John Keats

Sonnet II. To ******

Had I a man's fair form, then might my sighs Be echoed swiftly through that ivory shell Thine ear, and find thy gentle heart; so well Would passion arm me for the enterprize: But ah! I am no knight whose foeman dies; No cuirass glistens on my bosom's swell; I am no happy shepherd of the dell Whose lips have trembled with a maiden's eyes. Yet must I doat upon thee,--call thee sweet, Sweeter by far than Hybla's honied roses When steep'd in dew rich to intoxication. Ah! I will taste that dew, for me 'tis meet, And when the moon her pallid face discloses, I'll gather some by spells, and incantation. 'Tom Keats's copy-book contains a transcript of this sonnet showing no variation in the text, except by a copyist's error at the end, -- the last word being 'incantations. ' There is no heading beyond the word Sonnet, no date, and no clue to the identity of the person addressed. ' ~ Poetical Works of John Keats, ed. H. Buxton Forman, Crowell publ. 1895.