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'I think I shall be among the English Poets after my death,' John Keats soberly prophesied in 1818 as he started writing the blankverse epic Hyperion. Today he endures as the archetypal Romantic genius who explored the limits of the imagination and celebrated the pleasures of the senses but suffered a tragic early death. Edmund Wilson counted him as 'one of the half dozen greatest English writers,' and T. S. Eliot has paid tribute to the Shakespearean quality of Keats's greatness. Indeed, his work has survived better than that of any of his contemporaries the devaluation of Romantic poetry that began early in this century. This Modern Library edition contains all of Keats's magnificent verse: 'Lamia,' 'Isabella,' and 'The Eve of St. Agnes'; his sonnets and odes; the allegorical romance Endymion; and the five-act poetic tragedy Otho the Great. Presented as well are the famous posthumous and fugitive poems, including the fragmentary 'The Eve of Saint Mark' and the great 'La Belle Dame sans Merci,' perhaps the most distinguished literary ballad in the language. 'No one else in English poetry, save Shakespeare, has in expression quite the fascinating felicity of Keats, his perception of loveliness,' said Matthew Arnold. 'In the faculty of naturalistic interpretation, in what we call natural magic, he ranks with Shakespeare.'… (more)
User reviews
Yet, even Endymion has its riches--the first line is "a thing of beauty is a joy forever." That certainly can be said of Keats' poetry. There are so many of the shorter lyric poetry and sonnets that are so absolutely gorgeous it would just be too long to list all I loved in a review, but I'll try to list my five favorites in order they're found in the book--even though I know the choices are rather predictable.
1) "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" - because it expresses so well the wonder of discovery to be found in reading with its "realms of gold."
2) "When I Have Fears" - because it's heartbreaking, especially knowing Keat's fate.
3) "La Belle Dame sans Merci" - because it's a creepy, haunting horror story.
4) "Ode on a Grecian Urn" - because well, it's brilliant. ("Beauty is truth, truth beauty.")
5) "To Autumn" - because the imagery is so lush. ("Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness")
Yet it's not just famous ones such as "Ode to a Grecian Urn" or "La Belle Dans Merci" but it's the ones such as say "Fancy" that don't often make it into anthologies that thus justify reading a book devoted to Keats alone. Ordinarily, given I didn't like a poem which takes up a quarter of the book's length, I'd mark the book down in the rating, but with Keats I can't bear to. Absolutely a first-rate poet, it's obscene that he died at twenty-five years old.