Logos Virtual Library: Keats: The Poet

John Keats

John Keats (1795-1821)

The Poet

A Fragment

Where’s the Poet? show him! show him,
Muses nine! that I may know him!
’Tis the man who with a man

Is an equal, be he King
Or poorest of the beggar-clan,

Or any other wondrous thing
A man may be ’twixt ape and Plato;

’Tis the man who with a bird,
Wren or eagle, finds his way to

All its instincts; he hath heard
The lion’s roaring, and can tell

What his horny throat expresseth,
And to him the tiger’s yell

Comes articulate and presseth
On his ear like mother-tongue.…