Have you ever had a mad crush on someone? If so, you can relate to poet John Keats in this sonnet dedicated to the love of his life, Fannie.

Here are images of the players in this poetic drama:

Most famous portrait of Keats

                                          To Fanny
                               John Keats (1795-1821)

I cry your mercy–pity–love!–aye, love!
Merciful love that tantalizes not,
One-thoughted, never-wandering, guileless love,
Unmasked, and being seen–without a blot!

O! let me have thee whole,–all–all–be mine!
That shape, that fairness, that sweet minor zest
Of love, your kiss,–those hands, those eyes divine,
That warm, white, lucent, million-pleasured breast,–

Yourself–your soul–in pity give me all.
Withhold no atom’s atom or I die,
Or living on perhaps, your wretched thrall,
Forget, in the mist of idle misery,
Life’s purposes,–the palate of my mind
Losing its gist, and my ambition blind!

Fanny Brawne, Keats