William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | On Fame, II | By John Keats (17951821) |
| You cannot eat your cake and have it too.Proverb |
| HOW feverd is the man, who cannot look | |
Upon his mortal days with temperate blood, | |
Who vexes all the leaves of his lifes book, | |
And robs his fair name of its maidenhood; | |
It is as if the rose should pluck herself, | 5 |
Or the ripe plum finger its misty bloom, | |
As if a Naiad, like a meddling elf, | |
Should darken her pure grot with muddy gloom: | |
But the rose leaves herself upon the briar, | |
For winds to kiss and grateful bees to feed, | 10 |
And the ripe plum still wears its dim attire, | |
The undisturbèd lake has crystal space; | |
Why then should man, teasing the world for grace, | |
Spoil his salvation for a fierce miscreed? | | |
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