Sonnet: Written In Answer To A Sonnet By J. H. Reynolds

by John Keats

    Blue! 'Tis the life of heaven, the domain
    Of Cynthia, the wide palace of the sun, 
    The tent of Hesperus, and all his train, 
    The bosomer of clouds, gold, gray, and dun.
    Blue! 'Tis the life of waters: Ocean
    And all its vassal streams, pools numberless,
    May rage, and foam, and fret, but never can
    Subside, if not to dark-blue nativeness.
    Blue! Gentle cousin of the forest-green,
    Married to green in all the sweetest flowers, 
    Forget-me-not, the Blue bell, and, that Queen
    Of secrecy, the Violet: what strange powers
    Hast thou, as a mere shadow! But how great,
    When in an Eye thou art alive with fate!