Written on the Day That Mr Leigh Hunt Left Prison
Written on the Day That Mr Leigh Hunt Left Prison - context Summary
Leigh Hunt's Release, 1815
Composed for Leigh Hunt's release from prison, the sonnet celebrates Hunt's moral and imaginative freedom despite incarceration. Keats praises Hunt as spiritually unbound—likening him to a lark and to literary figures such as Spenser and Milton—arguing that his genius took "happy flights" beyond physical walls. The poem aligns Keats with Hunt's liberal stance and predicts that Hunt's fame will outlast his political opponents and persecutors.
Read Complete AnalysesWhat though, for showing truth to flattered state, Kind Hunt was shut in prison, yet has he, In his immortal spirit, been as free As the sky-searching lark, and as elate. Minion of grandeur! think you he did wait? Think you he nought but prison-walls did see, Till, so unwilling, thou unturnedst the key? Ah, no! far happier, nobler was his fate! In Spenser's halls he strayed, and bowers fair, Culling enchanted flowers; and he flew With daring Milton through the fields of air: To regions of his own his genius true Took happy flights. Who shall his fame impair When thou art dead, and all thy wretched crew?
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