To My Brother George

Many the wonders I this day have seen:
The sun, when first he kist away the tears
That fill’d the eyes of morn;⁠—the laurell’d peers
Who from the feathery gold of evening lean;⁠—
The ocean with its vastness, its blue green,
Its ships, its rocks, its caves, its hopes, its fears,⁠—
Its voice mysterious, which whoso hears
Must think on what will be, and what has been.
E’en now, dear George, while this for you I write,
Cynthia is from her silken curtains peeping
So scantly, that it seems her bridal night,
And she her half-discover’d revels keeping.
But what, without the social thought of thee,
Would be the wonders of the sky and sea?

Where this text comes from

First published in Poems (1817). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [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–#L14.

Cite this poem

John Keats (1795–1821). “To My Brother George.” First published in Poems (1817). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/john-keats/to-my-brother-george/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

More by John Keats