John Keats: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

A Portrait

John Keats

“A Portrait” as printed in The Poetical Works of John Keats (1884).

John Keats: Collected Lyrics Text 1 1884 · historical text
Public domainSong lyricsRomantic
Complete public-domain lyrics

This text comes from The Poetical Works of John Keats, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.

Verse 1

"He is to weet a melancholy carle:

Thin in the waist, with bushy head of hair.

As hath the seeded thistle, when a parle

It holds with Zephyr, ere it sendeth fair

Its light balloons into the summer air;

Thereto his beard had not begun to bloom,

No brush had touched his chin, or razor sheer;

No care had touched his cheek with mortal doom,

But new he was, and bright, as scarf from Persian loom.

"Ne cared he for wine or half-and-half;

Ne cared he for fish, or flesh, or fowl;

And sauces held he worthless as the chaff;

He 'sdeigned the swine-head at the wassail-bowl;

Ne with lewd ribbalds sat he cheek by jowl;

Ne with sly lemans in the scorner's chair;

But after water-brooks this pilgrim's soul

Panted, and all his food was woodland air;

Though he would oft-times feast on gilliflowers rare.

"The slang of cities in no wise he knew,

Tipping the wink to him was heathen Greek;

He sipped no "olden Tom," or "ruin blue,"

Or Nantz, or cherry-brandy, drank full meek

By many a damsel brave, and rouge of cheek;

Nor did he know each agea watchman's beat,

Nor in obscured purlieus would he seek

For curled Jewesses, with ankles neat,

Who, as they walk abroad, make tinkling with their feet."

Credits

Written by John Keats

Words by John Keats. Historical text published in The Poetical Works of John Keats (1884); public domain. No claim to a modern recording or arrangement.

Source & text edition

The Poetical Works of John Keats (1884), “A Portrait”

Every text in this 1884 collected edition is by John Keats (1795-1821), who died more than 200 years ago, so the text is in the public domain worldwide; the edition carries a Wikisource PD-old determination.

How to read this historical text and its source

Read the source on Wikisource

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Retrieved 2026-10-27. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
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