Keats
To Haydon
Great spirits now on earth are sojourning;
He of the cloud, the cataract, the lake,
Who on Helvellyn's summit, wide awake,
Catches his freshness from Archangel's wing:
He of the rose, , the violet, the spring,
The social smile, the chain for Freedom's sake:
And lo! - whose stedfastness would never take
A meaner sound than Raphael's whispering.
And other spirits there are standing apart
Upon the forehead of the age to come; 10
These, these will give the world another heart,
And other pulses. Hear ye not the hum
Of mighty workings? -
Listen awhile ye nations, and be dumb.
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Composed on 19 or 20 November 1816, and addressed to the historical painter Benjamin Robert Haydon, whom he had met at Hunt's in the previous month.
In this sonnet, the influence of Wordsworth asserts itself strongly over that of Hunt, though both are associated with Haydon as "Great spirits"; Keats probably had in mind Wordsworth's own sonnet beginning "Great men have been among us".
l. 2. - "He of the cloud" - Wordsworth, who lived within sight of Helvellyn.
l. 5. - "He of the rose" - Hunt, who when imprisoned for a libel on the Prince Regent from 1813 to 1815, converted his room in Horsemonger Lane Gaol into a bower with rose-trellised wallpaper.
l. 13. - "Of mighty workings" - The line was originally completed "in a distant Mart". Haydon himself suggested the omission of these words.
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