Sonnet: Written Before Re-Read King Lear

by John Keats

    O golden-tongued Romance with serene lute!
    Fair plumed Syren! Queen of far away!
    Leave melodizing on this wintry day,
    Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute:
    Adieu! for once again the fierce dispute,
    Betwixt damnation and impassion'd clay
    Must I burn through; once more humbly assay
    The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit.
    Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion,
    Begetters of our deep eternal theme,
    When through the old oak forest I am gone,
    Let me not wander in a barren dream,
    But when I am consumed in the fire,
    Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire.