Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology

Mapping Keats’s Progress
A Critical Chronology

References to this poem

You say you love; but with a voice

  • You say you love; but with a voice
  • Chaster than a nun’s, who singeth
  • The soft vespers to herself
  • While the chime-bell ringeth —
  • O love me truly!
  • You say you love; but with a smile
  • Cold as sunrise in September,
  • As you were Saint Cupid’s nun,
  • And kept his weeks of Ember.
  • O love me truly!
  • You say you love; but then your lips
  • Coral tinted teach no blisses,
  • More than coral in the sea —
  • They never pout for kisses —
  • O love me truly!
  • You say you love; but then your hand
  • No soft squeeze for squeeze returneth;
  • It is like a statue’s, dead, —
  • While mine for passion burneth —
  • O love me truly!
  • O breathe a word or two of fire!
  • Smile, as if those words should burn me,
  • Squeeze as lovers should — O kiss
  • And in thy heart inurn me!
  • O love me truly!

× Cite this page:

MLA Style: Works Cited

Keats, John. “You say you love; but with a voice.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, by G. Kim Blank. Edition 3.28 , University of Victoria, 24 September 2026. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_you_say_you_love_but_with.html.

Chicago Style: Note

John Keats, “You say you love; but with a voice,” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.28 , last modified 24th September 2026. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_you_say_you_love_but_with.html.

Chicago Style: Bibliography

Keats, John. “You say you love; but with a voice.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.28 , last modified 24th September 2026. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_you_say_you_love_but_with.html.