Lyric Poems

by John Keats

One of the greatest English poets, John Keats (1795–1821) created an astonishing body of work before his early death from tuberculosis at the age of 26. Much of his poetry consists of deeply felt lyrical meditations on a variety of themes—love, death, the transience of joy, the impermanence of youth and beauty, the immortality of art, and other topics—expressed in verse of exquisite delicacy, originality, and sensuous richness.
This collection contains 30 of his finest poems, including such favorites as "On first looking into Chapman's Homer," "The Eve of St. Agnes," "On seeing the Elgin Marbles," "La Belle Dame sans Merci," "Isabella; or, the pot of Basil" and the celebrated Odes: "To a Nightingale," "On a Grecian Urn," "On Melancholy," "On Indolence," "To Psyche," and "To Autumn." These and many other poems, reproduced here from a standard edition, represent a treasury of time-honored poetry that ranks among the glories of English verse.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Romanticism, Fiction, Literature, British Literature, School

66 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1991

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

[Manybooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes indeed, I have since I was a teenager simply and utterly adored the exquisite poetry (the tender lyricism) of English Romantic poet John Keats, and this here Dover Thrift paperback edition (simply titled Lyric Poems is truly the absolutely perfect take-along (a handy and portable tome that covers ALL of Keats' most well-known verses and is at the same time small and above all also thin enough to fit even into my purse, so that I can read and reread Keats's poetry whenever I so desire, whenever I feel the need to peruse some of my all time favourites).

But of course, and like with ALL compilations of poetry (actually, like with ALL compilations, period), there are certain inclusions presented in Lyric Poems that I do tend to enjoy more than others, and even a select and very few John Keats poems that I would not consider all that lovely and readable, but really and truly, these are certainly very few and far between. And yes, absolutely, my soul, my entire being generally sings and expands with happiness, with joy and sometimes of course also with sadness and melancholy when I open the pages of Lyric Poems and read and savour such lovely gems as The Eve of St. Agnes, To Psyche, and my personal and absolute favourites ever since we read John Keats in grade ten English, Ode to a Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn (which might well be his most well-known poems, but yes, also for good reason, as they are exquisiteness personified, they are indeed what Keats himself has claimed, things of beauty and joys forever). Highly recommended for and to fans of John Keats (and of the poetry of English Romanticism, and I might also add, that while I have always been able to much appreciate and even rather like Lord Byron's and Percy Bysshe Shelley's oeuvre, I have also NEVER been able to love love love their poetry like I have done with John Keats and his lyricism, with his poetry, cut so sadly short by his early death from tuberculosis). Five stars and more!

[Jennifer Girardin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three words to describe the poetry of John Keats: beautiful, romantic, eternal.

Three more: flowing, universal, transcendent.

I particularly enjoyed the Lyric Poems by John Keats.

His tragic early death at a young age from tuberculosis adds historical interest and a feeling of lingering pathos to his work.

Some of my favorite poems from this selection include The Eve of St. Agnes for its story-like depiction of fleeing lovers.
Isabella, or Pot of Basil also suggests sadness and the universal feelings associated with the loss of love.
The Hymn to Apollo is also notable, and my two favorites from this selection are La Belle Dame Sans Merci (The Lady Without Mercy) for its captivating depiction of a lovely lady without mercy, magically attracting lovers, who are fascinated, but whose love is never reciprocated.
And the Ode to a Nightingale is spiritedly beautiful, with its flowing feeling of an eternal bird flying to the heavens, its soul transcending human concerns.

The Lyric Poems by John Keats are beauty in words, and anyone unfamiliar with the works of the Romantic Poets would find his poetry charming and eternal.

[Nicole ✨Reading Engineer✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though this was a school reading requirement, I really did enjoy it. It was old but had some poems that tugged at my heart.

[Mel Bossa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful. Romantic poetry at its best.

[Joe Bruno · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up at the Goodwill for $1.19. A very slim volume, it was a fairly short read, a limited collection of Keat's work.

Listen, I don't know from classic poetry. I plan to keep reading the stuff that is well thought of. The use of language by these classic and important poets is amazing, even if I don't always enjoy the works all that much. This little collection had a couple that I liked, "The Pot of Basil" was moving and "A Song About Myself" was pretty good.

Unlike a lot of these poets, I knew very little of his work and only recognized the "truth and Beauty" bit in "Ode to a Grecian Urn" and the line "tender is the night" in "Ode to a Nightingale."

I did not study these, I just read them. There was a bit I thought was about grief that I liked a lot in "The Pot of Basil"

And she forgot the stars, the moon, and sun,
And she forgot the blue above the trees,
And she forgot the dells where waters run,
And she forgot the chilly autumn breeze;
She had no knowledge when the day was done,
And the new morn she saw not: but in peace
Hung over her sweet Basil evermore,
And moisten’d it with tears unto the core.

Listen though, I like poetry in little paper volumes, I like to read it that way, but every single word this guy wrote is online somewhere. I think it is important enough for the language to be visited now and again, but I wouldn't pay more than the Goodwill price.

[Bekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It pains me to give this anything less than Five Stars, as I so adore Keats, but this collection was just not stellar in its compilation. They chose some works that were just too long for such a short, slim collection. One took up 13 and a half pages! That space could have been filled with his shorter works, in order to give a better introduction and overview to his style. I still really loved reading it and am glad I have other collections of his works to read when I am craving something more particular.

[Line Magnus · Rating 5 out of 5]

God, I love Keats. Especially in autumn.

[Thomas Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took a course in romantic poetry at Carleton College back in 1969 and read some of the poems in this book, but I didn't have the benefit of two things that really helped me with the poems in 2015: my background reading over the past forty years, and my smart phone. The first aid was instrumental in giving me a sense of what Keats was onto - his explorations into classical literature, his insights into depression, indolence, his love of Greek art. The second aid helped me with all the classical references and obscure words. At Carleton, I was usually too lazy to look up all the Greek gods and goddesses and other classical references and poetic constructions. So these two ''teachers'' made my reading of the poems much more enjoyable. I also read (on my smart phone) about Keats life, which I didn't have much knowledge of in my late teens.

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

”Ah, fuck me! I love Keats!”
- Hugh Grant’s character in Bridget Jones’s Diary

Reputation – 5/5
From hunks in British romcoms to shut-in academic advisors, everyone seems to love John Keats. Since his early death in 1821 at the age of 25, Keats has always had his devoted readers. His popularity has never wavered. Tennyson and the next generation of Victorians followed him in both style and subject matter, the poets of the First World War idolized him as a bright star that burned out ere his time, and academics of the Mid-20th Century, taking his poems and letters together, canonized him as a pure soul and a superb artist.
Keats’ poetry is still some of the best loved and most analyzed in English.

Point – 4/5
Keats has a reputation for being a poet’s poet – it’s a title he took over from Edmund Spenser. And Keats has much in common with the author of The Faerie Queene. His overall tone is sensuous and mythological, his settings and language are archaic and pastoral, and his verses are packed with musical alliteration. Given a line at random it is often hard to know who wrote it: Keats or Spenser. And this leads us to one of the essential insights about Keats’ poetry.

Keats learned poetry. That is, he made the conscious decision to dedicate his life to poetry and set out to teach himself to be a poet. To do this he studied the English canon – above all Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton. He left records of his self-education in letters and verse, On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer and On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again are the most successful and famous of his poetry about studying literature.

When you stop to consider the phrase “poetry about studying literature,” it really comes as no surprise that Keats’ has become a darling of academics. Even further, when you read his letters and see that Keats’ had a compulsion towards literary criticism and self-explanation, it’s all almost too good to be true if you’re an academic that lives on close reading.
What shows through in Keats’ poetry and letters is a remarkably consistent character. He is introspective and wistful, saturnine and sensitive. All qualities that are nearly synonymous with the archetypal Romantic poet as we have come to know him. I think this is a large part of his appeal. Keats has become something of a mirror – aspiring poets and critics see what they want in him. The whole effect is heightened by the fact that his life was cut short.

Everything about Keats gives the feeling of incompleteness. And since we love to play the “what might have been…” game, Keats’ name is often listed with that very top tier of English poets that includes Shakespeare and Milton. Does he deserve that spot?

Keats’ nearest claim to immortality is his cycle of odes. They are six lyric poems composed in 1819, and the three best of them – To Autumn, Ode to a Nightingale, and Ode on a Grecian Urn - are known to nearly everyone. These poems contain some of the best-known lines in English poetry, including the vague, yet eternally famous:

”'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,'—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

Ode on a Grecian Urn is not only Keats’ most famous, but also the essential summation of his work. The poem is a meditation on the immorality of art, frozen in the moment. It is a perfect representation of Keats’ own art. When he writes:

”Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;”

We feel that he is writing about himself. Keats short life and his unfinished output are ever in the bloom of Spring. Keats can never let us down by writing another bad poem or turning out to be a personal let down. He is like those trees, which never can be bare.

But seen in light of Keats’ deliberate ambition to study poetry, the odes, wonderful as they are, give the impression of poetic training or exercises. They have a finished study quality about them. They are all composed as meditations on particular, usually quite ordinary subjects: a season, a bird, a Greek vase. They remind you of a composer trying to write a piano etude with a particularly difficult modulation, or of a painter working up a perfect study of a piece of architecture in preparation for a large history painting.
I think it is no accident that it was around Keats’ time when the sketch or the fragment began to be more valuable in the eyes of collectors than the finally polished masterpiece, firmly stamped by the sure artist. Connoisseurs began to want the ending to be unresolved, resonating.

Keats’ best works – his most admired – are studies, fragments; those works which show the hand of the artist in all his originality and promise. They are like the drawings of Raphael that art critics now prefer to his great fresco cycles. The only difference between Keats and Raphael is that Keats never finished a magnum opus, and he is now remembered for his sketches.
Perhaps if Keats had lived another 12 years (as Raphael did) he would have unquestionably reached the heights of Shakespeare and Milton. But “perhaps” is a weak case for such immortality.


