Abandoned by All but Two: Joseph Severn & Immortality
The man who sailed to Italy with Keats
Was chosen just because he was the one
Available. Deaf circumstance defeats
Our friends. Concerns about the family stun
Some men who otherwise might offer us
Their hearts in luggage as we pass towards death.
Another set are trapped by business fuss
And money matters. Hearing our troubled breath
And seeing how consumed our spirits are,
Some have to stay behind, becalmed in straits
Of desperation. Fading like the spar
Unseen, these let us sail to distant gates.
The one who went, though, drew his head
In flawlessness laid out on that far bed.