John Keats

Fragment Of An Ode To Maia. Written On May Day 1818

Mother of Hermes! and still youthful Maia! May I sing to thee As thou wast hymned on the shores of Baiae? Or may I woo thee In earlier Sicilian? or thy smiles Seek as they once were sought, in Grecian isles, By bards who died content on pleasant sward, Leaving great verse unto a little clan? O give me their old vigour! and unheard Save of the quiet primrose, and the span Of heaven, and few ears, Rounded by thee, my song should die away Content as theirs, Rich in the simple worship of a day. 'First given in the Life, Letters &c. (1848) in a letter to Reynolds from Teignmouth, dated the 3rd of May 1818, wherein Keats says -- "it is impossible to know how far knowledge will console us for the death of a friend, and the 'ills that flesh is heir to. ' With respect to the affections and poetry, you must know by sympathy my thoughts that way, and I dare say these few lines will be but a ratification. I wrote them on May-day, and intend to finish the ode all in good time. " Lord Houghton observes,-- "It is much to be regretted he did not finish this Ode; this commencement is in his best manner: the sentiment and expression perfect, as every traveller in modern Greece will recognize. " An Ode so propitiously begun would, if completed, have been a worthy ending for the Devonshire series, though including what I believe I am not alone in regarding as Keats's masterpiece, -- Isabella. ' ~ Poetical Works of John Keats, ed. H. Buxton Forman, Crowell publ. 1895.