Fragment Of An Ode To Maia. Written On May Day 1818

by John Keats

　　

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    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.

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