The melancholy gift Aurora gained <br />From Jove, that her sad lover should not see <br />The face of death, no goddess asked for thee, <br />My Keats! But when the crimson blood-drop stained <br />Thy pillow, thou didst read the fate ordained, -- <br />Brief life, wild love, a flight of poesy! <br />And then, -- a shadow fell on Italy: <br />Thy star went down before its brightness waned, <br /> <br />Yet thou hast won the gift Tithonus missed: <br />Never to feel the pain of growing old, <br />Nor lose the blissful sight of beauty's truth, <br />But with the ardent lips that music kissed <br />To breathe thy song, and, ere thy heart grew cold, <br />Become the Poet of Immortal Youth.<br /><br />Henry Van Dyke<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/keats/
