Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology

Mapping Keats’s Progress
A Critical Chronology

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References to this poem

Extracts from an Opera

O were I one of the Olympian twelve,
Their godships should pass this into a law;
That when a man doth set himself in toil
After some beauty veiled far-away,
Each step he took should make his lady’s hand
More soft, more white, and her fair cheek more fair;
And for each briar-berry he might eat,
A kiss should bud upon the tree of love,
And pulp, and ripen, richer every hour,
To melt away upon the traveller’s lips.

*******

DAISY’S SONG

1

The sun, with his great eye,
Sees not so much as I;
And the moon, all silver proud,
Might as well be in a cloud.

2

And O the spring — the spring!
I lead the life of a king!
Couch’d in the teeming grass,
I spy each pretty lass.

3

I look where no one dares,
And I stare where no one stares,
And when the night is nigh,
Lambs bleat my lullaby.

*******

FOLLY’S SONG

When wedding fiddles are a playing,
Huzza for folly O!
And when maidens go a maying,
Huzza etc.
When a mil-pail is upset,
Huzza etc.
And the clothes left in the wet,
Huzza etc.
When the barrel’s set abroach,
Huzza etc.
When Kate Eyebrow keeps a coach,
Huzza etc.
When the pig is overroasted,
Huzza etc.
And teh cheese is overtoasted,
Huzza etc.
When Sir Snap is with his lawyer,
Huzza, etc.
And Miss Chip has kiss’d the sawyer,
Huzza, etc.

*******

O, I am frighten’d with most hateful thoughts!
Perhaps her voice is not a nightingale’s,
Perhaps her teeth are not the fairest pearl;
Her eye-lashes may be, for ought I know,
Not longer than the May-fly’s small fan-horns;
There may not be one dimple on her hand,
And freckles many; ah! a careless nurse,
In haste to teach the little thing to walk,
May have crumpt up a pair of Dian’s legs,
And warpt the ivory of a Juno’s neck.

*******

SONG

1

The stranger lighted from his steed,
And ere he spake a word,
He seiz’d my lady’s lily hand,
And kiss’d it all unheard.

2

The stranger walk’d into the hall,
And ere he spake a word,
He kiss’d my lady’s cherry lips,
And kiss’d ’em all unheard.

3

The stranger walk’d into the bower, —
But my lady first did go, —
Aye hand in hand into the bower,
Where my lord’s roses blow.

4

My lady’s maid had a silken scarf,
And a golden ring had she,
And a kiss from the stranger as off he went
Again on his fair palfrey.

*******

Asleep! O sleep a little while, white pearl,
And let me kneel, and let me pray to thee,
And let me call heaven’s blessing on thine eyes,
And let me breathe into the happy air,
That doth enfold and touch thee all about,
Vows of my slavery, my giving up,
My sudden adoration, my great love!

× Cite this page:

MLA Style: Works Cited

Keats, John. “Extracts from an Opera.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, by G. Kim Blank. Edition 3.29 , University of Victoria, 26 October 2026. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_extracts_from_an_opera.html.

Chicago Style: Note

John Keats, “Extracts from an Opera,” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.29 , last modified 26th October 2026. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_extracts_from_an_opera.html.

Chicago Style: Bibliography

Keats, John. “Extracts from an Opera.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.29 , last modified 26th October 2026. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_extracts_from_an_opera.html.