O Blush Not So!
O Blush Not So! - meaning Summary
Playful Courtship and Temptation
Keats presents a teasing, intimate courtship poem that dramatizes early romantic desire. The speaker teases a beloved—traditionally read as Fanny Brawne—about blushing, sighing, and the meanings behind small gestures. Refrains catalog different kinds of blushes and sighs as clues to consent or coyness, while an apple motif (pippin/core) frames physical intimacy as sweet, urgent, and time-limited during youth. The tone is playful, pressing toward a shared willingness to love.
Read Complete AnalysesO BLUSH not so! O blush not so! Or I shall think you knowing; And if you smile the blushing while, Then maidenheads are going. There's a blush for want, and a blush for shan't, And a blush for having done it; There's a blush for thought, and a blush for nought, And a blush for just begun it. O sigh not so! O sigh not so! For it sounds of Eve's sweet pippin; By these loosen'd lips you have tasted the pips And fought in an amorous nipping. Will you play once more at nice-cut-core, For it only will last our youth out, And we have the prime of the kissing time, We have not one sweet tooth out. There's a sigh for aye, and a sigh for nay, And a sigh for "I can't bear it!" O what can be done, shall we stay or run? O cut the sweet apple and share it!
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