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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  629. Fragment of an Ode to Maia (Written on May-Day, 1818)

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

John Keats. 1795–1821

629. Fragment of an Ode to Maia (Written on May-Day, 1818)

MOTHER of Hermes! and still youthful Maia! 
          May I sing to thee 
As thou wast hymnèd on the shores of Baiæ? 
          Or may I woo thee 
In earlier Sicilian? or thy smiles         5
Seek as they once were sought, in Grecian isles, 
By bards who died content on pleasant sward, 
  Leaving great verse unto a little clan? 
O give me their old vigour! and unheard 
  Save of the quiet primrose, and the span  10
          Of heaven, and few ears, 
Rounded by thee, my song should die away 
          Content as theirs, 
Rich in the simple worship of a day.