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Bright Star: The Complete Poems & Selected Letters of John Keats
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DIRECTOR JANE CAMPION
John Keats died in penury and relative obscurity in 1821, aged only 25. He is now seen as one of the greatest English poets and a genius of the Romantic age. This collection, which contains all his most memorable works and a selection of his letters, is a feast for the senses, displaying Keats' gift for gorgeous imagery and sensuous language, his passionate devotion to beauty, as well as some of the most moving love poetry ever written.
John Keats died in penury and relative obscurity in 1821, aged only 25. He is now seen as one of the greatest English poets and a genius of the Romantic age. This collection, which contains all his most memorable works and a selection of his letters, is a feast for the senses, displaying Keats' gift for gorgeous imagery and sensuous language, his passionate devotion to beauty, as well as some of the most moving love poetry ever written.
526 pages, Paperback
Published December 1, 2009
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About the author
John Keats
1,429 books2,540 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 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 24, 2017
"Bright Star (would I were stedfast as thou art...)"
BY JOHN KEATS
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.
March 6, 2013
Well the edition I read is really a compliation of poems, mostly. There are few letters, but not all of them are to Fanny anyways. In fact, most of the letters aren't.
I have only read poems that I have heard of before or I found interesting. My favoriate poem of John Keats doesn't seem to be in this anthology, and it's why I only give it a three stars. Paying minimal respect to the great poet.
So, technically, I didn't "finish" the book. To be honest, as much I respect John Keats as a genuis tragic romantic poet amongst the greatest English poets of all time, I don't really like him personally. So I found it quite hard to invest too much time reading his letters--which are full of--dashes.
I have only read poems that I have heard of before or I found interesting. My favoriate poem of John Keats doesn't seem to be in this anthology, and it's why I only give it a three stars. Paying minimal respect to the great poet.
So, technically, I didn't "finish" the book. To be honest, as much I respect John Keats as a genuis tragic romantic poet amongst the greatest English poets of all time, I don't really like him personally. So I found it quite hard to invest too much time reading his letters--which are full of--dashes.
February 9, 2015
jane c. is a great cinema legend. first i saw an angel at my table and later on the piano. movies that stay in my memory. she is also an ambassador for the kiwi cause by those films. making a movie about a poet is a thing to do. i remember 'il postino' that was a film about a postman and pablo neruda on an italian island. very well done because neruda was almost not visible. it was mere suggestion that let you free to make a picture yourself. for that reason unfortunately i don't intend to watch 'bright star' because i fear keats the poet is turned into prose.
but to have poems and letters from keats collected this way is a joy!
but to have poems and letters from keats collected this way is a joy!
March 7, 2011
My teacher here in graduate school assigned this book for my intro to literary theory class. In retrospect, I'm not sure why it was assigned since the first thing she talked about was how this was a very problematic text for academic/scholarly use for various reasons. I wish she hadn't made us waste our money. However if you are coming to Keats' work for the first time then this is probably just fine for you.
July 8, 2010
Oh, Keats, I love you so (even though I don't always dig your portrayals of women). This collection was uber pretty, since it was published along with "Bright Star." I recommend it highly.
July 21, 2010
There is something absolutely beautiful about John Keats soul.
His poetry and letters (especially the ones to fanny) are breath taking.
His poetry and letters (especially the ones to fanny) are breath taking.
March 3, 2013
As a poet I found Jane Campion’s movie Bright Star disappointing. The scenery was rich, the relationships uplifting, but the repetitive lines from one poem felt to me like a jingle across this world of beauty.
There it is. I have admitted it.
Now I pick up the companion volume, as so many movies now have, and read Jane Campion’s introduction. Her feeling and the way she was drawn into Keats’ life and story seem so out of place to what I experienced in the theatre. I consider whether this was really a movie of this time, for those equally detached from good poetry as Jane, that she was able to offer them an opening rather than a full taste of what Keats offered.
But then I have always written poetry. I devoured it along with books of myths and legends when I was in primary school. I have long written my own verse before “coming out” in my early twenties when I came across a whole scene of poetry readings and possibilities – especially those that were not bound by universities and their heavy-handed interpretations.
I live in Melbourne, Australia, which was made a City of Literature in 2009, around the time of Jane’s movie. It is possible to go to a poetry reading here on almost any night of the week, and back in the 80s when I first entered a poetry café, there were options on at least three nights of the week. So I accept my expectations are higher, different, more informed than most.
Then as love stories go, the letters between Keats and his financee Fanny Brown, also touch my own memory of a particularly poignant relationship with a fellow poet who died at a reasonably young age. The feeling that others might have more understanding or common feeling with me through such a movie was an interesting thread to consider.
Yet I preferred not to talk with anyone about the movie because the insistence upon the single poem bored into me so indelicately. I could not understand how anyone in the audience could really get much feeling for what Poetry was about from such a presentation.
I did listen. It was partly through a friend’s recommendation that I saw the movie to begin. Although artistic, her own relationships have tended to be somewhat chaotic. I did not see this movie soothing her heart. Although she did attend some poetry readings with me after it. Her conversation still too much in the common idiom.
