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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  Blue Eyes

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

I. Admiration

Blue Eyes

John Keats (1795–1821)

  • Answer to a Sonnet Ending Thus—
  • “Dark eyes are dearer far
  • Than those that made the hyacinthine bell.”
  • By T. H. Reynolds.

  • BLUE! ’T is the life of heaven,—the domain

    Of Cynthia,—the wide palace of the sun,—

    The tent of Hesperus, and all his train,—

    The bosom 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!