Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology

Mapping Keats’s Progress
A Critical Chronology

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.

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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 3.28 , University of Victoria, 24 September 2026. 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 3.28 , last modified 24th September 2026. 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 3.28 , last modified 24th September 2026. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_if_by_dull_rhymes_our_english.html.