The Poems of John Keats

by John Keats, H.W. Garrod (Editor)

PREFATORY NOTE

The present volume replaces the volume prepared for the Oxford series of Standard Authors by H. Buxton Forman as long ago as 1906. The first section of the Introduction (Early Printed Editions) is taken over from Buxton Forman, with small changes and additions. For the second section, which deals generally with the relation of the printed texts to the manuscripts, I have drawn largely on the opening pages of my edition of Keats in the Oxford English Texts series. For a detailed account of the manuscripts, and for the variants which they offer, the reader is referred to that edition. Our printed texts of Keats are nearly everywhere good; affording small opportunity for textual criticism as ordinarily understood. The textual criticism of Keats studies, in fact, not so much to establish the text as to go behind it. Its primary concern is, not the poet's ultima manus, but his first fingerings and gropings. This edition does not help the reader to go behind the text. Yet to tempt him to do so, I have appended to it a sheaf of critical notes. They are few, and they are confined to passages notable and famous.

I have placed in an Appendix the fragment Gripus, which has not hitherto been included in any edition of Keats's Works. It is preserved in the Morgan Library Woodhouse Book. No author's name is added by Woodhouse. But the title-page advises the reader that all the poems that are not by Keats have the names of the authors added. The fragment was accepted as the composition of Keats by Miss Lowell, who printed it (not altogether accurately) in an Appendix to her Life of Keats (1924).

July 1956
H. W. G.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Literature, Romanticism, 19th Century

477 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1894

About the author

Rich 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

Reviews

[Karl Hallbjörnsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Keats is one of my all-time favorites. He positively enchants and ensnares me with his sensual and beautiful landscapes, enthralls me in his passionate descriptions of lovers entwined in Endymion (a lovely poem) and his odes are masterpieces, iconic and eternal.

I can't find my edition—an 1866 gilded leaf and leather-bound beauty—but the poetry is the same across editions, more or less.

[Dominic Gowland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big shoutout to Grandad Gowland

[Lisa of Troy]

Annotated book in F. Scott Fitzgerald's College of One

[Roisin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely small edition of his work, early poems, early sonnets, odes, his tour of Scotland, Teignmouth, faery songs and some of the usual suspects, To A Nightingale, Endymion, Lamia, The Eve of St Agnes, for example. Both versions of Hyperion are contained here. Endymion being the longest, it takes up about a third of the book.

However it is a good little pocket edition and there are poems/sonnets/songs that people won't know. Good introduction for those not familiar too.

[Harry Gay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the earliest copy of Keats’ poetry I could find on Goodreads, but the edition I read was from 1885. In any case, Keats’ writing is always beautiful. I enjoy his shorter works than the larger poems, though. In particular, my favourites are:
• On Leaving Some Friends at an Early Hour
• Ode to Autumn
• Ode to Melancholy
• To Kosciusko
• Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

He died too young. His grave is in Rome, in the "Cimitero Acatolico" (cemetary for non-Catholics), where he died, seeking to heal, of tuberculosis. "When I have fears that I may cease to be/ Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,/ Before high-piled books, in charact'ry/ Hold like full garners the full-ripen'd grain;/ When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,/ Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,/ And think that I may never live to trace/ Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;/ And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!/ That I shall never look upon thee more,/ Never have relish in the faery power/ Of unreflecting love!--then on the shore/ Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,/ Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink." (Sonnet XXIX)

[Marysia · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Keats is a marvellous poet. My favourite of his were the ones under "Light-Hearted and Nonsense Poems", which were quite amusing and random.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

<3

[Alex Mesman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because I read Ode to a nightingale at school this was one of my first books of poetry i bought. It has all the poems in it, so it's hard to rate it. I've not read them all. But on first looking into Chapman's Homer made a lasting impression. As did the sequence of odes. I can still remember a lot of it today, which says a lot.Together with the Keats biography it made a great read.

[Tayylor]

Page 60 / 344
17%


At this point in my life, Keats just isn't my kind of poet. Not completely sure why that is, but that's that.

——

Giving him another go and it seems more promising this time round.

[SilentRebellions · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keats is by far my favourite romantic poet. The sorrow of his life and love translate into some of the most moving poetry ever written.

[james · Rating 1 out of 5]

i dont like john keats

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aug 2013