Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?
John KeatsRead
Ask yourself my love whether you are not very cruel to have so entrammelled me, so destroyed my freedom. Will you confess this in the Letter you must write immediately, and do all you can to console me in it — make it rich as a draught of poppies to intoxicate me —write the softest words and kiss them that I may at least touch my lips where yours have been. For myself I know not how to express my devotion to so fair a form: I want a brighter word than bright, a fairer word than fair.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a deep longing for love and a plea for understanding in a romantic relationship.
In this quote, John Keats articulates the turmoil of his emotions as he struggles with the constraints of love that seem to entrap him, all while yearning for a connection that is both profound and liberating. He requests his beloved to acknowledge the pain they both experience and to write words that can soothe and intoxicate him, revealing the intensity of his devotion and the desire for a more beautiful expression of affection.
Themes
LoveFreedomDevotionExpressionLonging
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a romantic letter to express feelings of longing.
More from John Keats
All quotes →Are there not thousands in the world who love their fellows even to the death, who feel the giant agony of the world, and more, like slaves to poor humanity, labor for mortal good?
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Faded the flower and all its budded charms,Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes,Faded the shape of beauty from my arms,Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise!Vanishd unseasonably
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I think we may class the lawyer in the natural history of monsters.
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...I leaped headlong into the Sea, and thereby have become more acquainted with the Soundings, the quicksands, and the rocks, than if I had stayed upon the green shore, and piped a silly pipe, and took tea and comfortable advice.
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You are always new, the last of your kisses was ever the sweetest.
John KeatsRead
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