The Great Poets: John Keats

by John Keats, Samuel West (Narrator), Michael Sheen (Narrator)

Although the great poet John Keats lived a short life, he produced a series of outstanding poems--many of which appeared first in letters to his sister. He was largely unappreciated during his lifetime and died in Rome at the age of twenty-six. Most of his 150 poems were written in just nine extraordinary months in 1819.

This selection contains some of his finest works: the principal Odes, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Old Meg, and Much Have I Travelled.

Runtime: 1. 11 hours, 1 library CD

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Literature, Nonfiction, British Literature, 19th Century

2 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 1990

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

[Hung · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt so 'unfinished' to touch the last page (the last poem, to be more exact) of this bittersweet book. Love and longing, expectation and disappointment, hope and enlightenment, all of which blend in these beautifully written poems. Here is my favorite part in Keats' 'Ode on a Grecian Urn':

"Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unweari-ed,
Forever piping songs forever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
Forever warm and still to be enjoyed,
Forever panting, and forever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloyed,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue."


More happy love! More happy, happy love! - Enjoy!!

[Maxwell Kaesar · Rating 3 out of 5]

He sure beats Lord Byron

[Nona · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's Keats... I mean, freaking beautiful writing, gorgeous use of the English language. His poetry is so well thought-out, from the themes chosen (he wrote about one of my absolute favourite topics in literature - Greek mythology) to the way the verses and rhymes are carefully constructed.

It's a pity he died so young and didn't finish his epic poem "Hyperion".

His poems are not easy to understand, it's not the kind of poetry to read on a beach or on a leisurely afternoon, but rather requires pen and paper and additional research into the historical and mythological aspects depicted. But it's not inaccessible either.

This edition is great because it includes an introduction and notes that offer insights into Keats's life and the themes and contexts of the selected poems.

[David]

An interesting addition to modern scholarship, showing not just the poetry but also many of the letters (both by Keats and addressed to him), occasional reviews, etc. I always think of Wolfson as one of the "new" academics; amused to discover in consequence of this reading that she is 11 years my senior!

[Kiran · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed some of these poems, but most of them just didn't click with me.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a fairly embarrassing history with Keats. I discovered about a year into my poetry journey that dealing with the prodigious output of poets, especially ones who wrote before the invention of eg television, is best achieved by taking them in manageable bites. The Faber editions, with selections by other poets, has proved invaluable in this regard. Alas, I did this first with Byron and felt, yeah, Byron is My Dude, I'll read more of him, and bought a larger collection. FOR SOME REASON, I assumed I would like Keats just as much. I do not know why I thought this, but I first bought the COLLECTED works of Keats. After admitting that I didn't like him enough to commit to that, I went on to a smaller collection, which I equally was never going to finish, and finally wound up with this nice 100 page selection. After spending probably a hundred euro on Keats, the fact remains that he leaves me cold, and bored, and hoping he'll get to the point. That being said, I appreciate his fanclub is huge, from Jilly Cooper to Wodehouse, and so I got a lot of recognition hits.

Par example:

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer:

"Looked at each other with a wild surmise -
Silent, upon a peak in Darien."

Endymion:

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but will still keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing."

Hyperion:

"For 'tis the eternal law
That first in beauty should be first in might.
Yes, by that law, another race may drive
Our conquerers to mourn as we do now."

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

"O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?"

To Autumn:

"Season of mists and yellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun,"

There's much to be said, I'm coming to realise, for the close studying of poetry in a classroom setting. The very act of paying attention endears you to poetry, without having to wait and hope for that thunderclap first-read amazement. O well. In another lifetime, perhaps.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keats is the most sci-Fi dreamer my favorite poem is Hyperion- so intense he had to abandon it. Lovecraft picked up the thread...

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keats has a gentler reputation than many Romantic poets. He was famously, as Byron joked, “snuffed out by an article”, supposedly dying after reading a bad review. Actually it was tuberculosis that killed Keats.

Typical complaints against Keats are that his works are purely aesthetic, and show no political awareness, and that his writing is just a little too sweet.

