Fragment Of An Ode To Maia. Written On May Day 1818

by John Keats

    Mother of Hermes! and still youthful Maia!
    May I sing to thee
    As thou wast hymned on the shores of Baiae?
    Or may I woo thee
    In earlier Sicilian? or thy smiles
    Seek as they once were sought, in Grecian isles,
    By bards who died content on pleasant sward,
    Leaving great verse unto a little clan?
    O give me their old vigour! and unheard
    Save of the quiet primrose, and the span
    Of heaven, and few ears,
    Rounded by thee, my song should die away
    Content as theirs,
    Rich in the simple worship of a day.