Ode (Bards of Passion and of Mirth) E-book

                                      1818

                                      ODE

                       ("BARDS OF PASSION AND OF MIRTH")

                                 by John Keats






Electronically Enhanced Text (c) Copyright 1996, World Library(R)



"BARDS OF PASSION AND OF MIRTH"
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        Bards of Passion and of Mirth,
        Ye have left your souls on earth!
        Have ye souls in heaven too,
        Double-lived in regions new?
        Yes, and those of heaven commune
        With the spheres of sun and moon;
        With the noise of fountains wond'rous,
        And the parle of voices thund'rous;
        With the whisper of heaven's trees
        And one another, in soft ease
        Seated on Elysian lawns
        Brows'd by none but Dian's fawns;
        Underneath large blue-bells tented,
        Where the daisies are rose-scented,
        And the rose herself has got
        Perfume which on earth is not;
        Where the nightingale doth sing
        Not a senseless, tranced thing,
        But divine melodious truth;
        Philosophic numbers smooth;
        Tales and golden histories
                                                              
        Of heaven and its mysteries.
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          Thus ye live on high, and then
        On the earth ye live again;
        And the souls ye left behind you
        Teach us, here, the way to find you,
        Where your other souls are joying,
        Never slumber'd, never cloying.
        Here, your earth-born souls still speak
        To mortals, of their little week;
        Of their sorrows and delights;
        Of their passions and their spites;
        Of their glory and their shame;
        What doth strengthen and what maim.
        Thus ye teach us, every day,
        Wisdom, though fled far away.
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          Bards of Passion and of Mirth,
        Ye have left your souls on earth!
        Ye have souls in heaven too,
                                                              
        Double-lived in regions new!
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                        THE END