Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

011. Ode to Psyche, p.2

John Keats, “Ode to Psyche,” autograph manuscript, 1819, p. 2. MA 210.1. Acquired by J. Pierpont Morgan before 1913.

Transcription

p. 2

Fairer than these though Temple thou hast none,
Nor Altar heap’d with flowers;
Nor Virgin Choir to make melodious moan
Upon the midnight hours;
Nor voice, nor lute, nor pipe, nor incense sweet
From chain-swung Censer teeming,
Nor shrine, nor grove, nor oracle, nor heat
Of pale-mouth’d Prophet dreaming.

O Bloomiest! Though too late for antique vows
Too, too late for the fond believing Lyre,
When holy were the haunted forest-boughs,1
Holy the air, the water, and the Fire:
Yet even in these days so far retir’d
From happy Pieties, thy lucent fans,
Fluttering above among the faint Olympians,
I see, and sing by my clear own eyes inspired.
O let me be thy Choir and make a moan
Upon the midnight hours;
Thy Voice, thy lute, thy Pipe, thy insence [sic] sweet
Thy From swinged Censer teeming;
Thy Shrine, thy Grove, thy oracle, thy heat
Of Pale mouth’d Prophet dreaming!


  1. “Thy Altar heap’d with flowers,” crossed out and written in the left margin by Keats