Written Upon the Top of Ben Nevis

Read me a lesson, Muse, and speak it loud
Upon the top of Nevis, blind in mist!
I look into the chasms, and a shroud
Vaporous doth hide them,⁠—just so much wist
Mankind do know of hell; I look o’erhead,
And there is sullen mist,⁠—even so much
Mankind can tell of heaven; mist is spread
Before the earth, beneath me,⁠—even such,
Even so vague is man’s sight of himself!
Here are the craggy stones beneath my feet,⁠—
Thus much I know that, a poor witless elf,
I tread on them,⁠—that all my eye doth meet
Is mist and crag, not only on this height,
But in the world of thought and mental might!

Where this text comes from

First published in Life, Letters, and Literary Remains, of John Keats (1848). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1] [2]

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). “Written Upon the Top of Ben Nevis.” First published in Life, Letters, and Literary Remains, of John Keats (1848). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/john-keats/written-upon-the-top-of-ben-nevis/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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