This sonnet was written by John Keats on November 20, 1816. The "Same"
is the painter Benjamin Robert Haydon, and the "great spirits" of line one are Leigh Hunt,
William Wordsworth, and Haydon.
The second to last line is a lovely innovation. The line was originally a full pentameter,
but was shortened at Haydon's suggestion. The silence, then, of that line perfectly
echoes the words of the last.
Addressed to the Same
Great spirits now on earth are sojourning;
He of the cloud, the cataract, the lake,
Who on Helvellyn's summit, side awake,
Catches his freshness from archangel's sing;
He of the rose, the violet, the spring,
The social smile, the chain for freedom's sake:
And lo!--whose stedfastness would never take
A meaner sound than Raphael's whispering.
And other spirits there are standing apart
Upon the forehead of the age to come;
These, these will give the world another heart,
And other pulses. Hear ye not the hum
Of mighty workings?----
Listen awhile, ye nations, and be dumb.