Explore "Sonnet: if by Dull Rhymes" by John Keats on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
If by dull rhymes our English must be chain'd, / And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet / Fetter'd, in spite of pained loveliness; / Let us find out, if we must be constrain'd, / Sandals more interwoven and complete / To fit the naked foot of poesy; / Let us inspect the lyre, and weigh the stress / Of every chord, and see what may be gain'd / By ear industrious, and attention meet; / Misers of sound and syllable, no less / Than Midas of his coinage, let us be / Jealous of dead leaves in the bay-wreath crown:
So, if we may not let the Muse be free, / She will be bound with garlands of her own.