Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology

Mapping Keats’s Progress
A Critical Chronology

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 3.12 , University of Victoria, 11 September 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 3.12 , last modified 11th September 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 3.12 , last modified 11th September 2021. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_before_he_went_to_live_with_owls_and_bats.html.