John Keats. 1795-1821 -- Written on the Blank Page before Beaumont and Fletcher's Tragi-Comedy 'The Fair Maid of the Inn'

BARDS of Passion and of Mirth

Ye have left your souls on earth!

Have ye souls in heaven too

Doubled-lived in regions new?

Yes

and those of heaven commune With the spheres of sun and moon

With the noise of fountains wondrous

And the parle of voices thund'rous

With the whisper of heaven's trees And one another

in soft ease Seated on Elysian lawns Browsed by none but Dian's fawns

Underneath large blue-bells tented

Where the daisies are rose-scented

And the rose herself has got Perfume which on earth is not

Where the nightingale doth sing Not a senseless

trancèd thing

But divine melodious truth

Philosophic numbers smooth

Tales and golden histories Of heaven and its mysteries

Thus ye live on high

and then On the earth ye live again

And the souls ye left behind you Teach us

here

the way to find you

Where your other souls are joying

Never slumber'd

never cloying

Here

your earth-born souls still speak To mortals

of their little week

Of their sorrows and delights

Of their passions and their spites

Of their glory and their shame

What doth strengthen and what maim

Thus ye teach us

every day

Wisdom

though fled far away

Bards of Passion and of Mirth

Ye have left your souls on earth!

Ye have souls in heaven too

Double-lived in regions new!

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