Ode to a Nightingale--John Keats
My heart aches and a drowsy numbness pains
My heart is aching, distressed and numb
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Stabbed into the senses like drinking poison
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
It's like you just swallowed opium
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk
So it sank to Les Forget
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
It's not that I'm jealous of your luck
But being too happy in thine happiness,--
It's your happiness that makes me so happy
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
Because in the bright world in the woods
In some melodious plot
you, light-winged fairy
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
You hide in the green and shade of the beech
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.
Let go of your voice and sing summer
O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Alas, if there is a sip of wine, refrigerate
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Alcoholic beverages that have been underground for many years
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
A taste reminiscent of the Green State
Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth!
Think of the flower god, love song, sunshine and dance
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
If there is a cup of southern warmth
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
A fountain of inspiration filled with bright red
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
The rim of the cup is extinguished by the bubble of pearls
And purple-stained mouth
purple stains on lips
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
I want to drink it all and leave the world quietly
And with thee fade away into the forest dim
Go with you to hide in the dark forest
Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
far away, far away, let me forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
Everything you never knew among the leaves
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Forget the fatigue, fever, and restlessness
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
A world that makes one sit and lament
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
Here, youth, pale, skinny, death
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
And the paralysis has a few white hairs swaying
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
Here, a little thought is full of
And leaden-eyed despairs,
Sadness and gloomy despair
Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
And beauty can't keep the brilliance of eyes
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.
The new love will wither before tomorrow
Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
Go! Go! I'm going to fly towards you
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
No need to ride in Wenbao's car with Bacchus
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
I want to spread the invisible wings of poetry
Though the dull brain perplexes and retards
Although the mind is tired and tired
Already with thee! tender is the night,
go, i have gone with you
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
The night is so gentle, after the moon is ascending the throne
Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;
Surrounded by a group of stars guarding her
But here there is no light,
But it's not very bright here
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Except for a ray of sky light, carried by the breeze
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.
Green gloom and mossy winding paths
I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
I can't see what kind of flower is at my feet
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
What fragrant flowers hang on the branches
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
In the warm darkness, I can only guess
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
Which fragrance should I use at this time?
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;
Give this fruit tree, forest and grass
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
This white citrus flower, and the rose of the field
Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;
The wilting violets in this heap of green leaves
And mid-May's eldest child,
And the coddle of mid-May
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
This dewy musk rose
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.
It became a harbor for gnat humming camps on summer nights
Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
How many times have I listened in the dark
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
I almost fell in love with silent death
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
I have exhausted my words in poetry
To take into the air my quiet breath;
beg him to scatter my breath into the void
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
And now, how rich is death
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
In the middle of the night, the soul leaves the world
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
when you are pouring out your heart
In such an ecstasy!
such ecstasy
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain--
You will still sing, but I won't listen anymore
To thy high requiem become a sod.
Your reckless song can only be sung to a piece of grass
Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
Eternal bird, you won't die
No hungry generations tread thee down;
Hungry generations can't ravage you
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
Tonight , the song I overheard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
To please ancient emperors and villagers
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Maybe the same song once stirred up
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
Ruth's melancholy heart made her cry
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
Standing in a foreign land, thinking about home
The same that oft-times hath
That's the sound
Charm'd magic cases, opening on the foam
Activate the casement in the lost fairyland
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.
A beautiful woman looks at the sinister waves of the sea
Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
Lost, this sentence is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Save me to where I stand
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
Farewell! Fantasies, this deceitful leprechaun
As she is fam'd to do, receiving elf.
Can't keep playing its rumored tricks
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Farewell! Farewell! Your Complaining Song
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
over the lawn, over the quiet stream
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
slipped up the hillside, while it was going deep
In the next valley-glades:
Buried in a nearby valley
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
It's a hallucination or a dream
Fled is that music:--Do I wake or sleep?
The song is gone - am I sleeping? Waking up?
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