Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Drama / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Literary Criticism / Poetry; Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Table of Contents
This version has a usable table of contents, which is very helpful! :) Gotta love Keats :) ... Read more

Product Description
Lamia is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by John Keats is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of John Keats then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent, but why not get a collection?
Though not one of John Keats' very best poems, Lamia is a major work and essential for anyone interested in him. It has his signature unparalleled beauty but is also unusually thoughtful, with intriguing musings on illusion vs. reality and the nature of love, beauty, and art. Keats' lament about empiricism destroying natural wonder has heavily influenced everyone from Edgar Allen Poe to Richard Dawkins, and Lamia remains central to the art/nature vs. science debate. The story is also interesting in itself; Keats brings a fantasy world vividly to life, draws us in emotionally, and even has a devastating ending. Finally, the poem is impressive technically, showing Keats' growing couplet mastery. One should certainly read his best-known works first, but this should be an early stop; that said, the fact that it is virtually every Keats collection makes a standalone very hard to justify. The important thing at any rate is to read it in some form. ... Read more

Product Description

'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.' ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Incredible
Pertaining to Keats himself, I could scarcely lavish enough praise upon his poetry. I must confess an extreme partiality to the High Romantics (Blake, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Coleridge, etc.), and, among them, Keats vies with Wordsworth for the best verse.

Many of his poems are quite famous--if you have studied only a little poetry, you likely have passing familiarity with his great odes (especially the sublime "To Autumn," "To a Nightingale," and the wonderful, deep "On a Grecian Urn") or with his strangely dark "La Belle Dame sans Merci." If you have studied poetry and none of these poems even rings a bell, well... you have been missing out! Take this brief snippet of a stanza from his "Ode on a Grecian Urn":

"...
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st
`Beauty is truth, truth beauty, --that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'"

The odes are not his only great poems, of course; I daresay almost every poem in this volume is invaluable. They are, however, his most famous lyrics, and for good reason!

Some, critic/poet T.S. Eliot, for example, detest the Romantics**. Eliotian criticism for the first half of last century dismissed them frequently, and tried to deny their lyrical power and the influence of Romanticism on all poetry thereafter. I will admit that among the Romantics, there are some who are often weak: Lord Byron, for example, ranges from marvelous to quite tawdry, and I can't say I'm an overly enthusiastic fan of Shelley. Keats, however, who lived only to be twenty-five, suffers none of the faults of his more fortunate contemporaries. He is deeper than any save Blake, and his only rival in lyrical beauty (an intentionally vague term...) I have yet read is Wordsworth.

Anyone who loves poems, who has a reverence for life and a wonder for its mysteries and sorrows, anyone who is enthralled with the power of a well-turned phrase or well-craft lyric; anyone of such a nature with fall in love with John Keats.

[**: I must note, upon reading the hidden appendix of criticism on Keats pointed out by the wonderful review above, that Eliot is not critical of Keats. Among the Romantics, he seems to regard Keats fairly highly; I know for a fact, however, that this is not the case with most other Romantic poets]

Excellent For College Study or Independent Reading
In his short life John Keats created some of the finest poetry in the English language.I have read his shorter poems and odes many times, not for study, but simply for enjoyment. I am not a Keats expert, but I can now easily recognize quotations from Keat's odes, sonnets, and other poems. I especially like "The Eve of St. Agnes", a story of romance and danger in a medieval setting that illustrates Keats' remarkable command of language.

Keats is not difficult, but footnotes help with archaic words and references to more obscure Greek mythology. I prefer to read Keats unaided, then read the footnotes (best if tucked away in an appendix), and then return and read the poem again. For longer poems I jump to footnotes more quickly.

Initially, the inexpensive Dover edition "Lyric Poems", was exactly what I needed.Later, as I tackled longer poetry like "Endymion", I migrated to more complete collections with commentary and footnotes.

Keats" works are widely available in hardcover and paperback. Which collection is best for college study or independent reading? I have two favorites, one by Penguin Classics and the other by Modern Library. Both are available in softcovers.

The first is "The Complete Poems" by Penguin Classics, edited by John Bernard and a standard choice for college classes. I have the second edition, 1977. Barnard's extensive footnotes and commentary are quite good and offset his somewhat brief introduction. Additionally, the appendix discusses textual variations in Keats' manuscripts and has a useful guide to Greek mythology names. The third edition, 1988, adds 20 pages of selected letters, Keats' notes on Milton's Paradise Lost, and his notes on a Shakespearean actor.

