To Haydon
To Haydon - context Summary
Tribute to a Friend's Vision
Composed in 1816 and published 1817, this sonnet is Keats’s direct tribute to Benjamin Haydon. Keats admits his own poetic limitations and surrenders acclaim to Haydon’s artistic vision. He contrasts public dullness with Haydon’s ability to perceive and revere the divine in art. The poem modestly praises Haydon as the one capable of giving voice to "these mighty things."
Read Complete AnalysesHaydon! forgive me that I cannot speak Definitively of these mighty things; Forgive me, that I have not eagle's wings, That what I want I know not where to seek, And think that I would not be over-meek, In rolling out upfollowed thunderings, Even to the steep of Heliconian springs, Were I of ample strength for such a freak. Think, too, that all these numbers should be thine; Whose else? In this who touch thy vesture's hem? For, when men stared at what was most divine With brainless idiotism and o'erwise phlegm, Thou hadst beheld the full Hesperian shine Of their star in the east, and gone to worship them!
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