Sonnet. On The Sea - John Keats

 Sonnet. On The Sea – John Keats

 

It keeps eternal whisperings around

Desolate[mp1]  shores, and with its mighty swell

Gluts[mp2]  twice ten thousand caverns[mp3] , till the spell

Of Hecate[mp4]  leaves them their old shadowy sound.

Often ’tis in such gentle temper found

That scarcely will the very smallest shell

Be mov’d for days from whence it sometime fell,

When last the winds of heaven were unbound

Oh ye! Who have your eye-balls vex’d and tir’d,

Feast them upon the wideness of the sea;

Oh ye! Whose ears are dinn’d[mp5]  with uproar rude,

Or fed too much with claying melody, — 

Sit ye near some old cavern’s mouth, and brood

Until ye start, as if the sea-nymphs quir’d!  

 

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 [mp1]Uninhabited and giving an impression of bleak emptiness

 [mp2]An excessively aboundant supply of something

 [mp3]A large cave or chamber in a cave

 [mp4]A goddess of dark places, often associated with ghosts and sorcery

 [mp5] A prolonged uproar

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