FAERY SONG I

by John Keats

Shed no tear! O shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.
Weep no more! O weep no more!
Young buds sleep in the root’s white core,
Dry your eyes! O dry your eyes!
For I was taught in Paradise
To ease my breast of melodies —
Shed no tear.

Overhead! look overhead!
‘Mong the blossoms white and red
Look up, look up. I flutter now
On this fresh pomegranate bough.
See me! ’tis this silvery bill
Ever cures the good man’s ill.
Shed no tear! O shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.
Adieu, Adieu — I fly, adieu,
I vanish in the heaven’s blue —
Adieu, Adieu!

* Read on the moment MILTON BOCONCINI exhaled his last breath,

January 2003,

New York City