ADONAIS: AN ELEGY ON THE
DEATH OF JOHN KEATS
I
I weep for
Adonais—he is dead!
Oh, weep for
Adonais! though our tears
Thaw not the
frost which binds so dear a head!
And thou, sad
Hour, selected from all years
To mourn our
loss, rouse thy obscure compeers,
And teach them
thine own sorrow, say: "With me
Died Adonais;
till the Future dares
Forget the Past,
his fate and fame shall be
An echo and a light unto eternity!"
II
Where wert thou,
mighty Mother, when he lay,
When thy Son lay,
pierc'd by the shaft which flies
In darkness?
where was lorn Urania
When Adonais
died? With veiled eyes,
'Mid listening
Echoes, in her Paradise
She sate, while
one, with soft enamour'd breath,
Rekindled all the
fading melodies,
With which, like
flowers that mock the corse beneath,
He had adorn'd and hid the coming bulk of Death.
III
Oh, weep for
Adonais—he is dead!
Wake, melancholy
Mother, wake and weep!
Yet wherefore?
Quench within their burning bed
Thy fiery tears,
and let thy loud heart keep
Like his, a mute
and uncomplaining sleep;
For he is gone,
where all things wise and fair
Descend—oh, dream
not that the amorous Deep
Will yet restore
him to the vital air;
Death feeds on his mute voice, and laughs at our despair.