John Keats

Song. I Had A Dove

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 single 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? 'This song was given in the Life, Letters &c. , among the Literary Remains in Volume II, under the date 1818. ' ~ Poetical Works of John Keats, ed. H. Buxton Forman, Crowell publ. 1895.