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The Complete Poems of Keats and Shelley
With explanatory notes of Shelley's poems by Mrs. Shelley.
1312 pages, Hardcover
About the author
John Keats
1,462 books2,569 followersRich melodic works in classical imagery of English poet John Keats include "
The Eve of Saint Agnes
," "
Ode on a Grecian Urn
," and "
To Autumn
," all in 1819.
Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley include "Adonais," an elegy of 1821 to John Keats.
Work of the principal of the Romantic movement of England received constant critical attacks from the periodicals of the day during his short life. He nevertheless posthumously immensely influenced poets, such as Alfred Tennyson. Elaborate word choice and sensual imagery characterize poetry, including a series of odes, masterpieces of Keats among the most popular poems in English literature. Most celebrated letters of Keats expound on his aesthetic theory of "negative capability."
Wikipedia page of the author
Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley include "Adonais," an elegy of 1821 to John Keats.
Work of the principal of the Romantic movement of England received constant critical attacks from the periodicals of the day during his short life. He nevertheless posthumously immensely influenced poets, such as Alfred Tennyson. Elaborate word choice and sensual imagery characterize poetry, including a series of odes, masterpieces of Keats among the most popular poems in English literature. Most celebrated letters of Keats expound on his aesthetic theory of "negative capability."
Wikipedia page of the author
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 10, 2016
This is a heavy one, not just due to its physical weight, of course, but to its content. To read Keats, and especially to read Shelley, is to have lots of free time and to be able to muster, during that time, at will, immense funds of focus and concentration - these are not an easy read. Perhaps people were more used to reading poetry this dense and abstract two hundred years ago, but today, it requires a certain rare mood and a certain high level of dedication. Who has that time? To enter a 10 or 15-page poem, where reading each line will require a very slow and sustained critical eye, is a significant commitment - do I have the time? Have I slept enough? Am I in the mood? Can I follow it?
And here's the thing - for the best of both Keats and Shelley, entering into such a mode, with tea close at hand and book on lap, is immensely satisfying. When you click into it, and you take your time, sometimes reading each line two, three times, and it starts to work, and then it starts to grow on you and expand and eventually even excite you, when that happens, and it will, the stuff is truly great. You feel uplifted and enlightened. It pulls you along into an alien world of fantasy and image and breathtaking metaphysics.....
...and then you lose focus, for just a second, and the moment's gone. That mood is fragile. It must be cared for and maintained. All cell phones must be turned off. You must have uninterrupted time, as long as you need. You must decide - today, I will read Shelley's Adonais! It's an event, a project, an accomplishment. Or, at least, it feels that way.
So, the best stuff in this massive tome is amazing. And worth it. There are Keats' Odes, his Hyperion, his Eve of St. Agnes, and there's Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, his The Witch of Atlas, and some of his shorter lyric works, such as To a Skylark and Ode to the West Wind. These are among the best poems in the English language. What these guys do with words is uncanny. Don't take it for granted - their minds were completely unlike any mind I can understand, and when they are able to communicate that unique beauty and craziness of theirs, it transcends. Wow, you say. This is really good shit.
But it's not easy, and you need to meet the poems half-way, more than half-way. And, there's also a lot of quite forgettable crap in here, too (which is inevitable in any "the complete works of" edition). It's a great, imposing, difficult book, and if you want to pick through it for the best stuff, and take it piece-meal, slowly, over many weeks, or months, or years, well, forgive yourself, because that may be the best you can hope for. But it's something, and as I said, those best poems truly are unforgettable, and worth every effort.
And here's the thing - for the best of both Keats and Shelley, entering into such a mode, with tea close at hand and book on lap, is immensely satisfying. When you click into it, and you take your time, sometimes reading each line two, three times, and it starts to work, and then it starts to grow on you and expand and eventually even excite you, when that happens, and it will, the stuff is truly great. You feel uplifted and enlightened. It pulls you along into an alien world of fantasy and image and breathtaking metaphysics.....
...and then you lose focus, for just a second, and the moment's gone. That mood is fragile. It must be cared for and maintained. All cell phones must be turned off. You must have uninterrupted time, as long as you need. You must decide - today, I will read Shelley's Adonais! It's an event, a project, an accomplishment. Or, at least, it feels that way.
So, the best stuff in this massive tome is amazing. And worth it. There are Keats' Odes, his Hyperion, his Eve of St. Agnes, and there's Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, his The Witch of Atlas, and some of his shorter lyric works, such as To a Skylark and Ode to the West Wind. These are among the best poems in the English language. What these guys do with words is uncanny. Don't take it for granted - their minds were completely unlike any mind I can understand, and when they are able to communicate that unique beauty and craziness of theirs, it transcends. Wow, you say. This is really good shit.
But it's not easy, and you need to meet the poems half-way, more than half-way. And, there's also a lot of quite forgettable crap in here, too (which is inevitable in any "the complete works of" edition). It's a great, imposing, difficult book, and if you want to pick through it for the best stuff, and take it piece-meal, slowly, over many weeks, or months, or years, well, forgive yourself, because that may be the best you can hope for. But it's something, and as I said, those best poems truly are unforgettable, and worth every effort.