The second choice (my favorite) is the newly published "Complete Poems and Selected Letters of John Keats", Modern Library 2001 edition (not the earlier 1994 hardcover version).Apparently as a directchallenge to Penguin Classics, this edition offers a longer introduction (22 pages) by Edward Hirsch and excellent footnotes (not too many, nor too few) by John Pollock. Also, as the title implies, it has selected letters by Keats, some 25 pages in total. Somewhat hidden in the appendix is commentary by six well-known literary critics such as T. S. Eliot, Mathew Arnold, and Keats' biographer Walter Jackson Bate. Lastly, the font is larger and more crisp in the Modern Library version (but is still quite acceptable in the Penguin edition).

Overall, I prefer Hirsch to Barnard, but both are good choices. Both are 5-stars. ... Read more

Product Description
Endymion - A Poetic Romance is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by John Keats is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of John Keats then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Don't buy: verse prints out as prose
The verse prints as prose. This should never have been offered. Sometimes it will be verse for a line or two, which makes the whole thing worse. ... Read more

Product Description
The epic romance of one of the most celebrated poets in the English language

Coming to theatres in September 2009 is the tragic love story of nineteenth-century poet John Keats and the love of his life, Fanny Brawne. Keats died at the young age of twenty-five, leaving behind some of the most exquisite and moving verse and letters ever written, inspired by his deep love for Fanny. Bright Star is a collection of Keat's romantic poems and correspondence in the heat of his passion, and is a dazzling display of a talent cut cruelly short. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

One of the Bests
John Keats is one of the best poets I have ever had the honor to read.Having died at the age of 25, John Keats may have lived a short life but his poetry and letters show he knew much more about love and life than most of us today.This book, in particular, serves as a companion to the 2009 movie "Bright Star", staring Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw.As the movie focuses on the doomed romantic relationship between John Keats and Fanny Brawne, this book offers selected poetry and letters that John Keats wrote to Fanny.Unfortunately, none of Fanny Brawne's letters have survived.

Despite the fact that all the letters included in this book are all from John Keats, you still are given a glance into his heart.After reading this book I was in awe at how deep and personal his letters and poems were.A few tears were shed, both of sadness and happiness.Even though Fannny Brawne did finally marry six years after Keats death you can not believe anything but that these two were soul mates in the highest sense of the word.

Excellent companion volume to a wonderful film
Bright Star, the story of the doomed love story of Romantic poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, was my favorite film of 2009, and this slim volume is an excellent companion to it. The book contains an introduction by director Jane Campion, all of Keats' letter to his beloved Fanny, and the poems that were inspired by her. If you are new to Keats or want to learn more about the man behind the movie, this is a good place to start. If you're already familiar with Keats' work, this volume may not satisfy you, and I would recommend his Collected Poems.

This book is worth adding to your library for the beautifully written letters to Fanny. In his letters, Keats is passionate, sad, occasionally desperate, and very aware of his own mortality. Unfortunately, we don't have the other side of the story; Fanny's letters to Keats were destroyed (at his request). (Fanny did correspond in later years with Keats' sister, so we know something of her thoughts on the relationship.) But even on their own, Keats' letters are wonderful to read and add another dimension to the experience of the film.

Great buy!!!
This seller delivers what they promised!I would do business with them again in a heartbeat!

Swoon-worthy poetry of unrequited love
"Bright Star," showcases the love letters and poems written by John Keats to Fanny Brawne.

Although Keats died when he was just 25, he left behind some of the most amazing poetry ever written.He also left a tender collection of love letters, inspired by his great love for Fanny Brawne.They knew each other only a few short years and spent much of this time apart due to Keats' worsening illness.

Keats writes again and again about Fanny.In fact, the last poem of this book is called, "To Fanny," and he wrote love letters to her constantly.(Oh, swoon! And get this - she wore the ring he had given her until her death, almost 45 years after he passed away.)

The movie itself Bright Star is a treat to watch.Picture it: The setting is London, and the year is 1818.A secret love affair begins between 23 year-old English poet, John Keats (played by Ben Whishaw), and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), who is an out-spoken student of high fashion.This unlikely duo begins their friendship by butting heads.He thinks she's stylish, but too much of a flirt, while she is unimpressed with literature in general.

When Fanny hears that Keats is nursing his seriously ill younger brother, she offers to help.Keats is touched by her efforts and shares his poetry with her.The poetry soon becomes a romantic remedy that works not only to sort their differences, but also to fuel their love for one another.

Fanny's mother becomes alarmed by this friendship (typical, huh?), but by then their relationship has an unstoppable momentum.Intensely and helplessly absorbed in each other, the young lovers are swept up in the tide of their emotions.Keats wrote to Brawne, "I have the feeling as if we're dissolving." (ooh la la!)

