Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology

Mapping Keats’s Progress
A Critical Chronology

Oh Chatterton! how very sad thy fate

  • O Chatterton! how very sad thy fate!
  • Dear child of sorrow — son of misery!
  • How soon the film of death obscur’d that eye,
  • Whence genius wildly flash’d, and high debate.
  • How soon that voice, majestic and elate,
  • Melted in dying numbers! Oh! how nigh
  • Was night to thy fair morning. Thou didst die
  • A half-blown flow’ret which cold blasts amate.
  • But this is past. Thou art among the stars
  • Of highest heaven; to the rolling spheres
  • Thou sweetly singest —naught thy hymning mars,
  • Above the ingrate world and human fears.
  • On earth the good man base detraction bars
  • From thy fair name, and waters it with tears.

× Cite this page:

MLA Style: Works Cited

Keats, John. “Oh Chatterton! how very sad thy fate.” 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_oh_chatterton_how_very_sad_thy.html.

Chicago Style: Note

John Keats, “Oh Chatterton! how very sad thy fate,” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.27 , last modified 19th August 2024. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_oh_chatterton_how_very_sad_thy.html.

Chicago Style: Bibliography

Keats, John. “Oh Chatterton! how very sad thy fate.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.27 , last modified 19th August 2024. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_oh_chatterton_how_very_sad_thy.html.