May 29, 2011
"The highest moral purpose aimed at in the highest species of the drama, is the teaching the human heart, through its sympathies and antipathies, the knowledge of itself." Shelley
John Keats and Percy Shelley had a lot in common. Not only were they friends and ran in the same social circles, but both suffered from consumption and died in their twenties (although Shelley, an avid sailer, ended up dying in a boating accident rather than from his illness). Both wrote extensively about nature and Greek mythology in their poems, both tried their hands at play-writing, and both were obsessed with death, perhaps due to their life long illnesses. They also both used the word "pinion" an inordinate amount. Reading their complete works side by side, it's hard not to compare them to each other. While they are very similar in many ways, they are also very different.
The main topics Keats dealt with were poetry, nature, Greek myth, and love. While Ode to a Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn are undoubtedly masterpieces, most of his writing is rather frivolous. I couldn't help noticing some of the tricks he used to make his poems fit the meter. For example, if he needs two syllables in a line, he'll use "sighed", but if he only has room for one, the word becomes "sigh'd". Escape becomes 'scape, began becomes 'gan, among becomes 'mong, behaviour is changed into 'haviour, etc.
He'll also omit a letter in order to make words rhyme. Over doesn't rhyme with soar, but o'er does. He'll also occasionally rhyme a word with itself "They trembled to each other. - Helicon!/O fountian'd hill! Old Homer's Helicon!" (Endymion Book II:716-717) or repeat a word several times for the sake of meter "How he does love me! His poor temples beat/To the very tune of love - how sweet, sweet, sweet." (Endymion Book II:764-765)
He was definitely a breast man: "O sweetest essence! sweetest of all minions!/God of warm pulses, and dishevell'd hair,/And panting bosoms bare!" (Endymion Book III:983-985) Also, "Ah! I see the silver sheen/Of thy broider'd, floating vest/Cov'ring half thine ivory breast;/Which, O heavens! I should see,/But that cruel destiny/Has placed a golden cuirass there;/Keeping secret what is fair." (To Georgia Augusta Wylie 44-50) No doubt his most awkward reference to breasts is "Those dainties made to still an infant's cries" (Isabella; or The Pot of Basil: A Story from Boccaccio XLVII:6)
His epic 4,000 line poem Endymion is mostly filler and would have been much improved if it were a tenth as long. Due to its poor reception among critics, Keats was too discouraged to finish his follow up poem Hyperion, which is too bad, because Hyperion is actually quite good. Overall, his poems start getting much better in 1820. Other than his famous Odes, my favorite poem by him is Lamia.
Can man be free if woman be a slave?
Chain one who lives, and breathes this boundless air
To the corruption of a closéd grave!
Can they whose mates are beasts, condemned to bear
Scorn, heavier far than toil or anguish, dare
To trample their oppressors? in their home
Among their babes, thou knowest a curse would wear
The shape of woman -- hoary Crime would come
Behind, and Fraud rebuild religion's tottering dome.
-The Revolt of Islam Canto II, XLIII, 1045-1053
Shelley also wrote about poetry, nature, Greek myth, and love, however unlike Keats he also had an abiding interest in metaphysics and politics making his poetry much more abstract and philosophical. Shelley was opposed to slavery, kings, and organized religion and was a strong proponent of women's rights. He doesn't always rhyme, although I noticed he employed alliteration from time to time. I found the endless descriptions of scenery dull, but it's understandable one would want to preserve a mental picture of a beautiful scene in the era before cameras.
Shelley's epic 5,000 line poem The Revolt of Islam, which features a 126 line dedication to his wife, could have been much shorter, but the questions it deals with concerning the oppression of the lower class, the tyranny of religion, the horrors of slavery, and the inequality of the sexes, makes it much more substantive than Keats' frivolous descriptions of nature and Greek goddesses. Here, he expresses the futility of revenge:
Oh wherefore should ill ever flow from ill,
And pain still keener pain for ever breed?
We all are brethren -- even the slaves who kill
For hire, are men; and to avenge misdeed
On the misdoer, doth but Misery feed
With her own broken heart! O Earth, O Heaven!
And thou, dread Nature, which to every deed
And all that lives or is, to be hath given,
Even as to thee have these done ill, and are forgiven!
- The Revolt of Islam Canto V, XI, 1810-1818
Shelley's Tragedy, The Cenci, is truly a masterpiece. Although it was based on a true story, it was controversial when it was written as it deals with rape and incest. I wish Shelley focused more on plays than poetry as his political and philosophical ideas would be better expressed through drama. His best poems are Julian and Maddalo, Ozymadias, and Adonais which was written upon the occasion of Keats' death.
Shelley also had a proficiency with languages and translated the works of Homer, Goethe, and Dante amongst others. Also included in this collection are remarks from Mary Shelley which put her husband's poems into context and explain his motivation for writing them.
I found the writings of both Keats and Shelley boring for the most part, however, there were enough great lines to justify continued reading.
