De Engelse dichter John Keats over The Human Seasons en even geëngageerd over Modern Love van anno toen

THE HUMAN SEASONS

FOUR Seasons fill the measure of the year;
There are four seasons in the mind of man:
He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear
Takes in all beauty with an easy span.
He has his Summer, when luxuriously
Spring's honeyed cud of youthful thoughts he loves
To ruminate, and, by such draming high,
Is nearest unto heaven; quiet coves
His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings
He furleth close; contented so to look
On mists in idleness—to let fair things
Pass by unheeded as a treshold brook.
He has his Winter, too of pale misfeature,
Or else he would forego his mortal nature.

* * * * *
MODERN LOVE

AND what is love? It is a doll dressed up
For idleness to cosset, nurse, and dandle;
A thing of soft misnomers, so divine
That silly youth dot think to make itself
Divine by loving, and so goes on
Yawning and doting a whole summer long,
Till Miss's comb is made a pearl tiara,
And common Wellingtons turn Romeo boots;
Then Cleopatra lives at number seven,
And Atony resides in Brunswick Square.
Fools! if some passions high have warmed the world,
If Queens and Soldiers ave played deep for hearts,
It is no reason why such agonies
Should be more common than the growth of weeds.
Fools! make me whole again that weighty pearl
The Queen of Egypt melted, and I'll say
That ye may love in spite of beaver hats.

JOHN KEATS (1795-1821)
Uit Poems and Sonnets


Afbeeldingen
1. Portret van de Engelse dichter John Keats.
2. Buste van Cleopatra.
3. Cartouche op de voorzijde van de groen-leren band van Keats' Poetical Works, een uitgave van Frederick Warne and Co., Ltd., London and New York, zonder jaartal.