John Keats

Sonnet: 'As from the darkening gloom a silver dove

SONNET
Lord Houghton gives the date of 1816. It appears in the Aldine edition of 1876.
As from the darkening gloom a silver dove
Upsoars, and darts into the eastern light,
On pinions that nought moves but pure delight,
So fled thy soul into the realms above,
Regions of peace and everlasting love;
Where happy spirits, crown'd with circlets bright

bedight

Archaic past participle meaning 'adorned' or 'arrayed.' Keats uses deliberately old-fashioned religious diction throughout—this reads like a 17th-century devotional poem, not 1816 Romanticism.

Of starry beam, and gloriously bedight,
Taste the high joy none but the blest can prove.
There thou or joinest the immortal quire

immortal quire

Archaic spelling of 'choir'—the company of angels singing in heaven. The dead person either joins the heavenly chorus or becomes an angel carrying messages from God.

In melodies that even heaven fair
Fill with superior bliss, or, at desire,

cleav'st the air

'Cleave' means to split or cut through. The soul either sings with angels or flies as a messenger angel. The elision ('cleav'st') maintains the iambic pentameter.

Of the omnipotent Father, cleav'st the air
On holy message sent—What pleasure 's higher?
Wherefore does any grief our joy impair?

Wherefore does any grief

The turn: if the dead are in paradise doing glorious work, why grieve at all? 'Wherefore' means 'why,' not 'where'—he's questioning the logic of mourning.

Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

Early Keats, Imitating the Past

This is apprentice work—Keats at 20 or 21, writing a conventional consolation poem. The date matters: 1816 is before his great odes, before he found his own voice. Here he's deliberately imitating 17th-century religious sonnets, using archaic words like 'bedight,' 'quire,' and 'nought' that already sounded old-fashioned in his time.

The central conceit is simple: a soul leaving the body is like a dove flying from darkness into light. This was stock Christian imagery—doves represent the Holy Spirit and the soul's purity. Keats extends it through the octave (first eight lines), then shifts in the sestet to what the soul does in heaven: either joins the angelic choir or becomes a messenger angel.

The final couplet asks the real question: if death means promotion to paradise, why mourn? It's the logical conclusion of Christian consolation poetry, but it feels forced. Keats is following the form, not feeling the sentiment—this is practice, not passion.

What's Worth Noticing

The rhyme scheme is Petrarchan (ABBAABBA CDCDEE), but Keats struggles with it. 'Prove' and 'love' in lines 4-5 is a slant rhyme at best. The final couplet (EE) feels tacked on—a common problem in English sonnets where the poet needs to wrap up quickly.

'Circlets bright / Of starry beam' (lines 6-7): the blessed wear crowns made of starlight. This is Revelation 2:10 imagery—'I will give thee a crown of life'—mixed with Dante's *Paradiso* where saints shine with increasing brightness. Keats read both.

The two roles for the dead in lines 9-13 come from Christian angelology: angels either worship (the choir) or serve as messengers (like Gabriel). The dead person gets to do both 'at desire / Of the omnipotent Father'—God assigns the missions. This is more Catholic than Protestant theology; Keats was neither, but he read widely in religious poetry.

Who died? We don't know. The poem is generic enough to be a writing exercise rather than genuine elegy. Compare this to 'When I have fears that I may cease to be' (1818)—just two years later, Keats is writing about death with real urgency and none of this borrowed piety.