https://www.tuirgin.com/tags/john-keats/ Recent content in John Keats on On the Backs of Turtles Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us blog@tuirgin.com (Christopher D. Walborn) blog@tuirgin.com (Christopher D. Walborn) &copy; 2018 Christopher D. Walborn [Some Rights Reserved](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) Thu, 30 Aug 2018 00:00:00 -0400 https://www.tuirgin.com/post/20180830-keats-to_my_brothers/ Thu, 30 Aug 2018 00:00:00 -0400 blog@tuirgin.com (Christopher D. Walborn) https://www.tuirgin.com/post/20180830-keats-to_my_brothers/ <p>Tonight I read this occasional poem which John Keats wrote on the 17^th birthday of his brother, Tom.</p> <div class="poem"> <p class="poem-title"> To My Brothers </p> <p class="poem-line"> Small, busy flames play through the fresh laid coals, </p> <p class="poem-line poem-0"> And their faint cracklings o’er our silence creep </p> <p class="poem-line poem-0"> Like whispers of the household gods that keep </p> <p class="poem-line"> A gentle empire o’er fraternal souls. </p> <p class="poem-line">And while, for rhymes, I search around the poles,</p> <p class="poem-line poem-0">Your eyes are fix’d, as in poetic sleep,</p> <p class="poem-line poem-0">Upon the lore so voluble and deep,</p> <p class="poem-line">That aye at fall of night our care condoles.</p> <p class="poem-line">This is your birth-day Tom, and I rejoice</p> <p class="poem-line poem-0">That thus it passes smoothly, quietly.</p> <p class="poem-line">Many such eves of gently whisp’ring noise</p> <p class="poem-line poem-0">May we together pass, and calmly try</p> <p class="poem-line">What are this world’s true joys,—ere the great voice,</p> <p class="poem-line poem-0">From its fair face, shall bid our spirits fly.</p> <p class="poem-date"> November 18, 1816 </p> </div>