The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats/Sonnet: 'To one who has been long in city pent'

4079249The Complete Poetical Works and Letters of John Keats — Sonnet: 'To one who has been long in city pent'John Keats

SONNET

George Keats has a memorandum on this sonnet, 'written in the Fields, June, 1816.' Published in the 1817 volume.

To one who has been long in city pent,
'T is very sweet to look into the fair
And open face of heaven,—to breathe a prayer
Full in the smile of the blue firmament.
Who is more happy, when, with hearts content,
Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair
Of wavy grass, and reads a debonair
And gentle tale of love and languishment?
Returning home at evening, with an ear
Catching the notes of Philomel,—an eye
Watching the sailing cloudlet's bright career,
He mourns that day so soon has glided by:
E'en like the passage of an angel's tear
That falls through the clear ether silently.