This sonnet was written by John Keats on January 31, 1817, and was published in Leigh Hunt's Examiner in February of that year.

After dark vapours have oppressed our plains

After dark vapours have oppressed our plains
For a long dreary season, comes a day
Born of the gentle south, and clears away
From the sick heavens all unseemly stains.
The anxious month, relieving from its pains,
Takes as a long lost right the feel of May,
The eyelids with the passing coolness play,
Like rose-leaves with the drip of summer rains.
And calmest thoughts come round us--as, of leaves
Budding--fruit ripening in stillness--autumn suns
Smiling at eve upon the quiet sheaves--
Sweet Sappho's cheek--a sleeping infant's breath--
The gradual sand that through an hour glass runs--
A woodland rivulet--a poet's death.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.