Logos Virtual Library: Keats: I cry your mercy—pity—love!

John Keats

I cry your mercy—pity—love!—aye, love

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Logos Virtual Library

John Keats (1795-1821)

I cry your mercy—pity—love!—aye, love

I cry your mercy—pity—love!—aye, love!

Merciful love that tantalizes not,
One-thoughted, never-wandering, guileless love,

Unmasked, and being seen—without a blot!
O! let me have thee whole,—all—all—be mine!

That shape, that fairness, that sweet minor zest
Of love, your kiss,—those hands, those eyes divine,

That warm, white, lucent, million-pleasured breast,—
Yourself—your soul—in pity give me all,

Withhold no atom’s atom or I die,
Or living on, perhaps, your wretched thrall,

Forget, in the mist of idle misery,
Life’s purposes,—the palate of my mind
Losing its gust, and my ambition blind!