Mapping Keats’s Progress
A Critical Chronology

TUNE —“Julia to the Wood Robin”

• 1

• Stay, ruby breasted warbler, stay,
• And let me see thy sparkling eye;
• Oh brush not yet the pearl strung spray,
• Nor bow thy pretty head to fly.

• 2

• Stay while I tell thee, fluttering thing,
• That thou of love an emblem art;
• Yes! patient plume thy little wing,
• Whilst I my thoughts to thee impart.

• 3

• When summer nights the dews bestow,
• And summer suns enrich the day,
• Thy notes the blossoms charm to blow,
• Each opes delighted at thy lay.

• 4

• So when in youth the eye’s dark glance
• Speaks pleasure from its circle bright,
• The tones of love our joys enhance
• And make superior each delight.

• 5

• And when bleak storms resistless rove,
• And ev’ry rural bliss destroy,
• Nought comforts then the leafless grove
• But thy soft note — its only joy.

• 6

• E’en so the words of love beguile,
• When pleasure’s tree no flower bears,
• And draw a soft endearing smile,
• Amid the gloom of grief and tears.