The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats/Sonnet: 'Keen, fitful gusts are whisp'ring here and there'
SONNET
According to Charles Cowden Clarke, this sonnet was written upon Keats first visiting Hunt in the Vale of Health. It was published in the 1817 volume.
Keen, fitful gusts are whisp'ring here and there
Among the bushes half leafless, and dry;
The stars look very cold about the sky,
And I have many miles on foot to fare.
Yet feel I little of the cool bleak air,
Or of the dead leaves rustling drearily,
Or of those silver lamps that burn on high,
Or of the distance from home's pleasant lair:
For I am brimful of the friendliness
That in a little cottage I have found;
Of fair-hair'd Milton's eloquent distress,
And all his love for gentle Lycid drown'd;
Of lovely Laura in her light green dress,
And faithful Petrarch gloriously crown'd.