Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology

Mapping Keats’s Progress
A Critical Chronology

God of the golden bow

  • God of the golden bow,
  • And of the golden lyre,
  • And of the golden hair,
  • And of the golden fire,
  • Charioteer
  • Round the patient year —
  • Where, where slept thine ire,
  • When like a blank ideot I put on thy wreath —
  • Thy laurel, thy glory,
  • The light of thy story?
  • Or was I a worm — too low-creeping for death,
  • O Delphic Apollo?
  • The Thunderer grasp’d and grasp’d,
  • The Thunderer frown’d and frown’d;
  • The eagle’s feathery mane
  • For wrath became stiffen’d — the sound
  • Of breeding thunder
  • Went drowsily under,
  • Muttering to be unbound.
  • O why didst thou pity, and beg for a worm?
  • Why touch thy soft lute
  • Till the thunder was mute?
  • Why was I not crush’d — such a pitiful germ?
  • O Delphic Apollo!
  • The Pleiades were up,
  • Watching the silent air;
  • The seeds and roots in earth
  • Were swelling for summer fare;
  • The ocean, its neighbour,
  • Was at his old labour,
  • When — who, who did dare
  • To tie for a moment thy plant round his brow,
  • And grin and look proudly,
  • And blaspheme so loudly,
  • And live for that honour, to stoop to thee now?
  • O Delphic Apollo?

× Cite this page:

MLA Style: Works Cited

Keats, John. “God of the golden bow.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, by G. Kim Blank. Edition 3.27 , University of Victoria, 19 August 2024. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_god_of_the_golden_bow.html.

Chicago Style: Note

John Keats, “God of the golden bow,” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.27 , last modified 19th August 2024. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_god_of_the_golden_bow.html.

Chicago Style: Bibliography

Keats, John. “God of the golden bow.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.27 , last modified 19th August 2024. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_god_of_the_golden_bow.html.