Introduction

Keats was always strapped for cash.

Owed To A Nightingale

If we take a look back at the poets,
And the reasons they wrote all that verse
It's 'cos life sometimes gets so low it's
Got to get better not worse.

Keats as a bard was no rookie,
Yet was consumed by anguish and guilt
He owed lots of cash to a bookie
Was in it right up to the hilt.

So borrowed some cash from a friend
A young lady who happened his way.
Who said the money she would lend
But compound interest he'd have to repay

This young lady called Nightingale
I don't seem to recall her first name.
(And no relation to the one whom for Crimea set sail),
And went on to notice and fame.

But for now the money was lent,
And Keats soon paid from his purse.
Then for some time after he spent
Penning some appropriate verse.

This lady had lent him the money
Which helped him out of a fix.
So he wrote some verse which was funny,
Owed to a Nightingale - twelve pounds seven and six.

Copyright; Tom Gaunt
Email: tpgaunt@hotmail.com