OUT IN THE OPEN

Keats had a keen eye for the glories of nature and in this poem values the refuge that the countryside affords to the pent up dweller of the city. He would have loved Limerick for its close proximity to an abundance of green and waving bounty as in the images captured here from a recent stroll on Plassey bank. One can literally walk from the centre of the city along this riverside pathway until within minutes all sight and sound of the frantic city fades away. ~GOSh.~

To One Who Has Long
Been In the City Pent

To one who has been long in city pent,
’Tis very sweet to look into the fair
And open face of heaven,—to breathe a prayer
Full in the smile of the blue firmament.

Who is more happy, when, with hearts content,
Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair
Of wavy grass, and reads a debonair
And gentle tale of love and languishment?


Returning home at evening, with an ear
Catching the notes of Philomel,—an eye
Watching the sailing cloudlet’s bright career,
He mourns that day so soon has glided by:
E’en like the passage of an angel’s tear
That falls through the clear ether silently.

John Keats