OCTOBER XXIX, 1795
(Keats’ Birthday)
Time sitting on the throne of MemoryBade all her subject Days the past had knownArise and say what thing gave them renownUnforgetable, ‘Rising from the sea,I gave the Genoese his dreams to be;’‘I saw the Corsican’s Guards swept down;’‘Colonies I made free from a tyrant’s crown;’—So each Day told its immortality.
And with these blazing triumphs spoke one voice
Whose wistful speech no vaunting did employ:‘I know not if ’twere by Fate’s chance or choiceI hold the lowly birth of an English boy;I only know he made man’s heart rejoiceBecause he played with Beauty for a toy!’