When Keats fell ill a year later, the two young lovers were separated.Keats needed to travel abroad to warmer clients due to health reasons, and Brawne remained in their home country, without her love.In Keats' own poignant words, "forever panting and forever young."

"When I have fears that I may cease to be...." *
This slim 132 page book was published as a companion to the film "Bright Star" (2009) directed by Jane Campion, who also wrote the introduction. I did not see the movie, as it was shown in only a few theaters in this area for a brief period of time, and hardly any word of it was mentioned in the local newspapers. I understand that it will be out in DVD in January 2010.

Anyone who loves the poetry of the English Romantic Writers, e.g., Byron, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, et al, is already familiar with the poems of John Keats. It is interesting, though, that these poems and letters were the product of Keats's intense love for Fanny Brawne. Written in the last few years of his life, they are honest, open, touching, and full of life, love, and youthful optimism. They also hint of the tragedy yet to come.

A letter written on 27 February 1821 by Joseph Severn, the friend who accompanied Keats to Rome, recalls Keats's last moments:

"He is gone-he died with the most perfect ease-he seemed to go to sleep. On the 23rd, about 4, the approaches of death came on, 'Severn-I-lift me up-I am dying-I shall die easy-don't be frightened-be firm, and thank God it has come!' I lifted him up in my arms...he gradually sunk into death-so quiet-that I still thought he slept. I cannot say now-I am broken down from four nights' watching, and no sleep since, and my poor Keats gone."
(ENGLISH ROMANTIC WRITERS - David Perkins, Ed. p.1263)

How could I give anything less than 5 stars?

* The first line of "When I Have Fears" by John Keats (1818)

... Read more

Product Description

'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.' ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Romantic Poetry
I purchased this book at Amazon.com recently,mainly for two reasons one that my parents had a book of John Keats,and secondly because in it there was a favourite work of my late wife,the book is up to my expectations,the index at the back of first lines and titles is very handy it is also nicely presented and priced.

No active TOC for Kindle
Is it too much to ask that creators of Kindle content include an active table of contents?I wouldn't mind shelling out a few bucks for a book if it has an active TOC.Content developers:want more sales, create an active TOC.

No Linked Table of Contents
This is to warn everyone that this Kindle edition does not have a linked Table of Contents. No way to find a particular poem, etc.

the Complete Poems of John Keats
Not being an expert on all of the poetry of Keats, it appears this book does indeed contain his complete work of published poetry between 1813/14 (Immitation of Spencer) and 1820. The book itself (the hardback copy I purchased) is very well made and the printing on every bound page is clear and even. If you know only the first line of one of Keats' poems and can't recall the title, the publishers have included an additional alphabetical index of those lines. I am very happy with the quality of this book.

Beauty with a Capital B
Keats was the Romantic poet who cared most about art and beauty. He didn't allow himself to get mixed up in religion and politics like Shelley or Byron. But in quiet ways, he did comment on political, religious, aesthetic, and sexual beliefs, sometimes in ways that were less traditional than his poetic style. Above all, he was supremely conscious of beauty in the world, as well as the world's suffering.

David Rehak
author of "Poems From My Bleeding Heart" ... Read more

Product Description

Here is the first reliable edition of Keats's complete poems designed expressly for general readers and students.

Upon its publication in 1978, Stillinger's The Poems of John Keats won exceptionally high praise: "The definitive Keats," proclaimed The New Republic--"An authoritative edition embodying the readings the poet himself most probably intended, prepared by the leading scholar in Keats textual studies."

Now this scholarship is at last available in a graceful, clear format designed to introduce students and general readers to the "real" Keats. In place of the textual apparatus that was essential to scholars, Stillinger here provides helpful explanatory notes. These notes give dates of composition, identify quotations and allusions, gloss names and words not included in the ordinary desk dictionary, and refer the reader to the best critical interpretations of the poems. The new introduction provides central facts about Keats's life and career, describes the themes of his best work, and speculates on the causes of his greatness.

Customer Reviews (10)

The definitive edition
There are three great editions of John Keats's complete poetry: Jack Stillinger's, John Barnard's (Penguin) and the beautiful hardcover edition of Everyman's Library. However, as far as scholarly accuracy goes, Professor Stillinger's edition is the definitive one. Professor Stillinger is a Keats expert who devoted much of his scholarly life in the textual compilation of John Keats's poetry based on printed editions as well as the mass of manuscript material. We can enjoy the fruits of his labor here.

