To My Brother George
To My Brother George - context Summary
Address to His Brother
Written in 1816 and published 1817, this sonnet is a direct address to Keats’s brother George. The speaker sketches morning and evening scenes—the sun, laurelled figures, the ocean, and a coy Cynthia—to enumerate nature’s marvels. Yet the poem insists those sights gain emotional value only through fraternal companionship: the social thought of George makes the sky and sea meaningful. It is personal, celebratory, and rooted in familial bond.
Read Complete AnalysesMany the wonders I this day have seen: The sun, when first he kissed away the tears That filled the eyes of Morn;—the laurelled peers Who from the feathery gold of evening lean;— The ocean with its vastness, its blue green, Its ships, its rocks, its caves, its hopes, its fears, Its voice mysterious, which whoso hears Must think on what will be, and what has been. E'en now, dear George, while this for you I write, Cynthia is from her silken curtains peeping So scantly, that it seems her bridal night, And she her half-discovered revels keeping. But what, without the social thought of thee, Would be the wonders of the sky and sea?
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