melancholy

But when the melancholy fit shall fall

Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,

That fosters the droop-headed  flowers all,

And hides the green hill in an April shroud;

Ode on Melancholy, John Keats (1795 – 1821),

The Oxford Book of English Verse

If you love Keats, Shelley and Byron you surely must love graveyards. Because graveyards are wildly romantic. They are dark, full of secrets and full of love. Yes, love’s one of the main reasons that draw people to graveyards.  stony proof of love lost, love long gone and love never-ending.

 She dwells with Beauty – Beauty that must die;

And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips

Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,

Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips;

Ode on Melancholy, John Keats (1795 – 1821),

The Oxford Book of English Verse

Kilmonivaig – peaceful and immersed with melancholy, nestling just above Spean Bridge next to the main road. The church was built in Keats’s lifetime.

Veil’d melancholy has her sovran shrine,

Ode on Melancholy, John Keats (1795 – 1821),

The Oxford Book of English Verse

John Keats died in Rome on 23 February 1821. His tombstone doesn’t bear his name.