This volume contains all of Keats's poems arranged chronologically, so the reader can trace Keats's dramatic development as a poet in his short life. The introduction offers balanced insights into Keats's style as well as ideas. The notes at the end attest to Professor Stillinger's status as a a fine critic.

greatest poet in English
Keats not only rivals Shakespeare in the beauty of his verse and the enchanting pictures he conjures but he is a cut above Shakespeare in the value of his art. The two odes 'on a nightingale' and 'on a Grecian urn' surpasses any piece of English literature I have come across so far. In its conception and philosophy ,in its expression of the ephemeral and impermanent nature of human life,its exposition of the permanance of ideal art and in its realization of the principle of the identity of truth and beauty it takes poetic thought to a plane that has never been approached, before or hence in English literature.

The greatness of Keats
One of the most musical of the great poets, whose language has a richness next to Shakespeare's, a most romantic soul whose annus mirabilis 1819 brought forth the five great odes, the tremendous long lines still memorable, Beauty is truth/Truth is Beauty' That is all ye know on earthAnd all ye need to know/ the pain of beauty or the beauty in pain in the nightingale's song, the lyric of the Grecian urn, the dying at twenty-six ' his name writ in water', much had he travelled in realms of gold, the great letters of negative capability, the ostler's son in a surgeon's hospital , Fanny Brawne, the alien corn of Ruth, all the music which would one day be heard again in the lines of Wallace Stevens, the complexity of beauty dying , hearing more than one voice as the page echoes on, one of the poets' poets surely , upon a peak in Darien, like all the great masters he only gains in rereading.

"...exceptionally keen sensitivity... "
There are two editions of Keats's Complete Poems which I
admire very much. This one edited by Jack Stillinger
and published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University
(ISBN: 0674154312) and the Penguin Classics, 3rd
edition, edited by John Barnard (ISBN: 0140422102).
I very much like the fuller notes and 6 Appendices
and the blunt, full, but suggestive chronology in
the Penguin, along with the complete writing and
publishing information fully written out rather
than abbreviated into initials one might have to
look up.

The importance of Jack Stillinger to Keats studies is cited
by both John Barnard (Penguin classics edition of -The
Complete Poems-) and Elizabeth Cook (Oxford World's
Classics edition of -The Major Poems-, ISBN:
0192840630).John Barnard says in his "Introduction":
"Jack Stillinger's -The Poems of John Keats- (Cambridge,
Mass., 1978) and his -The Text of John Keats- (Cambridge,
Mass., 1974) now give the fullest available account of
Keats's text, and are based on a comparision of the
printed texts with the wealth of manuscript material,
now mainly in American libraries."
And this edition compiled and edited by Jack
Stillinger has it glories, too.The first of these
is the excellent "Introduction," which has meaningful
insights in it concerning Keats, but which can also
be related to one's own experiences in life, though
Stillinger does not himself so relate them. A few
of these I like very much are: "Obviously Keats had
an exceptionally keen sensitivity to the minute
particulars of objects, sounds (as well as various
shades of silence), and motions in the world around
him." *** "He nursed his brother Tom in a lengthy
illness that ended in death on December 1st of this
year [1818], and as an added complication he met and
fell in love with Fanny Brawne.More than anything
else, I think, it is this combined experience of
suffering, death, and love all at once, against a
background of serious conversation, reading, and
thinking, that accounts for Keats's sudden rise to
excellence in his poetry."
There is no way, of course, to share Keats's
poetry in a review of this sort.To read it,
experience it, think about it, and realize
the Beauty -- and also the Truth -- in it
is the reward.
-- Robert Kilgore.

Essential
No personal library can be complete without at least a sampling of Keats, and this is the book that everyone should get.All the poems -- even the fragments -- are here, with line numbers included.The several appendices and letter excerpts make the collection even more valuable.If you are trying to decide which Keats collection to get, you have found the best. ... Read more

Product Description
These are the words John Keats chose to epitomize his short, frustrating, and tragic life. They appear as his epitaph in Rome's Protestant cemetery. Often called the greatest English poet after Shakespeare, Keats had a lifelong preoccupation with early death. This sense of mortality, along with the poet's famous, unrequited love for Fanny Brawne, sparked dozens of finely written sonnets and lyrics of love.

This beautifully crafted collection contains some of the most heartfelt of Keats' personal poems. "La Belle Dame Sans Merci A Ballad" and "The Eve of St. Agnes" are paragons of the gothic lyric, wherein mysterious lovers, dream visions, and late-night fantasy come magically to life. Lighter verse, such as "Where be ye going, you Devon maid?" and such passionate, pensive poems as "When I have fears that I may cease to be" provide a personal glimpse of the young poet's dreams and dreads.

