43 lines
1.6 KiB
Plaintext
43 lines
1.6 KiB
Plaintext
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1816
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CHARACTER OF CHARLES BROWN
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by John Keats
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I.
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He is to weet a melancholy carle:
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Thin in the waist, with bushy head of hair
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As hath the seeded thistle when in parle
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It holds the Zephyr, ere it sendeth fair
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Its light balloons into the summer air;
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Therto his beard had not begun to bloom,
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No brush had touch'd his chin or razor sheer;
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No care had touch'd his cheek with mortal doom,
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But new he was and bright as scarf from Persian loom.
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II.
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Ne cared he for wine, or half-and-half;
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Ne cared he for fish or flesh or fowl,
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And sauces held he worthless as the chaff,
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He 'sdeigned the swine-head at the wassail-bowl;
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Ne with lewd ribbalds sat he cheek by jowl,
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Ne with sly Lemans in the scorner's chair;
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But after water-brooks this Pilgrim's soul
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Panted, and all his food was woodland air
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Though he would oft-times feast on gilliflowers rare.
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III.
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The slang of cities in no wise he knew,
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Tipping the wink to him was heathen Greek;
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He sipp'd no olden Tom or ruin blue,
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Or nantz or cherry-brandy drank full meek
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By many a damsel hoarse and rouge of cheek;
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Nor did he know each aged watchman's beat,
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Nor in obscured purlieus would he seek
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For curled Jewesses with ankles neat,
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Who as they walk abroad make tinkling with their feet.
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THE END
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