Personally I love Keats better than any Romantic poet, and would defend him from such criticisms. Certainly Keats is far less political than many contemporary poets, and a political agenda is missing from his most famous poems. Nonetheless his views peep out in lesser-known works, and reveal him to be as liberal as any other Romantic.

The language of Keats is certainly very honeyed, and modern readers may not have the patience for this style. A closer examination reveals that his poetry is extraordinarily beautiful. There are many memorable phrases, and even a little humour at times. Think of ‘Ode to a Grecian Urn’ with the lovers who can never kiss or the musicians who can never be heard because they are frozen in time on an image on the urn.

On the whole though, Keats is one of the more accessible Romantics. Of the poets I have read, only Wordsworth and Clare are easier to follow than Keats. He does go in for a few longer works which are not really his best verse, but they are not as indigestible as much of Shelley or Blake.

In any case, there is a haunting melancholy that underlies much of the poetry of Keats. He even wrote an ‘Ode on Melancholy’. Often Keats reveals an underlying sadness in his personality that is expressed less self-indulgently than in the works of many poets. ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ is one of the best poems ever written because it mingles beautiful imagery with some of the most pessimistic phrases in Keats:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs,
Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

‘Ode to a Nightingale’ is not unique among Keats’ work for its melancholic tone. If Keats celebrates a season, it will be autumn. ‘La Belle Dame Sans Mercy’ is a short work of surprising bitterness, and devoid of the lush imagery more usually associated with Keats. His sonnet ‘Why Did I Laugh Tonight?’soon moves on to images of death.

The love narratives often end badly too. The promise of ‘Isabella, or, The Pot of Basil” ends in grisly tragedy. ‘Lamia’ works it way round to a dismal conclusion that seems unjust. The happiest love poem is ‘The Eve of St Agnes’, one of the most ravishing of Keats’ poems. Yet even this begins and ends with descriptions of deaths.

Sadly Keats did not live very long – just 25 years, of which he was only writing poetry for six. So we did not get to find out how his work developed with age. His mature poetry is notable for containing a number of truly great poems, however.

I prefer the modesty of Keats to the grandstanding of Blake, Shelley and Byron. Beneath the colourful imagery of his language, there is something more personal and sincere here.

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keats was undoubtedly a master craftsman of rhyme and rhythm, but his obsession with death infuses his poetry with a drone note of melancholy. Granted, Keats wrote almost all of his most famous works during the two-year period prior to his untimely death at the age of 25, so the themes of time, decay, and death were foremost on his mind. Unlike his forward-looking contemporaries Shelley and Byron, Keats looked backward across the vast sweep of time to extol the enduring qualities of art in contrast to the transience of human life, as exemplified by his masterpiece “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” Nuanced narration by the audiobook’s multiple readers lends emotional depth to Keats’ sensory language.


Favorite Poems:
“Bright Star! Would I Were Steadfast as Thou”
“Ode to a Nightingale”
“Ode to Melancholy”
“Ode in a Grecian Urn”
“To Sleep”
“Ode to Psyche”
“When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be”
“The Eve of St. Agnes”

[Dave H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading again after these many years. It's a cool book: Keats isn't a great poet, he yearns to be a great poet, figures it out, and becomes a great poet. There's also the falling madly in love and dying young, knowing he's going to die before anything can flower.

I'm sure this was my first exposure to Burton's Anatomy (a source for Lamia) - but I was not really aware of Burton and had forgotten the connection by the time I became aware. It tickled me some to see that Keats loved Burton, too.

[camilo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild -
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast fading violets covered up in leaves;
And mid-May's eldest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

[Melanie Van Driel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit anxious when I encountered references to mythological figures, as I lack extensive knowledge about most of them. I must say, however, that with a little help from search engines here and there reading this collection was quite amusing. I especially enjoyed the poem about Isabella and her pot of Basil. Tragedy that the author died so young. Very impressive that he was able to write all of this art before the age of 26. Would recommend.

[Via ⚡️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Some beautiful poems in here, also some that don't make sense to me - I'd love to see what Keats pictured in his own mind while writing these, as it would no doubt be very different to what I envisage. I enjoy the natural and romantic elements in his writing, his vivid descriptions of natural beauty, of the sea and Psyche.

