The Poetical Works of John Keats/Modern Love

by John Keats

For other versions of this work, see Modern Love (Keats).

MODERN LOVE.

And what is love? It is a doll dress'd up
For idleness to cosset, nurse, and dandle;
A thing of soft misnomers, so divine
That silly youth doth think to make itself
Divine by loving, and so goes on
Yawning and doting a whole summer long,
Till Miss's comb is made a pearl tiara,
And common Wellingtons turn Romeo boots;
Then Cleopatra lives at number seven,
And Anthony resides in Brunswick Square.
Fools! if some passions high have warm'd the world
If Queens and Soldiers have play'd deep with hearts,
It is no reason why such agonies
Should be more common than the growth of weeds.
Fools! make me whole again that weighty pearl
The Queen of Egypt melted, and I'll say
That ye may love in spite of beaver hats.