Sharing Eve's Apple

1.

O Blush not so! O blush not so!

      Or I shall think you knowing;

And if you smile the blushing while,

      Then maidenheads are going.

2.

There's a blush for want, and a blush for shan't,

      And a blush for having done it;

There's a blush for thought, and a blush for nought,

      And a blush for just begun it.

3.

O sigh not so! O sigh not so!

      For it sounds of Eve's sweet pippin;

By these loosen'd lips you have tasted the pips

      And fought in an amorous nipping.

4.

Will you play once more at nice-cut-core,

      For it only will last our youth out,

And we have the prime of the kissing time,

      We have not one sweet tooth out.

5.

There's a sigh for aye, and a sigh for nay,

      And a sigh for "I can't bear it!"

O what can be done, shall we stay or run?

      O cut the sweet apple and share it!

'This song, belonging to the year 1818, has not, I believe, been published till now (1881). It seems to me neither more nor less worthy of Keats's reputation than the Daisy's Song in the Extracts from an Opera; but, notwithstanding the brilliant qualities of some of the stanzas, I should have hesitated to be instrumental in adding it to the poet's published works, had it not been handed about in manuscript and more than once copied.'~ Poetical Works of John Keats, ed. H. Buxton Forman, Crowell publ. 1895.