Read Me a Lesson, Muse, and Speak It Loud
Read Me a Lesson, Muse, and Speak It Loud - context Summary
Ascent of Ben Nevis, 1818
Written during Keats's 1818 walking tour of Scotland, this sonnet records his ascent of Ben Nevis and the fogbound summit. The mist and crags become metaphors for human knowledge: what we can touch or see is limited, while heaven, hell and self remain vague. The poem links a physical, challenging climb with intellectual humility, contrasting concrete sensation with the obscured reach of thought and belief.
Read Complete AnalysesRead me a lesson, Muse, and speak it loud Upon the top of Nevis, blind in mist! I look into the chasms, and a shroud Vaporous doth hide them, — just so much I wist Mankind do know of hell; I look o’erhead, And there is sullen mist, — even so much Mankind can tell of heaven; mist is spread Before the earth, beneath me, — even such, Even so vague is man’s sight of himself! Here are the craggy stones beneath my feet, — Thus much I know that, a poor witless elf, I tread on them, — that all my eye doth meet Is mist and crag, not only on this height, But in the world of thought and mental might!
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