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.
