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The Grave of Keats

by Oscar Wilde, 1881

Rid of the world’s injustice, and his pain,
   He rests at last beneath God’s veil of blue:
   Taken from life when life and love were new
 The youngest of the martyrs here is lain,
 Fair as Sebastian, and as early slain.
   No cypress shades his grave, no funeral yew,
   But gentle violets weeping with the dew
 Weave on his bones an ever-blossoming chain.
 O proudest heart that broke for misery!
   O sweetest lips since those of Mitylene!
   O poet-painter of our English Land!
 Thy name was writ in water——it shall stand:
   And tears like mine will keep thy memory green,
   As Isabella did her Basil-tree.


ROME.

Published in Poems
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