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O soft embalmer of the still midnight!
Shutting with careful fingers and benign
Our gloom-pleased eyes, embower'd from the light,
Enshaded in forgetfulness divine;
O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close,
In midst of this thine hymn, my willing eyes,
Or wait the amen, ere thy poppy throws
Around my bed its lulling charities;
Then save me, or the passèd day will shine
Upon my pillow, breeding many woes;
Save me from curious conscience, that still lords
Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;
Turn the key deftly in the oilèd wards,
And seal the hushèd casket of my soul.
John Keats was born in London in 1795 and died in Rome, of tuberculosis, in 1821. Major works include Ode to a Nightingale; The Eve of St. Agnes; Ode on a Grecian Urn; La Belle Dame sans Merci; Lamia; and To Autumn. The son of a livery-stable manager, he was considered "not literary" at school.
Michelle Flynn is a professional artist whose work may be seen throughout the United States and Canada. Until recently, Michelle was the staff artist for the magazine Warmwater FlyFishing from Abenaki Publishers.
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