This saucy little ditty was written by John Keats in January of 1818.

In Endymion, 1817, Keats criticizes himself for trying to write about love when he has no experience with women. Somewhere in between that and the writing of this poem, he received medical treatment for what appears to have been syphilis.

Well then. Looking at "Ode to a Nightingale," for instance, one might wonder why Keats was accused of loose morals in his poetry. On multiple occasions his publishers, Taylor and Hessey, requested he change certain passages to make them more appropriate for ladies.

Needless to say, this one wasn't published during his lifetime.

O blush not so! O blush not so!

O blush not so! O blush not so!
Or I shall think you knowing;
And if you smile, the blushing while,
Then maidenheads are going.

There's a blush for won't, and a blush for shan't,
And a blush for having done it;
There's a blush for thought, and a blush for nought,
And a blush for just begun it.

O sigh not so! O sigh not so!
For it sounds of Eve's sweet pippin;
By those loosen'd hips, you have tasted the pips,
And fought in an amorous nipping.

Will you play once more, at nice cut-core,
For it only will last our youth out;
And we have the prime of the kissing time,
We have not one sweet tooth out.

There's a sigh for yes, and a sigh for no,
And a sigh for I can't bear it!
O what can be done? Shall we stay or run?
O cut the sweet apple and share it!

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