This selection of twenty-six poems also presents an introduction to the life of John Keats, notes on the indivdual poems, and ten illustrations, half of which are of biographical interest and half underscore thematic elements contained in the poems.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

High quality Product for the price
I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the poem book and the speed with which it arrived.Good reading ... Read more

Product Description
This Norton Critical Edition seeks to returnKeats—one of the most beloved poets of theEnglish language—to his cultural moment bytracking his emergence as a public poet.Forthis reason, this volume presents the writingsin the order of publication rather thancomposition. Readers can trace the poems through letters, reviews, and related materialchronologically interleaved with the textsthemselves. This edition offers extensiveapparatus to help readers fully appreciateKeats’s poetry and legacy, including anintroduction, headnotes, explanatoryannotations, and a wealth of contextualdocuments.“Criticism” includes twelveimportant commentaries on Keats and his poetry,by Paul de Man, Marjorie Levinson, Grant F.Scott, Margaret Homans, Nicholas Roe, StuartSperry, Neil Fraistat, Jack Stillinger, JamesChandler, Alan Bewell, and Jeffrey N. Cox. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent Anthology
Even if you have a complete edition of Keats's poetry (and Stillinger's is the best edition out there), I would recommend this anthology.Arranging the poems in the order they reached publication or in the order of the volume each poem was originally published in (with advertisements and all), this anthology grants the Keats reader a differing and important angle to read his poetry.The criticism in the back is top-notch, including the a chapter from Neil Fraisat's THE POEM AND THE BOOK which argues for the artful arrangement of Keats's 1820 volume, a piece Cox included to justify the placement of the poetry.

Because Keats, in letters and poetry, responded to the contemporary criticism, Cox places all contemporaneous reviews in the order they were published, along with interspersing letters to and from Keats chronologically.

An excellent anthology.

A superb Keats anthology
The very name of John Keats is a metaphor for genius tragically interrupted. When one considers that Mozart lived a full decade longer than the precocious young poet, the realization of what was lost with Keats's death at the absurdly young age of 25 has a truly visceral impact. This Norton Critical Edition of his poetry and prose is arranged with the poems in order as they entered into print and the unpublished poems arranged by date of composition. Letters and assorted prose are also interleaved chronologically. The reader can closely observe Keats's growth as a poet, almost before one's eyes and in accelerated real-time. A feeling of intimacy with Keats soon develops in the reader as the teenaged poet blossoms with stunning rapidity. We experience the expansion and deepening of his world view and witness Keats's lightning maturation in 1819 as the tragic sense of life informs his artistry, resulting in an incandescent burst of creativity. The result of this artistic growth was the publication the following year of the greatest volume of poetry of the 19th Century: Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems. In it were the great spring odes of 1819, including the iconic Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn and To Autumn.

Keats has by his early maturity reached a level of writing that is visceral in its immediacy, and that contains a warmth and ripeness of imagery that is unique in English literature. His poetry is richly verdant and heavily laden with the verbal equivalence of succulent and aromatic fruit, a fecund harvest of living beauty. It is one of the pleasures of the Norton Critical Edition that we have a sense of both the development of this poetic greatness as well as its possible future direction had the poet not succumbed at such an early age. A three-dimensional and living man lives within these pages, his thoughts and desires, his dreams and his hopes. Once the poet takes shape before your eyes you will never read his poetry in the same way again. This is a masterful anthology, beautifully prepared. Strongly recommended.

Mike Birman ... Read more

Product Description

The letters of John Keats are, T. S. Eliot remarked, "what letters ought to be; the fine things come in unexpectedly, neither introduced nor shown out, but between trifle and trifle." This new edition, which features four rediscovered letters, three of which are being published here for the first time, affords readers the pleasure of the poet's "trifles" as well as the surprise of his most famous ideas emerging unpredictably.

Unlike other editions, this selection includes letters to Keats and among his friends, lending greater perspective to an epistolary portrait of the poet. It also offers a revealing look at his "posthumous existence," the period of Keats's illness in Italy, painstakingly recorded in a series of moving letters by Keats's deathbed companion, Joseph Severn. Other letters by Dr. James Clark, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Richard Woodhouse--omitted from other selections of Keats's letters--offer valuable additional testimony concerning Keats the man.

Edited for greater readability, with annotations reduced and punctuation and spelling judiciously modernized, this selection recreates the spontaneity with which these letters were originally written.

