John Keats

Sonnet X. To One Who Has Been Long In City Pent

To one who has been long in city pent, 'Tis 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 heart's 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. 'In a transcript in the hand-writing of George Keats this sonnet is subscribed as "Written in the Fields -- June 1816. " ~ Poetical Works of John Keats, ed. H. Buxton Forman, Crowell publ. 1895.