Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology

Mapping Keats’s Progress
A Critical Chronology

Stay, ruby breasted warbler, stay

TUNE —“Julia to the Wood Robin”

  • 1
  • Stay, ruby breasted warbler, stay,
  • And let me see thy sparkling eye;
  • Oh brush not yet the pearl strung spray,
  • Nor bow thy pretty head to fly.
  • 2
  • Stay while I tell thee, fluttering thing,
  • That thou of love an emblem art;
  • Yes! patient plume thy little wing,
  • Whilst I my thoughts to thee impart.
  • 3
  • When summer nights the dews bestow,
  • And summer suns enrich the day,
  • Thy notes the blossoms charm to blow,
  • Each opes delighted at thy lay.
  • 4
  • So when in youth the eye’s dark glance
  • Speaks pleasure from its circle bright,
  • The tones of love our joys enhance
  • And make superior each delight.
  • 5
  • And when bleak storms resistless rove,
  • And ev’ry rural bliss destroy,
  • Nought comforts then the leafless grove
  • But thy soft note — its only joy.
  • 6
  • E’en so the words of love beguile,
  • When pleasure’s tree no flower bears,
  • And draw a soft endearing smile,
  • Amid the gloom of grief and tears.

× Cite this page:

MLA Style: Works Cited

Keats, John. “Stay, ruby breasted warbler, stay.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, by G. Kim Blank. Edition 3.26 , University of Victoria, 12 July 2023. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_stay_ruby_breasted_warbler_stay.html.

Chicago Style: Note

John Keats, “Stay, ruby breasted warbler, stay,” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.26 , last modified 12th July 2023. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_stay_ruby_breasted_warbler_stay.html.

Chicago Style: Bibliography

Keats, John. “Stay, ruby breasted warbler, stay.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.26 , last modified 12th July 2023. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_stay_ruby_breasted_warbler_stay.html.