                                      1816
                                   ODE TO MAY
                                   A FRAGMENT
                                 by John Keats

        Mother of Hermes! and still youthful Maia!
                May I sing to thee
        As thou wast hymned on the shores of Baiae?
                Or may I woo thee
        In earlier Sicilian? Or thy smiles
        Seek as they once were sought in Grecian isles
        By bards who died content on pleasant sward,
          Leaving great verse unto a little clan?
        O, give me their old vigour, and unheard
          Save of the quiet Primrose, and the span
                Of heaven and few ears,
        Rounded by thee, my song should die away
                Content as theirs,
        Rich in the simple worship of a day.


                        THE END
