Tuesday, March 1, 2011

On the Grasshopper and Cricket / John Keats

 
On the Grasshopper and Cricket

The poetry of earth is never dead:
      When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
      And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the Grasshopper's — he takes the lead
      In summer luxury, — he has never done
      With his delights; for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
      On a lone winter evening, when the frost
            Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever,
      And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
            The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.

---
John Keats (1795-1821)
from Poems, 1817

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]


"On the Grasshopper and Cricket", from Keats: The Musical, sung by Natalie Oak. Courtesy YouTube.

See also: "To the Grasshopper and the Cricket," by Leigh Hunt

1 comment:

  1. Oh that is welcome, a sonnet of the designated 14 lines but minus the stanza division. I appreciate iambic pentameter, I just do. The grasshopper hiding there somewhere. Lovely poem George Dance. 💟💟💟💟💟💟

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