John Keats

The Poet

A FRAGMENT

Where’s the Poet? show him! show him,
Muses nine! that I may know him!
’Tis the man who with a man
	Is an equal, be he King
Or poorest of the beggar-clan,
	Or any other wondrous thing
A man may be ’twixt ape and Plato;
	’Tis the man who with a bird,
Wren or eagle, finds his way to
	All its instincts; he hath heard
The lion’s roaring, and can tell
	What his horny throat expresseth,
And to him the tiger’s yell
	Comes articulate and presseth
On his ear like mother-tongue . . .