Dedication To Leigh Hunt, Esq.

Glory and loveliness have pass’d away;

For if we wander out in early morn,

No wreathed incense do we see upborne

Into the east, to meet the smiling day:

No crowd of nymphs soft voic’d and young, and gay,

In woven baskets bringing ears of corn,

Roses, and pinks, and violets, to adorn

The shrine of Flora in her early May.

But there are left delights as high as these,

And I shall ever bless my destiny,

That in a time, when under pleasant trees

Pan is no longer sought, I feel a free,

A leafy luxury, seeing I could please

With these poor offerings, a man like thee.

John Keats

This poem, as the title itself says, is a dedication yo Leigh Hunt, one of John Keats best friends, if not the best one of them.

The poem begins by saying: Glory and loveliness have pass’d away.

Glory and loveliness are positive things which had to do with Leigh Hunt but now they are gone.

By “early morn” John Keats means that he died very young too, as it happened to his wife.

Afterwards, there is a list of expresions used by Keats in order to explain how Heaven is like:

to meet the smiling day, rose, pink, violet, The shrine of Flora in her early May, delights, And I shall ever bless my destiny, a leafy luxury.

The poem ends up saying that all these luxuries are poor offerings for a man like him: Leigh Hunt.