Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.
IX. Answer to a Sonnet Ending ThusJohn Keats (17951821)
By J. H. REYNOLDS.
B
Of Cynthia,—the wide palace of the sun,—
The tent of Hesperus, and all his train,—
The bosomer of clouds, gold, gray, and dun.
Blue! ’T is the life of waters,—ocean,
And all its vassal streams: pools numberless
May rage, and foam, and fret, but never can
Subside, if not to dark blue nativeness.
Blue! Gentle cousin of the forest green,
Married to green in all the sweetest flowers,
Forget-me-not,—the blue-bell,—and, that queen
Of secrecy, the violet; what strange powers
Hast thou, as a mere shadow! But how great,
When in an Eye thou art alive with fate!