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O Blush Not So!

John Keats

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 want, 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 aye, and a sigh for nay,
      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!
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.

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