Chief of organic Numbers! <br />Old Scholar of the Spheres! <br />Thy spirit never slumbers, <br />But rolls about our ears <br />For ever and for ever. <br />O, what a mad endeavour <br />Worketh he <br />Who, to thy sacred and ennobled hearse, <br />Would offer a burnt sacrifice of verse <br />And Melody! <br /> <br />How heavenward thou soundedst <br />Live Temple of sweet noise; <br />And discord unconfoundedst: <br />Giving delight new joys, <br />And Pleasure nobler pinions-- <br />O where are thy Dominions! <br />Lend thine ear <br />To a young delian oath--aye, by thy soul, <br />By all that from thy mortal Lips did roll; <br />And by the Kernel of thine earthly Love, <br />Beauty, in things on earth and things above, <br />When every childish fashion <br />Has vanish'd from my rhyme <br />Will I grey-gone in passion <br />Give to an after-time <br />Hymning and harmony <br />Of thee, and of thy Words and of thy Life: <br />But vain is now the bruning and the strife-- <br />Pangs are in vain -- until I grow high-rife <br />With Old Philosophy <br />And mad with glimpses at futurity! <br /> <br />For many years my offerings must be hush'd: <br />When I do speak I'll think upon this hour, <br />Because I feel my forehead hot and flush'd, <br />Even at the simplest vassal of thy Power,-- <br />A Lock of thy bright hair! <br />Sudden it came, <br />And I was startled when I heard thy name <br />Coupled so unaware-- <br />Yet, at the moment, temperate was my blood: <br />Methought I had beheld it from the flood.<br /><br />John Keats<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lines-on-seeing-a-lock-of-milton-s-hair/
