Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell No God, no demo… - John Keats

" "
Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell
No God, no demon of severe response
Deigns to reply from heaven or from hell
Then to my human heart I turn at once:
Heart, thou and I are here, sad and alone,
Say, why did I laugh? O mortal pain!
O darkness! darkness! Forever must I moan
To question heaven and hell and heart in vain?
Why did I laugh? I know this being's lease
My fancy to it's utmost blisses spreads
Yet would I on this very midnight cease
And all the world's gaudy ensigns see in shreds
Verse, fame and beauty are intense indeed
But death intenser, death is life's high meed.

John Keats

Sources available for members. Sign up free to see where this quote comes from

English

Collect this quote

About John Keats

John Keats (October 31, 1795 – February 23, 1821) was one of the principal poets of the English Romantic movement.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Alternative Names: Adonaïs • Adonais

All quotes from John Keats Similar Quotes by other Originators

Originators like John Keats:

Lord Byron Samuel Taylor Coleridge Percy Bysshe Shelley Alfred Tennyson William Wordsworth

Additional quotes by John Keats

E’en like the passage of an angel’s tear
That falls through the clear ether silently.

Some think I have lost that poetical ardour and fire 'tis said I once had- the fact is, perhaps I have; but, instead of that, I hope I shall substitute a more thoughtful and quiet power.

Deep in the shady sadness of a vale
Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn,
Far from the fiery noon, and eve's one star,
Sat gray-hair'd Saturn, quiet as a stone,
Still as the silence round about his lair;
Forest on forest hung about his head
Like cloud on cloud.

Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell No God, no demon of severe response Deigns to reply from heaven or from hell Then to my human heart I tur… - John Keats

About John Keats

Also Known As

Works in ChatGPT, Claude, or Any AI

Additional quotes by John Keats

Enhance Your Quote Experience