Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology

Mapping Keats’s Progress
A Critical Chronology

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References to this poem

If by dull rhymes our English must be chain’d

If by dull rhymes our English must be chain’d,
And, like Andromeda, the sonnet sweet
Fetter’d, in spite of pained loveliness;
Let us find out, if we must be constrain’d,
Sandals more interwoven and complete
To fit the naked foot of Poesy;
Let us inspect the lyre, and weigh the stress
Of every chord, and see what may be gain’d
By ear industrious, and attention meet;
Misers of sound and syllable, no less
Than Midas of his coinage, let us be
Jealous of dead leaves in the bay wreath crown;
So, if we may not let the muse be free,
She will be bound with garlands of her own.

🗙 Cite this page:

MLA Style: Works Cited

Keats, John. “If by dull rhymes our English must be chain’d.” 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_if_by_dull_rhymes_our_english.html.

Chicago Style: Note

John Keats, “If by dull rhymes our English must be chain’d,” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.8 , last modified 18th January 2021. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_if_by_dull_rhymes_our_english.html.

Chicago Style: Bibliography

Keats, John. “If by dull rhymes our English must be chain’d.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.8 , last modified 18th January 2021. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_if_by_dull_rhymes_our_english.html.