Dedication to Leigh Hunt, Esq
Dedication to Leigh Hunt, Esq - context Summary
Dedication of First Volume
Keats’s sonnet serves as the dedication to his first poetry volume (1817) and thanks Leigh Hunt for mentorship and support. It contrasts vanished classical pageantry with humbler but sincere offerings, asserting that pleasing Hunt is reward enough. The poem frames Keats’s literary debut as a grateful act: he blesses his fate for being able to honor a living critic and friend rather than chase mythic pomps of old.
Read Complete AnalysesGlory and loveliness have pass’d away; For if we wander out in early morn, No wreathed incense do we see upborne Into the east, to meet the smiling day: No crowd of nymphs soft voic’d and young, and gay, In woven baskets bringing ears of corn, Roses, and pinks, and violets, to adorn The shrine of Flora in her early May. But there are left delights as high as these, And I shall ever bless my destiny, That in a time, when under pleasant trees Pan is no longer sought, I feel a free, A leafy luxury, seeing I could please With these poor offerings, a man like thee.
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