March 1819
John strolls alone along spring’s English streets.
He sees a kitten being tortured by
A boy, a butcher’s boy, and fights and beats
Him, thrashes him. Just over five feet high,
John intervenes when others might have left
The beef-slab bully to his fun. The man
Does not yet know his brother’s life has cleft
John’s own with death. Death has a scarlet plan.
Just weeks before, this tiny giant learned
That Fanny Brawne was moving in next door
In April. Dare he love her with his spurned
Career, bespattered by reviewers’ gore?
He walks alone along the streets and knows,
He thinks, of loves that life has doomed with woes.