! The title of this poem has generally stood distributed between this and the preceding composition; though Lord Houghton, in his latest (Aldine) edition, restores the arrangement of the 1817 volume. Hunt calls these verses (see Appendix), a " string of magistrate-interrogatories about a shell and a copy of verses." In Tom Keats's book of transcripts, already mentioned, the poem is headed merely " On receiving a curious shell and a copy of verses; " but another transcript, in the hand-writing of George Keats, is subscribed (not headed)...« less