[ { "title": "Song of the Indian Maid, from 'Endymion'", "author": "John Keats", "lines": [ "O SORROW!", " Why dost borrow", " The natural hue of health, from vermeil lips?--", " To give maiden blushes", " To the white rose bushes?", " Or is it thy dewy hand the daisy tips?", "", " O Sorrow!", " Why dost borrow", " The lustrous passion from a falcon-eye?--", " To give the glow-worm light?", " Or, on a moonless night,", " To tinge, on siren shores, the salt sea-spry?", "", " O Sorrow!", " Why dost borrow", " The mellow ditties from a mourning tongue?--", " To give at evening pale", " Unto the nightingale,", " That thou mayst listen the cold dews among?", "", " O Sorrow!", " Why dost borrow", " Heart's lightness from the merriment of May?--", " A lover would not tread", " A cowslip on the head,", " Though he should dance from eve till peep of day--", " Nor any drooping flower", " Held sacred for thy bower,", " Wherever he may sport himself and play.", "", " To Sorrow", " I bade good morrow,", " And thought to leave her far away behind;", " But cheerly, cheerly,", " She loves me dearly;", " She is so constant to me, and so kind:", " I would deceive her", " And so leave her,", " But ah! she is so constant and so kind.", "", "Beneath my palm-trees, by the river side,", "I sat a-weeping: in the whole world wide", "There was no one to ask me why I wept,--", " And so I kept", "Brimming the water-lily cups with tears", " Cold as my fears.", "", "Beneath my palm-trees, by the river side,", "I sat a-weeping: what enamour'd bride,", "Cheated by shadowy wooer from the clouds,", " But hides and shrouds", "Beneath dark palm-trees by a river side?", "", "And as I sat, over the light blue hills", "There came a noise of revellers: the rills", "Into the wide stream came of purple hue--", " 'Twas Bacchus and his crew!", "The earnest trumpet spake, and silver thrills", "From kissing cymbals made a merry din--", " 'Twas Bacchus and his kin!", "Like to a moving vintage down they came,", "Crown'd with green leaves, and faces all on flame;", "All madly dancing through the pleasant valley,", " To scare thee, Melancholy!", "O then, O then, thou wast a simple name!", "And I forgot thee, as the berried holly", "By shepherds is forgotten, when in June", "Tall chestnuts keep away the sun and moon:--", " I rush'd into the folly!", "", "Within his car, aloft, young Bacchus stood,", "Trifling his ivy-dart, in dancing mood,", " With sidelong laughing;", "And little rills of crimson wine imbrued", "His plump white arms and shoulders, enough white", " For Venus' pearly bite;", "And near him rode Silenus on his ass,", "Pelted with flowers as he on did pass", " Tipsily quaffing.", "", "'Whence came ye, merry Damsels! whence came ye,", "So many, and so many, and such glee?", "Why have ye left your bowers desolate,", " Your lutes, and gentler fate?'--", "'We follow Bacchus! Bacchus on the wing,", " A-conquering!", "Bacchus, young Bacchus! good or ill betide,", "We dance before him thorough kingdoms wide:--", "Come hither, lady fair, and joined be", " To our wild minstrelsy!'", "", "'Whence came ye, jolly Satyrs! whence came ye,", "So many, and so many, and such glee?", "Why have ye left your forest haunts, why left", " Your nuts in oak-tree cleft?'--", "'For wine, for wine we left our kernel tree;", "For wine we left our heath, and yellow brooms,", " And cold mushrooms;", "For wine we follow Bacchus through the earth;", "Great god of breathless cups and chirping mirth!", "Come hither, lady fair, and joined be", " To our mad minstrelsy!'", "", "Over wide streams and mountains great we went,", "And, save when Bacchus kept his ivy tent,", "Onward the tiger and the leopard pants,", " With Asian elephants:", "Onward these myriads--with song and dance,", "With zebras striped, and sleek Arabians' prance,", "Web-footed alligators, crocodiles,", "Bearing upon their scaly backs, in files,", "Plump infant laughers mimicking the coil", "Of seamen, and stout galley-rowers' toil:", "With toying oars and silken sails they glide,", " Nor care for wind and tide.", "", "Mounted on panthers' furs and lions' manes,", "From rear to van they scour about the plains;", "A three days' journey in a moment done;", "And always, at the rising of the sun,", "About the wilds they hunt with spear and horn,", " On spleenful unicorn.", "", "I saw Osirian Egypt kneel adown", " Before the vine-wreath crown!", "I saw parch'd Abyssinia rouse and sing", " To the silver cymbals' ring!", "I saw the whelming vintage hotly pierce", " Old Tartary the fierce!", "The kings of Ind their jewel-sceptres vail,", "And from their treasures scatter pearled hail;", "Great Brahma from his mystic heaven groans,", " And all his priesthood moans,", "Before young Bacchus' eye-wink turning pale.", "Into these regions came I, following him,", "Sick-hearted, weary--so I took a whim", "To stray away into these forests drear,", " Alone, without a peer:", "And I have told thee all thou mayest hear.", "", " Young Stranger!", " I've been a ranger", "In search of pleasure throughout every clime;", " Alas! 'tis not for me!", " Bewitch'd I sure must be,", "To lose in grieving all my maiden prime.", "", " Come then, Sorrow,", " Sweetest Sorrow!", "Like an own babe I nurse thee on my breast:", " I thought to leave thee,", " And deceive thee,", "But now of all the world I love thee best.", "", " There is not one,", " No, no, not one", "But thee to comfort a poor lonely maid;", " Thou art her mother,", " And her brother,", "Her playmate, and her wooer in the shade." ], "linecount": "145" } ]