Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology

Mapping Keats’s Progress
A Critical Chronology

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Before he went to live with owls and bats

Before he went to feed with owls and bats
Nebuchadnezzar had an ugly dream,
Worse than an hus’if’s when she thinks her cream
Made a naumachia for mice and rats:
So scared, he sent for that “good king of cats”
Young Daniel, who did straightaway pluck the beam
From out his eye, and said — “I do not deem
Your sceptre worth a straw — your cushions old door-mats”
A horrid nightmare, similar somewhat,
Of late has haunted a most valiant crew
Of loggerheads and chapmen; — we are told
That any Daniel, though he be a sot,
Can make their lying lips turn pale of hue
By drawling out “Ye are that head of gold.”

🗙 Cite this page:

MLA Style: Works Cited

Keats, John. “Before he went to live with owls and bats.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, by G. Kim Blank. Edition 3.8 , University of Victoria, 18 January 2021. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_before_he_went_to_live_with_owls_and_bats.html.

Chicago Style: Note

John Keats, “Before he went to live with owls and bats,” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.8 , last modified 18th January 2021. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_before_he_went_to_live_with_owls_and_bats.html.

Chicago Style: Bibliography

Keats, John. “Before he went to live with owls and bats.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.8 , last modified 18th January 2021. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_before_he_went_to_live_with_owls_and_bats.html.