I’ve always liked this Keats sonnet. It is actually a response to a JH Reynolds sonnet about the beauty of dark eyes. I just happen to enjoy it for its tranquil qualities, much as I like the soothing color blue. It’s about 80 degrees here already (a little TOO warm in my opinion), but the sky is periwinkle and the sea is dark blue….
Blue! ‘Tis the life of heaven,—the domain
Of Cynthia,—the wide palace of the sun,—
The tent of Hesperus, and all his train,—
The bosomer of clouds, gold, gray, and dun.
Blue! ‘Tis the life of waters:—Ocean
And all its vassal streams, pools numberless,
May rage, and foam, and fret, but never can
Subside, if not to dark-blue nativeness.
Blue! gentle cousin of the forest-green,
Married to green in all the sweetest flowers—
Forget-me-not,—the blue-bell,—and, that queen
Of secrecy, the violet: what strange powers
Hast thou, as a mere shadow! But how great,
When in an Eye thou art alive with fate!
