Sharing Eve’s Apple

John Keats (1795–1821) · 1883?

O blush not so! O blush not so!
Or I shall think you knowing;
And if you smile the blushing while,
Then maidenheads are going.

There’s a blush for won’t, and a blush for shan’t,
And a blush for having done it:
There’s a blush for thought and a blush for nought,
And a blush for just begun it.

O sigh not so! O sigh not so!
For it sounds of Eve’s sweet Pippin;
By these loosen’d lips you have tasted the pips
And fought in an amorous nipping.

Will you play once more at nice-cut-core,
For it only will last our youth out,
And we have the prime of the kissing time,
We have not one sweet tooth out.

There’s a sigh for yes, and a sigh for no,
And a sigh for I can’t bear it!
O what can be done, shall we stay or run?
O cut the sweet apple and share it!

Where this text comes from

First published in The Poetical Works and Other Writings of John Keats, edited by H. Buxton Forman (London, Reeves & Turner, 1883). This date is uncertain. The Cambridge Edition of 1899 records only that Forman printed these verses and assigned them to 1818, adding that he gives no authority beyond their having been handed about in manuscript; it does not date his printing in this headnote. The year 1883 is taken from the same edition’s headnote to On Death, which names Forman’s edition of 1883, so the year is an inference and is marked uncertain. [1]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-12.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/john-keats_poetry, poetry.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (2)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L20.

Cite this poem

John Keats (1795–1821). “Sharing Eve’s Apple.” First published in The Poetical Works and Other Writings of John Keats, edited by H. Buxton Forman (London, Reeves & Turner, 1883). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/john-keats/sharing-eves-apple/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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