Customer Reviews (1)

Heartrending brilliance
Lionel Trilling in his introduction to this volume makes the claim that the Letters are not simply the most outstanding of any poet that we have, but are such a great work that they rival Keats' poetry in claim for distinction. Trilling in the introduction focuses on understanding Keats relation to suffering and beauty. He takes the concept 'geniality' and shows how it is especially applies to the life- enhancing work and attitude of Keats. The Keats who spoke of life as a 'vale of soul- making' was as Trilling shows a tremendously vibrant, energetic and positive soul. In terms which he might be criticized for today Trilling speaks of the 'masculine quality' of Keats.
The letters have an incredible richness of percepted reality. Trilling points that for Keats all the senses came into play in writing about the world. This is felt in the letters' also. Also Keats great human quality in relation to others.
I was most moved by Keats parting words to Joseph Severn who so faithfully cared for him in the last months of his life.
Trilling quotes the exchange in the introduction as follows:

"As he lay on his deathbed he asked Severn. "Did you ever see anyone die?" Severn never had. "Well then, I pity you, poor Severn. What trouble and danger you have got into for me. Now you must be firm for it will not last long. I shall soon be laid in the quiet grave. Thank God, for the quiet grave... And at the end. "Severn , lift me up, for I am dying. I shall die easy. Don't be frightened !Thank God, it has come."

The letters show Keats not only as great poetic soul but as true human being.
They belong in the same library as the letters of Van Gogh, and Kafka. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A compelling and moving account
Ward shapes the life of Keats into a narrative as lively and tangible as the best novel. Her obvious sympathy for the poet, in the trials of poetic invention and during the long decline in health that preceded his premature death, is never overpowering, nor does it cloud a balanced presentation of the details of his life. By far the best literary biography I've read.

John Keats:The Making of a Poet
This is an excellent, fluidly written book which explores the life and writing of John Keats.Aileen Ward writes from a psychological perspectiveand seems to enter deeply into the inner workings of the poet. Shedescribes his development with sensitivity and elegance.Her writing isseamless, and although she explores Keats's life thoroughly, the text neverseems weighed down by detail. Ward's account may seem in certainsections to idealize Keats as 'the poet' and set him above the 'commonman.'She can also seem subtly manipulative in her treatment of his lifeand the psychological journey that she believes him to have undertaken.Attimes, the reader wonders how she could write so authoritatively on Keats'sinner life. However, despite these issues, Ward's biography is extremelyvaluable for anyone who wishes to better know Keats and his life.It is aperfect book for the beginning Keats scholar-- a deeply-felt biographywhich seems true to its subject in style as well as form. ... Read more

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Over the course of his short life, John Keats (1795-1821) honed a raw talent into a brilliant poetic maturity. By the end of his brief career, he had written poems of such beauty, imagination and generosity of spirit, that he had - unwittingly - fulfilled his wish that he should 'be among the English poets after my death'. This wide-ranging selection of Keats' poetry contains youthful verse, such as his earliest known poem "Imitation of Spenser"; poems from his celebrated collection of 1820 - including "Lamia", "Isabella", "The Eve of St Agnes", "Ode to a Nightingale" and "Hyperion" - and later celebrated works such as "La Belle Dame sans Merci". Also included are many poems considered by Keats to be lesser work, but which illustrate his more earthy, playful side and superb ear for everyday language. ... Read more

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The greatness of Keats
After Shakespeare there is no more musical poet in the English language than Keats. His long - reflecting lines have a depth of sensual beauty, incredible in imagery and reflection. The 'Truth is Beauty, and Beauty is Truth" conclusion of the great "Ode on a Grecian Urn" could serve as motto for his verse. In thegreat Odes, the Nightingale Ode, Ode to Autumn, Ode on a Grecian Urn he seems to strain poetic feeling into anew dimension of pained longing. " Perhapsthe self- same song that found a path, Through thesad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home, She stood in tears amid the alien corn;The same that oft-times hath Charmed magic casements, opening on the form , Of perilous seas in faery lands forlorn" can move us magically to a sense of the vision or waking dream, the music that brings us beyond ourselves and sleep into the most sublime realm of poetry.
He did die young but not before his pen had gleemed his teeming brain " in great lines living still today. ... Read more

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John Keats survives today as the archetypal Romantic genius who died tragically early. The rapid development of Keats's poetic skills is powerfully displayed in this selection, which includes his first major poem, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer," as well as "Endymion," "The Eve of St. Agnes," "La Belle Dame sans Merci," and "The Fall of Hyperion." Throughout, Keats's preoccupying themes of love, art, sorrow, the natural world, and the nature of the imagination magnificently emerge. In his superb Introduction, John Barnard discusses the focus of the anthology, which emphasizes Keats's place as a "second-generation Romantic." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The truth of his life is the incredible Beauty of his poetry
Keats is one of the great poets of the English language. There are of course many collections of his work, and I see no special reason to choose this one before all others. Most readers in any case will concentrate on the very great poems, the Odes above all. To know Keats fully it is also necessary to know the Letters as he was one of the great letter writers the English language has known.
Keats is one of the richest and most linguistically brilliant of all the great poets. The Truth of his life is the incredible Beauty of his Poetry.

