To John Hamilton Reynolds
To John Hamilton Reynolds - form Summary
Sonnet Stretches Time
Keats uses the sonnet form to condense a lively, affectionate meditation on friendship and the wish to stretch time. Addressed to John Hamilton Reynolds, the poem imagines repeated partings and warm reunions that make a year feel like a thousand, effectively attempting to annihilate chronological time. Travel images emphasize joyful multiplicity, and the closing couplet affirms that recent meetings inspired this sustaining, concentrated fantasy of prolonged delight.
Read Complete AnalysesO that a week could be an age, and we Felt parting and warm meeting every week, Then one poor year a thousand years would be, The flush of welcome ever on the cheek: So could we live long life in little space, So time itself would be annihilate, So a day's journey in oblivious haze To serve ourjoys would lengthen and dilate. O to arrive each Monday morn from Ind! To land each Tuesday from the rich Levant! In little time a host of joys to bind, And keep our souls in one eternal pant! This morn, my friend, and yester-evening taught Me how to harbour such a happy thought.
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