John Keats: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

From Ronsard

John Keats

“From Ronsard” as printed in The Poetical Works of John Keats (1884).

John Keats: Collected Lyrics Text 14 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

Nature withheld Cassandra in the skies,

For more adornment, a full thousand years;

She took their cream of Beauty, fairest dies,

And shaped and tinted her above all Peers:

Meanwhile Love kept her dearly with his wings,

And underneath their shadow filled her eyes

With such a richness that the cloudy Kings

Of high Olympus uttered slavish sighs.

When from the Heavens I saw her first descend,

My heart took fire, and only burning pains,

They were my pleasures—they my Life's sad end;

Love poured her beauty into my warm veins.

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), “From Ronsard”

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

View copyright evidence · Transcription terms (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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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