Why is my feeling so different than others? I would suggest it has more to do with the live performance, the live reading, the live interaction between storyteller and audience which shapes the story as it goes, and never repeats in the retelling. My love of poetry stems as much from my grandfather’s tales of his camping out through the Depression years as he panned for gold and caught rabbits, as it does from the books I read. It was his voice, his breath, that helped me lift the words off the page and breathe them myself.
And every reading was different.
I learnt to play with the words, to experiment with breaks and rhythms and pronunciations of foreign ideas. I didn’t have to research every story, the nuance carried through the forms and indications of the poetry itself.
As I read this volume of Keats poems, I find it interesting to not have any learned professor explaining settings or references, but just the poems themselves. Jane’s brief introduction gives more to me about her expectation that most of her audience would not know of poetry and wish such an introduction for themselves as she had. Perhaps for beginnings this is enough.
As a poet I imagine it is the capturing soul which draws poetry and its understanding toward it. I doubt it can be sold to anyone who does not already have an inkling within themselves.
Those who will – will find it.
At least Jane Campion has set in place a signpost for those who need assistance.
I am undecided whether I will bother with the biography she used herself.
There it is. I have admitted it.
Now I pick up the companion volume, as so many movies now have, and read Jane Campion’s introduction. Her feeling and the way she was drawn into Keats’ life and story seem so out of place to what I experienced in the theatre. I consider whether this was really a movie of this time, for those equally detached from good poetry as Jane, that she was able to offer them an opening rather than a full taste of what Keats offered.
But then I have always written poetry. I devoured it along with books of myths and legends when I was in primary school. I have long written my own verse before “coming out” in my early twenties when I came across a whole scene of poetry readings and possibilities – especially those that were not bound by universities and their heavy-handed interpretations.
I live in Melbourne, Australia, which was made a City of Literature in 2009, around the time of Jane’s movie. It is possible to go to a poetry reading here on almost any night of the week, and back in the 80s when I first entered a poetry café, there were options on at least three nights of the week. So I accept my expectations are higher, different, more informed than most.
Then as love stories go, the letters between Keats and his financee Fanny Brown, also touch my own memory of a particularly poignant relationship with a fellow poet who died at a reasonably young age. The feeling that others might have more understanding or common feeling with me through such a movie was an interesting thread to consider.
Yet I preferred not to talk with anyone about the movie because the insistence upon the single poem bored into me so indelicately. I could not understand how anyone in the audience could really get much feeling for what Poetry was about from such a presentation.
I did listen. It was partly through a friend’s recommendation that I saw the movie to begin. Although artistic, her own relationships have tended to be somewhat chaotic. I did not see this movie soothing her heart. Although she did attend some poetry readings with me after it. Her conversation still too much in the common idiom.
Why is my feeling so different than others? I would suggest it has more to do with the live performance, the live reading, the live interaction between storyteller and audience which shapes the story as it goes, and never repeats in the retelling. My love of poetry stems as much from my grandfather’s tales of his camping out through the Depression years as he panned for gold and caught rabbits, as it does from the books I read. It was his voice, his breath, that helped me lift the words off the page and breathe them myself.
And every reading was different.
I learnt to play with the words, to experiment with breaks and rhythms and pronunciations of foreign ideas. I didn’t have to research every story, the nuance carried through the forms and indications of the poetry itself.
As I read this volume of Keats poems, I find it interesting to not have any learned professor explaining settings or references, but just the poems themselves. Jane’s brief introduction gives more to me about her expectation that most of her audience would not know of poetry and wish such an introduction for themselves as she had. Perhaps for beginnings this is enough.
As a poet I imagine it is the capturing soul which draws poetry and its understanding toward it. I doubt it can be sold to anyone who does not already have an inkling within themselves.
Those who will – will find it.
At least Jane Campion has set in place a signpost for those who need assistance.
I am undecided whether I will bother with the biography she used herself.
Read
February 4, 2024 Do gently murder half my soul, and I
should feel the other half so utterly! -
should feel the other half so utterly! -
April 10, 2010
O for some sunny spell
To dissipate the shadows of this hell!
Say they are gone, - with the new dawning light
Step forth my lady bright!
O, let me once more rest
My soul upon that dazzling breast!
Let once again these arms be placed,
The tender gaolers of thy waist!
Beautiful!
To dissipate the shadows of this hell!
Say they are gone, - with the new dawning light
Step forth my lady bright!
O, let me once more rest
My soul upon that dazzling breast!
Let once again these arms be placed,
The tender gaolers of thy waist!
Beautiful!
July 14, 2016
This was disappointing, I was hoping for more letters than were included, and for a book titled Bright Star - which is the name of the film about Keats and Fanny....there was only one letter from Keats to her.
February 3, 2010
Just phenomenal.
April 13, 2016
John Keats I think I love you.
April 23, 2016
I'm normally not one for poetry, but his poems are just simply beautiful.
January 1, 2018
If I'm being totally honest, 3.5 stars.
Did nothing to change my long-held opinion that Keats, Byron and Shelley are three of the most overrated poets in the Western Canon.
Did nothing to change my long-held opinion that Keats, Byron and Shelley are three of the most overrated poets in the Western Canon.
November 16, 2020
I love this book. It breaks my heart but fills me with so much emotion and warmth. One can never imagine having such a love, unless you have. And to lose that love... Indescribable.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews