{
 "id": "john-keats/i-stood-tiptoe-upon-a-little-hill",
 "title": "“I Stood Tiptoe Upon a Little Hill”",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Keats",
 "poet_slug": "john-keats",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": "“Places of nestling green, for poets made.”",
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1817,
  "venue": "Poems (1817)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poems008365mbp"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-keats_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/completepoetical01keat",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/005261190"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 242,
  "n_stanzas": 11,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 53,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I stood tiptoe upon a little hill,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The air was cooling, and so very still",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That the sweet buds which with a modest pride",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pull droopingly, in slanting curve aside,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their scantly-leaved and finely tapering stems,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had not yet lost those starry diadems",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Caught from the early sobbing of the morn.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The clouds were pure and white as flocks new shorn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fresh from the clear brook; sweetly they slept",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the blue fields of heaven, and then there crept",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A little noiseless noise among the leaves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Born of the very sigh that silence heaves;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For not the faintest motion could be seen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all the shades that slanted o’er the green.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There was wide wand’ring for the greediest eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To peer about upon variety;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far round the horizon’s crystal air to skim,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And trace the dwindled edgings of its brim;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To picture out the quaint and curious bending",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a fresh woodland alley, never-ending;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or by the bowery clefts, and leafy shelves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Guess where the jaunty streams refresh themselves.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I gazed awhile, and felt as light and free",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As though the fanning wings of Mercury",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had played upon my heels: I was light-hearted,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And many pleasures to my vision started;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So I straightway began to pluck a posey",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of luxuries bright, milky, soft, and rosy.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A bush of May flowers with the bees about them;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah, sure no tasteful nook could be without them;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And let a lush laburnum oversweep them,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And let long grass grow round the roots to keep them",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Moist, cool, and green; and shade the violets,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That they may bind the moss in leafy nets.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A filbert hedge with wild briar overtwined,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And clumps of woodbine taking the soft wind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon their summer thrones; there too should be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The frequent chequer of a youngling tree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That with a score of light green brethren shoots",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the quaint mossiness of aged roots:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round which is heard a spring-head of clear waters",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Babbling so wildly of its lovely daughters",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The spreading blue-bells: it may haply mourn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That such fair clusters should be rudely torn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From their fresh beds, and scattered thoughtlessly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By infant hands, left on the path to die.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Open afresh your round of starry folds,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye ardent marigolds!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dry up the moisture from your golden lids,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For great Apollo bids",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That in these days your praises should be sung",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On many harps, which he has lately strung;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when again your dewiness he kisses,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tell him, I have you in my world of blisses:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So haply when I rove in some far vale,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His mighty voice may come upon the gale.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Here are sweet peas, on tiptoe for a flight:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With wings of gentle flush o’er delicate white,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And taper fingers catching at all things,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bind them all about with tiny rings.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Linger awhile upon some bending planks",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That lean against a streamlet’s rushy banks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And watch intently Nature’s gentle doings:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They will be found softer than ring-dove’s cooings.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How silent comes the water round that bend;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not the minutest whisper does it send",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the o’erhanging sallows: blades of grass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slowly across the chequer’d shadows pass.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why, you might read two sonnets, ere they reach",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To where the hurrying freshnesses aye preach",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A natural sermon o’er their pebbly beds;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where swarms of minnows show their little heads,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Staying their wavy bodies ’gainst the streams,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To taste the luxury of sunny beams",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Temper’d with coolness. How they ever wrestle",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With their own sweet delight, and ever nestle",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their silver bellies on the pebbly sand.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If you but scantily hold out the hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That very instant not one will remain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But turn your eye, and they are there again.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The ripples seem right glad to reach those cresses,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And cool themselves among the em’rald tresses;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The while they cool themselves, they freshness give,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And moisture, that the bowery green may live:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So keeping up an interchange of favours,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like good men in the truth of their behaviours.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sometimes goldfinches one by one will drop",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From low-hung branches; little space they stop;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But sip, and twitter, and their feathers sleek;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then off at once, as in a wanton freak:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or perhaps, to show their black and golden wings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pausing upon their yellow flutterings.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were I in such a place, I sure should pray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That nought less sweet might call my thoughts away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than the soft rustle of a maiden’s gown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fanning away the dandelion’s down;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than the light music of her nimble toes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Patting against the sorrel as she goes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How she would start, and blush, thus to be caught",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Playing in all her innocence of thought.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O let me lead her gently o’er the brook,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Watch her half-smiling lips, and downward look;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O let me for one moment touch her wrist;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let me one moment to her breathing list;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And as she leaves me, may she often turn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her fair eyes looking through her locks auburne.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What next? A tuft of evening primroses,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er which the mind may hover till it dozes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er which it well might take a pleasant sleep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But that ’tis ever startled by the leap",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of buds into ripe flowers; or by the flitting",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of diverse moths, that aye their rest are quitting;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or by the moon lifting her silver rim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Above a cloud, and with a gradual swim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Coming into the blue with all her light.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O Maker of sweet poets, dear delight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of this fair world, and all its gentle livers;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spangler of clouds, halo of crystal rivers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mingler with leaves, and dew and tumbling streams,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Closer of lovely eyes to lovely dreams,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lover of loneliness, and wandering,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of upcast eye, and tender pondering!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thee must I praise above all other glories",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That smile us on to tell delightful stories.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For what has made the sage or poet write",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the fair paradise of Nature’s light?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the calm grandeur of a sober line,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We see the waving of the mountain pine;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when a tale is beautifully staid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We feel the safety of a hawthorn glade:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When it is moving on luxurious wings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The soul is lost in pleasant smotherings:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fair dewy roses brush against our faces,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And flowering laurels spring from diamond vases;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’erhead we see the jasmine and sweet-briar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bloomy grapes laughing from green attire;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While at our feet, the voice of crystal bubbles",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Charms us at once away from all our troubles:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So that we feel uplifted from the world,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Walking upon the white clouds wreath’d and curl’d.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So felt he, who first told, how Psyche went",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the smooth wind to realms of wonderment;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What Psyche felt, and Love, when their full lips",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "First touch’d; what amorous and fondling nips",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They gave each other’s cheeks; with all their sighs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And how they kist each other’s tremulous eyes:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The silver lamp,⁠—the ravishment,⁠—the wonder,⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The darkness,⁠—loneliness,⁠—the fearful thunder;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their woes gone by, and both to heaven upflown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bow for gratitude before Jove’s throne.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So did he feel, who pull’d the boughs aside,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That we might look into a forest wide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To catch a glimpse of Fauns, and Dryades",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Coming with softest rustle through the trees;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And garlands woven of flowers wild, and sweet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upheld on ivory wrists, or sporting feet:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Telling us how fair, trembling Syrinx fled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Arcadian Pan, with such a fearful dread.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Poor Nymph,⁠—poor Pan,⁠—how he did weep to find",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nought but a lovely sighing of the wind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Along the reedy stream; a half-heard strain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Full of sweet desolation⁠—balmy pain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What first inspired a bard of old to sing",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Narcissus pining o’er the untainted spring?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In some delicious ramble, he had found",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A little space, with boughs all woven round;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in the midst of all, a clearer pool",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than e’er reflected in its pleasant cool,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The blue sky here, and there, serenely peeping",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through tendril wreaths fantastically creeping.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on the bank a lonely flower he spied,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A meek and forlorn flower, with naught of pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drooping its beauty o’er the watery clearness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To woo its own sad image into nearness:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deaf to light Zephyrus it would not move;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But still would seem to droop, to pine, to love.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So while the Poet stood in this sweet spot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some fainter gleamings o’er his fancy shot;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor was it long ere he had told the tale",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of young Narcissus, and sad Echo’s bale.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where had he been, from whose warm head out-flew",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That sweetest of all songs, that ever new,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That aye refreshing, pure deliciousness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Coming ever to bless",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wanderer by moonlight? to him bringing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shapes from the invisible world, unearthly singing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From out the middle air, from flowery nests,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And from the pillowy silkiness that rests",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Full in the speculation of the stars.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! surely he had burst our mortal bars;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into some wond’rous region he had gone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To search for thee, divine Endymion!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He was a Poet, sure a lover too,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who stood on Latmus’ top, what time there blew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Soft breezes from the myrtle vale below;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And brought in faintness solemn, sweet, and slow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A hymn from Dian’s temple; while upswelling,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The incense went to her own starry dwelling.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But though her face was clear as infant’s eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though she stood smiling o’er the sacrifice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Poet wept at her so piteous fate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wept that such beauty should be desolate:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So in fine wrath some golden sounds he won,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gave meek Cynthia her Endymion.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Queen of the wide air; thou most lovely queen",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all the brightness that mine eyes have seen!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As thou exceedest all things in thy shine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So every tale, does this sweet tale of thine.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O for three words of honey, that I might",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tell but one wonder of thy bridal night!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where distant ships do seem to show their keels,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Phœbus awhile delay’d his mighty wheels,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And turn’d to smile upon thy bashful eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere he his unseen pomp would solemnize.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The evening weather was so bright, and clear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That men of health were of unusual cheer;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stepping like Homer at the trumpet’s call,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or young Apollo on the pedestal:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lovely women were as fair and warm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As Venus looking sideways in alarm.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The breezes were ethereal, and pure,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And crept through half closed lattices to cure",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The languid sick; it cool’d their fever’d sleep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And soothed them into slumbers full and deep.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Soon they awoke clear-eyed: nor burnt with thirsting,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor with hot fingers, nor with temples bursting:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And springing up, they met the wond’ring sight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of their dear friends, nigh foolish with delight;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who feel their arms, and breasts, and kiss and stare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on their placid foreheads part the hair.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Young men and maidens at each other gaz’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With hands held back, and motionless, amaz’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see the brightness in each other’s eyes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so they stood, fill’d with a sweet surprise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until their tongues were loos’d in poesy.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Therefore no lover did of anguish die:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the soft numbers, in that moment spoken,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made silken ties, that never may be broken.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cynthia! I cannot tell the greater blisses",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That follow’d thine, and thy dear shepherd’s kisses:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was there a Poet born?⁠—But now no more,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My wand’ring spirit must no further soar.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}