"On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again" is a sonnet about the power, pain, and challenge of great art. Getting ready to reread Shakespeare's King Lear for the umpteenth time, the poem's speaker braces himself for an experience that he knows will be as difficult as it is inspiring. By confronting both the play's relentlessly tragic events and its astonishing artistic greatness, the speaker prays that he'll go through an inner trial by fire, emerging ready to write great poetry himself. Keats wrote this poem in 1818 but never published it himself. It first appeared in a literary newspaper in 1838 (27 years after he died) and was later collected in the 1848 book The Poetical Works of John Keats.
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The Full Text of “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again”
1O Golden-tongued Romance, with serene Lute!
2Fair plumed Syren, Queen of far-away!
3Leave melodizing on this wintry day
4Shut up thine olden Pages, and be mute.
5Adieu! for, once again, the fierce dispute,
6Betwixt Damnation and impassion'd clay
7Must I burn through; once more humbly assay
8The bitter-sweet of this Shaksperean fruit.
9Chief Poet! and ye Clouds of Albion,
10Begetters of our deep eternal theme!
11When through the old oak forest I am gone,
12Let me not wander in a barren dream:
13But, when I am consumed in the fire,
14Give me new Phoenix Wings to fly at my desire.
The Full Text of “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again”
1O Golden-tongued Romance, with serene Lute!
2Fair plumed Syren, Queen of far-away!
3Leave melodizing on this wintry day
4Shut up thine olden Pages, and be mute.
5Adieu! for, once again, the fierce dispute,
6Betwixt Damnation and impassion'd clay
7Must I burn through; once more humbly assay
8The bitter-sweet of this Shaksperean fruit.
9Chief Poet! and ye Clouds of Albion,
10Begetters of our deep eternal theme!
11When through the old oak forest I am gone,
12Let me not wander in a barren dream:
13But, when I am consumed in the fire,
14Give me new Phoenix Wings to fly at my desire.
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“On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again” Summary
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“On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again” Themes
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The Bittersweet Power of Shakespeare's King Lear
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Artistic Awe and Inspiration
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again”
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Lines 1-4
O Golden-tongued Romance, with serene Lute!
Fair plumed Syren, Queen of far-away!
Leave melodizing on this wintry day
Shut up thine olden Pages, and be mute. -
Lines 5-8
Adieu! for, once again, the fierce dispute,
Betwixt Damnation and impassion'd clay
Must I burn through; once more humbly assay
The bitter-sweet of this Shaksperean fruit. -
Lines 9-10
Chief Poet! and ye Clouds of Albion,
Begetters of our deep eternal theme! -
Lines 11-14
When through the old oak forest I am gone,
Let me not wander in a barren dream:
But, when I am consumed in the fire,
Give me new Phoenix Wings to fly at my desire.
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“On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again” Symbols
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The Phoenix
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“On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Apostrophe
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Allusion
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Juxtaposition
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Metaphor
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Assonance
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“On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Golden-tongued Romance
- Lute
- Plumed
- Syren
- Melodizing
- Thine
- Olden Pages
- Dispute
- Betwixt
- Impassion'd
- Assay
- Shaksperean
- Ye
- Albion
- Begetters
- Barren
- Consumed
- Phoenix
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again” Speaker
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“On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again”
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More “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again” Resources
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External Resources
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The Keats-Shelley Museum — Learn more about Keats via the Keats-Shelley Museum (housed in Keats's final home in Rome).
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Portraits of Keats — See images of Keats at the website of London's National Portrait Gallery. Many of these portraits were made by his close-knit circle of friends.
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The Poem in Context — Learn about what Keats was up to around the time he wrote this poem—and how his experiences might have reshaped his artistic ambitions.
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Keats's Life and Work — Learn more about Keats via the British Library.
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Keats on King Lear — Read one of Keats's most famous letters, in which he discusses King Lear as an example of Shakespeare's greatness.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by John Keats
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