The illustrations in this edition are also gorgeous!

[Yong Xiang]

literary education. weird that this is the only easily available collection of keats that nlb carries.

A Song about Myself cute. extracts from Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion oddly moving - my favourites. "Bright star!..." and To Autumn good. Odes require more thought. but not so sure about the narrative romance poems Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, Lamia... kinda campy.

[Katie Bigelow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Keats was an incredibly fascinating poet to explore. However, I found myself needing to research the language in his poems on almost every page—which while enhancing my understanding of the poetry distracted from the experience of reading romantic Keats uninterrupted. 3 stars because there were some very moving poems in this collection, but there were some that I didn’t love.

[Charley Melton · Rating 4 out of 5]

dying young is so tragic. i first picked up this nature collection when i was fourteen (?) and i skimmed it in addition to andrew motion's biography of keats. he's such a horny little greco-roman obsessed lover boy ♡ my short king with a corruption kink. 'isabella; or, the basil pot' you will always be famous.

[Andrew Atkinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know Keats is a national treasure but I found some of the chosen poetry heavy going. Delightful when you come across a line or two you remember from years ago but the rest of it left me cold. Apologies to the legion of Keats fans, to Andrew Motion as they were his choices and, lastly, to Keats himself. Rest assured he will remain - probably forever - a leading exponent of Romantic poetry.

[Daniel Gallimore · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems demand to be read with great care, since it is only through careful reading that we can attain the remarkable 'half in love with easeful death' state of relaxation that the poet attained in writing them.

[Maria Rosanna Ioannou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful

[susannah! · Rating 5 out of 5]

these poems were rly written just for me keats knows me so well

[Francis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like this was supposed to be a highlights reel and I can't say any of them really stood out.
I'm probably just missing it, or the expectation is too high? Oh well

[Anthony Frencken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent poetry, although I would have liked to have some commentary/explanation alongside the poems to have better insight.

[Amy K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed listening to these on audio book.

[Midnight Smaug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water

[l p · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mid

[My Little Forest · Rating 4 out of 5]

I forgot I had yet to review this read!

First off, if you're here because you've recently watched Bright Star (starring Ben Wishaw), you've come to the right place. This is a good option for you to read all the poems mentioned in the film.

Having said that, this selection of poems wisely chosen by Andrew Motion shares common themes and similar moods. Hence, I thought of mentioning some of them to you, in case you feel like reading something which matches your current mood. Melancholy is one of the most prominent themes and most palpable ones in Keats's poems. Along with melancholy, there is also the sense of loss. Now that the 14th of February approaches, the theme of mutual love is very recurrent as well.

Something I enjoy doing when reading poetry is drawing – doodling, rather – on the margins of the verses about what the poem is symbolically picturing in my mind at that precise moment – if it happens to be something vivid and clear. This selection of poems fulfilled my imagination enormously and the fact that I have drawn many doodlings throughout this selection, it speaks for its own. Personally, the good thing about this man is not that he was extremely talented in what he did, but that you almost feel like you're part of his poems; and if not, you end up feeling that you are actually part of them, of what he expresses in them. Look, highly recommended.

Happy reading, x

[Erin J Kahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This year I kind of went on a Keats rampage and had a sudden desire to read everything he ever wrote, so I bought this book and it was beautiful. Reading his poems and letters in the order they were written in is invaluable for understanding Keats's life and poetry. I was SO sad when I finished the book. I liked/hated it when he said in one of his letters that he basically just scribbled off most of his poems without even thinking about it. What??????

Here's a stanza from one of my favorite Keats poems, Ode to a Nightingale:

Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:
Already with thee! tender is the night,
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;
But here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

[Jon Margetts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was richly rewarded for spending more time with Endymion, Hyperion, and Lamia than I've previously done when reading through this short curation of Keats' poetry. Keats is a master of the imagination and beauty; I feel spurred on to read more of his work, his letters, and about his life. I also feel the need to reintroduce myself to Wordsworth - previously my favourite of the Romantic poets - for I feel his place at the top has been usurped.

[Emre Soykan · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazin.