Sonnet Sweet Poets Of The Gentle Antique Line
Sweet poets of the gentle antique line,
That made the hue of beauty all eterne;
And gave earth's melodies a silver turn,--
Where did you steal your art so right divine?--
Sweetly ye memoried every golden twine
Of your ladies' tresses: -- teach me how to spurn
Death's lone decaying and oblivion stern
From the sweet forehead of a lady mine.
The golden clusters of enamouring hair
Glow'd in poetic pictures sweetly well;--
Why should not tresses dusk, that are so fair
On the live brow, have an eternal spell
In poesy? -- dark eyes are dearer far
Than orbs that mock the hyacinthine-bell.
John Keats' sonnet, "Blue! 'Tis the life of heaven," &c. was a reply to this sonnet by Reynolds. Printed in The Garden Of Florence &c, 1821.
