| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
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| John Keats. 1795–1821 |
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| 632. Stanzas |
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| IN a drear-nighted December, | |
| Too happy, happy tree, | |
| Thy branches ne'er remember | |
| Their green felicity: | |
| The north cannot undo them, | 5 |
| With a sleety whistle through them; | |
| Nor frozen thawings glue them | |
| From budding at the prime. | |
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| In a drear-nighted December, | |
| Too happy, happy brook, | 10 |
| Thy bubblings ne'er remember | |
| Apollo's summer look; | |
| But with a sweet forgetting, | |
| They stay their crystal fretting, | |
| Never, never petting | 15 |
| About the frozen time. | |
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| Ah! would 'twere so with many | |
| A gentle girl and boy! | |
| But were there ever any | |
| Writhed not at passèd joy? | 20 |
| To know the change and feel it, | |
| When there is none to heal it, | |
| Nor numbèd sense to steal it, | |
| Was never said in rhyme. | |
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