An Excellent Collection - See Alternatives Also
There are many good collections of the poetry of John Keats. This selection by John Barnard is quite good and has long served as a text for college classes.

Barnard writes that the poetry of John Keats is uniformly serious and always poetic. Keats' prime concern was art and beauty. The casual reader may not even notice certain passages that resulted in severe political criticism by the Tory press and other supporters of Charles II.

The real popularity of this particular collection is the poetry of Keats himself. Barnard has assembled an excellent collection, one that is fully representative of Keats' remarkable genius. He largely avoided the longer poems of John Keats with the exception of Endymion in which he offers Book 1 in its entirety, but only extracts from Books 2, 3, and 4. Nonetheless, this abridged version of Endymion still exceeds 2000 lines.

Looking for alternative collections?John Barnard has also compiled John Keats, The Complete Poems. It was also published by Penguin Classics. It is about 750 pages, more than three times as long as Selected Poems. For example, the full Endymion is some 50 pages longer than the abridged version in Selected Poems. Barnard's explanatory notes in this collection are quite extensive, totaling nearly 200 pages in reduced print size. There is also a wide ranging appendix exceeding 50 pages, including selected letters of John Keats.

Another good choice is published by Modern Library. Complete Poems and Selected Letters of John Keats is actually a very good choice and is indeed my favorite. The introduction by John Hirsch is more than 25 pages and is quite helpful. I particularly like the explanatory notes by Jim Pollock. They are less extensive than those in Barnard's The Complete Poems, but I found them most useful.

Very Well written and Literely Breath taking.
I loved this book. It is truly a classic. Keats is long before my time, however his work that he left behind is still here and leaves a big mark on the world of poets. Wanting to be a journalist myself, and having a hungerfor literature, Keats' book was quite inspiring. I recommend it for anypoet. One of my favorites is, of course, "When I have fears that I mayCease To Be." ... Read more

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EDITORS NOTE THE period of Keatss poetical production was so brief, and he leaped so quickly into the possession of his poetical powers, that almost any arrangement of his works, which was orderly, would serve. Yet since Keats has left in all but a very few cases indication of the date of composition, and since even delicate intimations of poetic growth in the case of so rare a genius are worth attention, I have endeavored to make the arrangement as nearly chronological as the evidence, chiefly obtainable from Keatss letters, will permit. The herd-notes disclose all instances where I have had to fall back on conjecture. The adoption of this order has compelled me to disregard the grouping of the volumes published by Keats and the posthumous publication by editors, but for the information of students a biblical graphical note, setting forth the historical order of publication, is given in the Appendix. The text of the poems published in Keatss three volumes has been carefully collated with copies of the first editions.... ... Read more

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In November 1820, John Keats set foot in Rome for what he hoped would be a swift convalescence. Exactly 100 days later, he succumbed to consumption, dead at the age of 25. This elegiac and fascinating book brings to light the last days of his life, his tragically unrealized future ambitions, and the view he saw from his room overlooking the Spanish Steps. Keats' love affair with young Fanny Brawne has long fascinated biographers, but John Evangelist Walsh shows for the first time how complex their relationship was, and how the events at the end of Keats' life illuminate the whole of their affair. He also discusses Keats' views on religion and the exact nature and progress of the illness that killed him. This book is a must-read for those interested in Keats and will delight anyone who follows Walsh on his exploration into the life and death of a supremely gifted and tragic poet. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Well researched but the author's personal opinions distract
The author deeply explores the relationship that had developed with Keats and Severn during their stay in Rome leading up to the Poet's death and indeed does give Severn his just due for having so devoted himself to care for his friend. I was impressed that there was so much detail to this brief, but very important period of Keat's life but to take someone who was a well known Atheist and to even begin to hint that his beliefs were shifting at the end of his life is, what I believe to be the author's own desire to project his beliefs on a man to whom I am sure he admires greatly. Perhaps there is cause to believe that a man suffering to such a degree as Keat's was, given the limited medical care he was receiving, could have attempted to grasp at anything that might relieve his pain but Keats was suffering both physically and mentally and you can not give too much weight to such small details and Severn's own account of this time since Severn himself was a Christian and probably felt a need to provide the same comfort to his friend as he himself was relying on.

