ABSTRACT
In a letter to John Hamilton Reynolds, Keats remarks that 'an inward innocence is like a nested dove. Most critics choose to dismiss this little poem as merely a playful lyric; however, the humorous tone of 'O blush not' along with its subject matter encapsulate Keats's attitude towards and criticism of Regency society and the double standard that defined gender relations. Keats presents modesty as a repressive act that simply masks female sexuality in order to portray women as more desirable to men. Conservative sentiments and the insistence on women's piety, in women's anti-revolutionary work, were a direct counterattack to the sexual politics voiced by liberal intellectuals such as Wollstonecraft. According to Cox, through his friendship, Keats aligned himself with Hunt and his circle as a poet of 'radical eroticism' and offered his 'pretty pieces of paganism in an attempt to put a Mite of help to the Liberal side'.
