Character Of Charles Brown / Keats, John

                                      1816
                           CHARACTER OF CHARLES BROWN
                                 by John Keats

                        I.

        He is to weet a melancholy carle:
        Thin in the waist, with bushy head of hair
        As hath the seeded thistle when in parle
        It holds the Zephyr, ere it sendeth fair
        Its light balloons into the summer air;
        Therto his beard had not begun to bloom,
        No brush had touch'd his chin or razor sheer;
        No care had touch'd his cheek with mortal doom,
      But new he was and bright as scarf from Persian loom.

                       II.

        Ne cared he for wine, or half-and-half;
        Ne cared he for fish or flesh or fowl,
        And sauces held he worthless as the chaff,
        He 'sdeigned the swine-head at the wassail-bowl;
        Ne with lewd ribbalds sat he cheek by jowl,
        Ne with sly Lemans in the scorner's chair;
        But after water-brooks this Pilgrim's soul
        Panted, and all his food was woodland air
      Though he would oft-times feast on gilliflowers rare.

                      III.

        The slang of cities in no wise he knew,
        Tipping the wink to him was heathen Greek;
        He sipp'd no olden Tom or ruin blue,
        Or nantz or cherry-brandy drank full meek
        By many a damsel hoarse and rouge of cheek;
        Nor did he know each aged watchman's beat,
        Nor in obscured purlieus would he seek
        For curled Jewesses with ankles neat,
      Who as they walk abroad make tinkling with their feet.

                        THE END
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