 |
Those, who can thus express a flowery
tale more sweetly than our rhyme |
What I think will be the final Keats poem for now is 'Ode on a Grecian Urn'. I am covering this because when I used the following lines:
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft, pipes, play on;
The lines are a more poetic version of 'the grass is always greener on the other side.' Of course, my inability to learn poetry restricts the efficacy of the quote as I inevitably butcher it. I will keep it short and only provide the first two verses.
| THOU still unravish'd bride of quietness, | |
| Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time, | |
| Sylvan historian, who canst thus express | |
| A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: | |
| What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape | 5 |
| Of deities or mortals, or of both, | |
| In Tempe or the dales of Arcady? | |
| What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? | |
| What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? | |
| What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? | 10 |
| |
| Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard | |
| Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; | |
| Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, | |
| Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: | |
| Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave | 15 |
| Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; | |
| Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, | |
| Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve; | |
| She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, | |
| For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! |
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