In Drear-nighted December
In Drear-nighted December - meaning Summary
Nature Forgets, People Don't
Keats contrasts nature’s effortless forgetting with human memory’s painful retention. The poem presents a tree and a brook that do not mourn their lost summer, then shifts to children and lovers who are twisted by past joy and unhealed loss. It argues that unlike nature’s simple renewal, human feeling endures ache that cannot be numbed or soothed. This early meditation anticipates Keats’s recurring concern with mourning and memory.
Read Complete AnalysesIN drear-nighted December, Too happy, happy tree, Thy branches ne'er remember Their green felicity: The north cannot undo them With a sleety whistle through them; Nor frozen thawings glue them From budding at the prime. In drear-nighted December, Too happy, happy brook, Thy bubblings ne'er remember Apollo's summer look; But with a sweet forgetting, They stay their crystal fretting, Never, never petting About the frozen time. Ah! would 'twere so with many A gentle girl and boy! But were there ever any Writhed not at passed joy? The feel of not to feel it, When there is none to heal it Nor numbed sense to steel it, Was never said in rhyme.
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