Why Did I Laugh Tonight?

On the Birthday of John Keats

For writers of verse in the English tradition, today is something of a high holy day—a day for solemn reverence, the birthday of John Keats. However, lest solemn turn to somber, which would be antithetical to the gentle spirit and easy humor of "a naughty boy" (as per his own description), it seems more fitting to "seek repose/ Upon an humbler theme" (as Cowper would have it) like to be found in one of his lesser-known masterpieces:


Why did I laugh to-night?  No voice will tell
No God, no Demon of severe response,
Deigns to reply from Heaven or from Hell
Then to my human heart I turn at once:
Heart!  Thou and I are here sad and alone;
I say, why did I laugh?  O mortal pain!
O Darkness!  Darkness! ever must I moan,
To question Heaven and Hell and Heart in vain.
Why did I laugh?  I know this being's lease,
My fancy to its utmost blisses spreads;
Yet would I on this very midnight cease,
And all the world's gaudy ensigns see in shreds;
Verse, Fame, and Beauty are intense indeed,
But Death intenser—Death is Life's high meed.


(For a contemporary poem taking laughter as its theme click here.)