Modern Love by John Keats

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend July 23, 2016   Modern Love   John Keats

And what is love? It is a doll dress’d up For idleness to cosset, nurse, and dandle; A thing of soft misnomers, so divine That silly youth doth think to make itself Divine by loving, and so goes on Yawning and doting a whole summer long, Till Miss’s comb is made a pearl tiara, And common Wellingtons turn Romeo boots; Then Cleopatra lives at number seven, And Antony resides in Brunswick Square. Fools! if some passions high have warm’d the world, If Queens and Soldiers have play’d deep for hearts, It is no reason why such agonies Should be more common than the growth of weeds. Fools! make me whole again that weighty pearl The Queen of Egypt melted, and I’ll say That ye may love in spite of beaver hats.            This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   “Modern Love” was first published in Life, Letters, and Literary Remains of John Keats (George P. Putnam, 1848).   John Keats was born on October 31, 1795, in London. His collections of poetry include Poems (Charles and James Ollier, 1817) and Endymion: A Poetic Romance (Taylor and Hessey, 1818). He died on February 23, 1821.   Joseph Severn’s miniature of Keats, 1819 Poetry by Keats   Complete Poems and Selected Letters of John Keats (Modern Library, 2001)    "My Heart Leaps Up" by William Wordsworth "Imagery" by Archibald MacLeish "The Wind and the Moon" by George Macdonald Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038