November 1818 - December 1819
MS Keats 1.57. Gift of Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., 1969. |
John Keats. Autograph letter to Fanny Brawne, July 25, 1819.
Keats wrote this letter to Brawne from the Isle of Wight. This is the earliest letter from Keats to Brawne in the Harvard Keats Collection.
Forgive me if I wander a little this evening, for I have been all day employ'd in a very abstract Poem and I am in deep love with you two things which must excuse me. I have, believe me, not been an age in letting you take possession of me; the very first week I knew you I wrote myself your vassal; but burnt the Letter as the very next time I saw you I thought you manifested some dislike to me. If you should ever feel for Man at the first sight what I did for you, I am lost. Yet I should not quarrel with you, but hate myself if such a thing were to happen—only I should burst if the thing were not as fine as a Man as you are as a Woman.
MS Keats 1.57. Gift of Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., 1969.