Sharing Eves Apple

1.

O Blush not so!

O blush not so!
Or I shall think you knowing;

And if you smile the blushing while,
Then maidenheads are going.2.

There's a blush for want, and a blush for shan't,
And a blush for having done it;

There's a blush for thought, and a blush for nought,
And a blush for just begun it.3.

O sigh not so!

O sigh not so!
For it sounds of Eve's sweet pippin;

By these loosen'd lips you have tasted the pips
And fought in an amorous nipping.4.

Will you play once more at nice-cut-core,
For it only will last our youth out,

And we have the prime of the kissing time,
We have not one sweet tooth out.5.

There's a sigh for aye, and a sigh for nay,
And a sigh for "I can't bear it!"O what can be done, shall we stay or run?
O cut the sweet apple and share it!'This song, belonging to the year 1818, has not,

I believe, been published till now (1881).

It seems to me neither more nor less worthy of Keats's reputation than the Daisy's Song in the Extracts from an Opera; but, notwithstanding the brilliant qualities of some of the stanzas,

I should have hesitated to be instrumental in adding it to the poet's published works, had it not been handed about in manuscript and more than once copied.'~ Poetical Works of John Keats, ed.

H.

Buxton Forman,

Crowell publ. 1895.