John Keats and Percy Shelley had a lot in common. Not only were they friends and ran in the same social circles, but both suffered from consumption and died in their twenties (although Shelley, an avid sailer, ended up dying in a boating accident rather than from his illness). Both wrote extensively about nature and Greek mythology in their poems, both tried their hands at play-writing, and both were obsessed with death, perhaps due to their life long illnesses. They also both used the word "pinion" an inordinate amount. Reading their complete works side by side, it's hard not to compare them to each other. While they are very similar in many ways, they are also very different.
The main topics Keats dealt with were poetry, nature, Greek myth, and love. While Ode to a Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn are undoubtedly masterpieces, most of his writing is rather frivolous. I couldn't help noticing some of the tricks he used to make his poems fit the meter. For example, if he needs two syllables in a line, he'll use "sighed", but if he only has room for one, the word becomes "sigh'd". Escape becomes 'scape, began becomes 'gan, among becomes 'mong, behaviour is changed into 'haviour, etc.
He'll also omit a letter in order to make words rhyme. Over doesn't rhyme with soar, but o'er does. He'll also occasionally rhyme a word with itself "They trembled to each other. - Helicon!/O fountian'd hill! Old Homer's Helicon!" (Endymion Book II:716-717) or repeat a word several times for the sake of meter "How he does love me! His poor temples beat/To the very tune of love - how sweet, sweet, sweet." (Endymion Book II:764-765)
He was definitely a breast man: "O sweetest essence! sweetest of all minions!/God of warm pulses, and dishevell'd hair,/And panting bosoms bare!" (Endymion Book III:983-985) Also, "Ah! I see the silver sheen/Of thy broider'd, floating vest/Cov'ring half thine ivory breast;/Which, O heavens! I should see,/But that cruel destiny/Has placed a golden cuirass there;/Keeping secret what is fair." (To Georgia Augusta Wylie 44-50) No doubt his most awkward reference to breasts is "Those dainties made to still an infant's cries" (Isabella; or The Pot of Basil: A Story from Boccaccio XLVII:6)
His epic 4,000 line poem Endymion is mostly filler and would have been much improved if it were a tenth as long. Due to its poor reception among critics, Keats was too discouraged to finish his follow up poem Hyperion, which is too bad, because Hyperion is actually quite good. Overall, his poems start getting much better in 1820. Other than his famous Odes, my favorite poem by him is Lamia.
Can man be free if woman be a slave?
Chain one who lives, and breathes this boundless air
To the corruption of a closéd grave!
Can they whose mates are beasts, condemned to bear
Scorn, heavier far than toil or anguish, dare
To trample their oppressors? in their home
Among their babes, thou knowest a curse would wear
The shape of woman -- hoary Crime would come
Behind, and Fraud rebuild religion's tottering dome.
-The Revolt of Islam Canto II, XLIII, 1045-1053
Shelley also wrote about poetry, nature, Greek myth, and love, however unlike Keats he also had an abiding interest in metaphysics and politics making his poetry much more abstract and philosophical. Shelley was opposed to slavery, kings, and organized religion and was a strong proponent of women's rights. He doesn't always rhyme, although I noticed he employed alliteration from time to time. I found the endless descriptions of scenery dull, but it's understandable one would want to preserve a mental picture of a beautiful scene in the era before cameras.
Shelley's epic 5,000 line poem The Revolt of Islam, which features a 126 line dedication to his wife, could have been much shorter, but the questions it deals with concerning the oppression of the lower class, the tyranny of religion, the horrors of slavery, and the inequality of the sexes, makes it much more substantive than Keats' frivolous descriptions of nature and Greek goddesses. Here, he expresses the futility of revenge:
Oh wherefore should ill ever flow from ill,
And pain still keener pain for ever breed?
We all are brethren -- even the slaves who kill
For hire, are men; and to avenge misdeed
On the misdoer, doth but Misery feed
With her own broken heart! O Earth, O Heaven!
And thou, dread Nature, which to every deed
And all that lives or is, to be hath given,
Even as to thee have these done ill, and are forgiven!
- The Revolt of Islam Canto V, XI, 1810-1818
Shelley's Tragedy, The Cenci, is truly a masterpiece. Although it was based on a true story, it was controversial when it was written as it deals with rape and incest. I wish Shelley focused more on plays than poetry as his political and philosophical ideas would be better expressed through drama. His best poems are Julian and Maddalo, Ozymadias, and Adonais which was written upon the occasion of Keats' death.
Shelley also had a proficiency with languages and translated the works of Homer, Goethe, and Dante amongst others. Also included in this collection are remarks from Mary Shelley which put her husband's poems into context and explain his motivation for writing them.
I found the writings of both Keats and Shelley boring for the most part, however, there were enough great lines to justify continued reading.
Want to Read
August 29, 2007this book was also my grandpa's. footnoted and all. it's treasure.
Want to Read
June 1, 2009Modern Library
December 19, 2009
My parents gave me this book when I was about fourteen and it's been one of my favourites ever since.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews