Logos Virtual Library: Keats: On the Sea

John Keats

John Keats (1795-1821)

On the Sea

It keeps eternal whisperings around

Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell

Gluts twice ten thousand caverns, till the spell
Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound.
Often ’tis in such gentle temper found,

That scarcely will the very smallest shell

Be moved for days from whence it sometime fell,
When last the winds of heaven were unbound.
Oh ye! who have your eye-balls vexed and tired,

Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;

Oh ye! whose ears are dinned with uproar rude,

Or fed too much with cloying melody—

Sit ye near some old cavern’s mouth, and brood
Until ye start, as if the sea-nymphs choired!