Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology

Mapping Keats’s Progress
A Critical Chronology

References to this poem

I had a dove, and the sweet dove died

  • I had a dove, and the sweet dove died,
  • And I have thought it died of grieving;
  • O, what could it grieve for? It was tied,
  • With a silken thread of my own hand’s weaving:
  • Sweet little red feet! why did you die —
  • Why would you leave me, sweet dove! why?
  • You liv’d alone on the forest-tree,
  • Why, pretty thing! could you not live with me?
  • I kiss’d you oft and gave you white pease;
  • Why not live sweetly, as in the green trees?

× Cite this page:

MLA Style: Works Cited

Keats, John. “I had a dove, and the sweet dove died.” 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_i_had_a_dove_and_the.html.

Chicago Style: Note

John Keats, “I had a dove, and the sweet dove died,” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.28 , last modified 24th September 2026. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_i_had_a_dove_and_the.html.

Chicago Style: Bibliography

Keats, John. “I had a dove, and the sweet dove died.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.28 , last modified 24th September 2026. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_i_had_a_dove_and_the.html.