Keats Alive!
Like a detective meticuously documenting his re-creation of John Keats' final year and tempestuous relationship with Fanny Brawne, Mr. Walsh brings the great poet alive at the time he is enduring his deepest pain.More fully understood now are the day-to-day events and private trials which plagued the poet's legendary Living Year.Walsh brings to life: Joseph Severn's departure to accompany the man who would most greatly impact his later life; everyday occurrences during the voyage and quarantine; vividly rendered images of John Keats' behavior, character and mannerisms; intimate details regarding life (and death) in Rome; and, "load(ed) with ore (as if) every rift," brilliantly precise historical details far too numerous to mention.My Masters Degree specialization was in John Keats and my first novel is dedicated to him.Mr. Walsh's masterpiece in literary biography is enlightening, tender, and--by focusing on John Keats' death--accomplishes much of the opposite:It brings him to life.I have loaned my copy to a fellow Keatsian in academe and cannot wait to read Mr. Walsh's book on Edgar A. Poe's mysterious end.Finally, just for the record, I teach both Keats and Poe at the university level."Five stars!"

Not just a biography
It is so amazing that in a career lasting only four years, John Keats established himself as English poet who best embodied the sense and ideas of Romantic poetry.That his short life was cut off at such a young age was a tragedy in the sense of all the unwritten works that could have flowed from his pen, but even so, he achieved his life ambition of being "one of the English poets".
Darkling I Listen is an incredibly moving account of the last days of this most tragic (and most romantic) of poets.From his passionate letters to Fanny Brawne to his last moments under the care of his truest friend Joseph Severn, this story will wring your heart.

Exquisite
This book really is a little jewel -beautifully researched and written and incredibly moving. Keats is vividly portrayed, and , as the previous reviewer noted, Joseph Severn is given his due as the best person Keats could have had with him in his dying days. Severn was a devout Christian, according to Walsh, and his life after Keats' death exemplified the Christian belief that if you give selflessly, you will receive... Just have a box of tissues handy while reading this book...

Life, sex, and death:the drama of Keats' last days
Love may not kill, but it can certainly give you a smart shove down that road.Walsh's vivid, neatly researched book gives us a new look at the one whose name was writ on water and his curious agonies over the girl he wouldhave married.Keats, impassioned, gifted, doomed, is even so not gildedhere; from the surviving materials he is revealed as intense, a bitobsessive, and never more so than concerning Fanny Brawne.This is one ofthe most famed loves in history, freshly examined with the fairest look todate at Fanny's equally complicated character. Whether they take place inBritish rooms or Roman, the dramas within are drawn with lively andpoignant detail.Special care is taken, too, to give Joseph Severn thefull credit due for his constant vigil at Keats' long dying.To me,Severn's character was by far the most appealing, and Walsh's story left mecertain that a steady, loving heart is genius of its own kind. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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Table of Contents
This version has a usable table of contents, which is very helpful! :) Gotta love Keats :) ... Read more

Product Description
Over the course of his short life, John Keats (1795-1821) honed a raw talent into a brilliant poetic maturity. By the end of his brief career, he had written poems of such beauty, imagination and generosity of spirit, that he had - unwittingly - fulfilled his wish that he should 'be among the English poets after my death'. This new, wide-ranging selection of Keats' poetry has been selected by Claire Tomalin, the author of Keats' biography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Not For Kindle, Table of Contents does not work
Unless you want to read one page at a time from beginning to end and not go to any specific poem, this book is ok. Otherwise don't buy!!

avoid this on Kindle
dont buy this if you want to read all of keats (with a ToC that actually works).a rip off

The Definitive Edition
There is simply no better edition of Keats in existence. However, if you are coming to Keats for the first time you'll be better off with an edition containing substantive annotations; Stillinger's notes are virtually all on textual matters (the Oxford Authors edition edited by Elizabeth Cook is a fine choice). The text established by Stillinger is unlikely to be surpassed for years to come. If you want an edition of Keats's complete poetic output in a reliable scholarly text, then this is the edition for you. For the Keats aficionado, this book is a godsend. ... Read more

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Long overshadowed by Jane Eyre, Villette is widely admired as one of Charlotte Brontës finest works. This story of a young teacher at a girls school in the city of Villette is a particular challenge for the young reader for it requires maturity of vision, a fine narrative senseand a command of French! Mandy Weston, a newcomer to Naxos AudioBooks, tells the story magnificently. ... Read more

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Keats's letters have long been regarded as an extraordinary record of poetic development. According to T. S. Eliot, Keats's letters are "the most notable and most important ever written by any English poet."They represent one of the most sustained reflections on the poet's art we have from any of the major English poets. Yet quite apart from the light they throw on the poetry, they are great works of literature in their own right. Written with gusto and occasionally painful candor, they show a powerful intelligence struggling to come to terms with its own mortality.Sometimes bitterly jealous in love and socially and financially insecure, at others playful and confident of his own greatness, Keats interweaves his personal plight with the history of a Britain emerging from the long years of the Napoleonic Wars into a world of political unrest, profound social change, and commercial expansion. ... Read more