New content for isolated times: a weekly poem to keep our spirits up. Read, listen, and enjoy.
After dark vapors have oppress’d our plains
John Keats
For a long dreary season, comes a day
Born of the gentle South, and clears away
From the sick heavens all unseemly stains.
The anxious month, relieved of its pains,
Takes as a long-lost right the feel of May;
The eyelids with the passing coolness play
Like rose leaves with the drip of Summer rains.
The calmest thoughts came round us; as of leaves
Budding—fruit ripening in stillness—Autumn suns
Smiling at eve upon the quiet sheaves—
Sweet Sappho’s cheek—a smiling infant’s breath—
The gradual sand that through an hour-glass runs—
A woodland rivulet—a Poet’s death.
I chose to read this unnamed sonnet because of its clear, positive message. While its original message describes the end of winter and the beginning of spring, this sonnet can easily serve as a reminder that this too shall pass. It is an unfortunate side effect of this global pandemic that it appears to be omnipresent, but there will come a day when it lies in the past. Of course this does not change the current situation but it may serve as a reminder that we can change our focus. Rather than looking at this long dreary season, we can look towards the future and expect a change for the better.
