The Poet-Bird In Keats, Divinely Intoxicated,...

The poet-bird in KEATS, divinely intoxicated, flies in front of me, before my ken:

"Was it a vision, or a waking dream?

Fled is that music:-Do I wake or sleep?"

The music-bird is within us to stay, to give us love. The music-bird is without us to fly, to give us joy.

"To Sorrow I bade good-morrow,

And thought to leave her far away behind;

But cheerly, cheerly, She loves me dearly:

She is so constant to me, and so kind."

KEATS

Sorrow helps us immensely. It is apt to humble our pride. It chastens us. It opens our hearts to magnanimity and sympathy. To check our innumerable errors and make us watch ourselves and put us on the road to perfection, sorrow must necessarily exist in the world.