Poem - "Written Before Re-Reading King Lear" by John Keats

"Written Before Re-Reading King Lear" 
by John Keats


O golden-tongued Romance with serene lute!

Fair plumed Syren! Queen of far away!

Leave melodizing on this wintry day,

Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute.

Adieu! for once again the fierce dispute

Betwixt damnation and impassioned clay

Must I burn through; once more humbly assay

The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit.

Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion,

Begetters of our deep eternal theme,

When through the old oak Forest I am gone,

Let me not wander in a barren dream,

But when I am consumed in the Fire,

Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire.