Nature

Sonnet to Ailsa Rock

by John Keats 1795–1821

From Posthumous and Fugitive Poems

Nature

Hearken, thou craggy ocean pyramid!
Give answer from thy voice, the sea-fowls' screams !
When were thy shoulders mantled in huge streams ?
When, from the sun, was thy broad forehead hid?
How long is't since the mighty power bid
Thee heave to airy sleep from fathom dreams?
Sleep in the lap of thunder or sunbeams,
Or when grey clouds are thy cold coverlid.
Thou answer'st not; for thou art dead asleep;
Thy life is but two dead eternities —
The last in air, the former in the deep ;
First with the whales, last with the eagle-skies —
Drown'd wast thou till an earthquake made thee steep,
Another cannot wake thy giant size.

MLA

Keats, John. “Sonnet to Ailsa Rock.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/keats/105/.

Chicago

Keats, John. “Sonnet to Ailsa Rock.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/keats/105/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by John Keats