Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St Agnes and Other Poems

John Keats

UPON a time, before the faery broods
Drove Nymph and Satyr from the prosperous woods,
Before King Oberon’s bright diadem ,
Sceptre, and mantle, clasp’d with dewy gem ,
Frighted away the Dryads and the Fauns
From rushes green, and brakes, and cowslip’d lawns,
The ever-smitten Hermes empty left
His golden throne, bent warm on amorous theft