Recommendation – 4/5
Even if Keats doesn’t quite belong on the top tier of English poets, he still wrote some very good poetry. He wrote some of the most popular poetry in English, and this collection is about 60 pages of his very best work.

Keats is a perennial favorite for good reason. His poetry is musical and deeply feeling. But he is sometimes too “feely.” There are times when Keats can descend into mushy, and there is a distinct oversentimentality to much of his work.


Personal – 3/5
Keats’ first critics were on to his mawkishness. They called his poems “unmanly.” And though that is probably not the adjective to use today, I think they had a strong point. There is something so flimsy about Keats that we half-believe Byron when he writes that Keats was killed by bad reviews:

”Poor fellow! His was an untoward fate;
'Tis strange the mind, that fiery particle,
Should let itself be snuffed out by an article.”

Be that as it may, I have a different complaint against Keats’ poetry. It seems to me a prime example of what Tolstoy called “the imitation of art.” Almost all Keats' settings are either the middle ages or mythological. You might consider this “ethereal,” and it is probably a big draw for some Keats fans. But to me it gives his work distinctly artificial quality. And the effect is exaggerated by lines that sometimes seem like they were composed for assonance alone, devoid of meaning. There is a precarious Finnegans Wake sort of quality to lines like:

”Tumultuous and in chords that tenderest be”

I suppose this sort of vagueness is excusable when done sparingly by a thoughtful person like Keats, but it is a poetic defect nonetheless.

In my personal list of preferred Johns of English poetry, Keats takes third place:
1. Milton
2. Dryden
3. Keats
4. Donne

I’m not a huge fan of Keats’ mode. It’s too vague, artificial, and tending towards weinerdom. But there was one unexpected piece of his I found at the end of this book. A Song About Myself is from a letter he wrote to his fiancé Fanny Brawne, and it shows a silly, sprightly, self-aware side of Keats that I found very endearing:

”There was a naughty Boy,
And a naughty Boy was he,
He ran away to Scotland
The people for to see—
Then he found
That the ground
Was as hard,
That a yard
Was as long,
That a song
Was as merry,
That a cherry
Was as red—
That lead
Was as weighty,
That fourscore
Was as eighty,
That a door
Was as wooden
As in England—
So he stood in his shoes
And he wonder’d,
He wonder’d,
He stood in his
Shoes and he wonder’d.”

[ZaRi]

I had a dove, and the sweet dove died;
And I have thought it died of grieving:
O, what could it grieve for? its feet were tied
With a single thread of my own hand's weaving;
Sweet little red feet, why should you die--
Why should you leave me, sweet bird, why?
You lived alone in the forest tree,
Why, pretty thing! would you not live with me?
I kiss'd you oft and gave you white peas;
Why not live sweetly, as in the green trees?

[Doris Raines · Rating 4 out of 5]

This. Is. A. Nice. Book

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not a poetry reader.

As a non-poetry reader, Keats is a bit beyond me. The older English prose, the “maybe-this-is-a-metaphor” imagery, and the references to old Western civ all go over my head.

Ignoring the fact that I’m reading a dead, 19th-century white dude’s interpretation of romance and women, the “romanticism” of Keats still avoids me. He was 25 when he died; personally I thought his writing is only in the nascent stages of evolving beyond angsty, existential cries, even if his style is supposed to focus on extreme emotion.

Also, I had someone explain to me that Keats is part of a time period when the dark and horrific were fairly standard in English writing. Still, “Isabella; or, the pot of Basil” is too macabre for my taste...

His poetic form is undoubtedly great though, and I enjoyed the flow of reading his poems. I’m not a poetry reader though, so what do I know?

[William Chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is filled with old poems. From the essence of nature to the magical empire of the past. John Keats, the author of this book, intrigues you with his amazing poems. It allows you to have a visual of how it feels to be in that situation. I really enjoyed this book because it's short, but is filled with impact. I learned many different poems from all kinds of past poets. My favorite one in the book is the one where a person is lost in the misty waters of the ocean. I recommend this book for people who want to look for sensational poems.

[Hun Garian · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's very difficult for me to get into poetry, but I'm trying. There's no doubt that these poems by Keats are highly skilled. However, the Romantic period is really not my cup of tea. I feel like this is the type of poetry someone is thinking about if they suffered through poetry in high school and hated it.

My favorite of the bunch was "Isabella" (or "The Pot of Basil") because it was a narrative poem and told a pretty interesting, tragic story of forbidden love.

[DW]

Stand out poems: Ode to Psyche, Ode to a Nightingale, and of course our Grecian Urn.

Otherwise, there is some seriously creepy stuff in here. Zombie love and murder. The poems can really get out of hand. Keats got way weirder than I realized.

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Containing thirty poems, this is one of those little collections of classics that's worth having at hand for reference and re-reading. There's no explanation, so this is meant for the reader who's already comfortable with Keats' language/reference points, but the power of the poems comes through as much today as ever.

[Chloe Deschamps · Rating 5 out of 5]

And each imagin’d pinnacle and steep
Of godlike hardship, tells me I must die
Like a sick eagle looking at the sky

girls with a time machine: hello john keats my sickly babygirl can I tuck you into bed and feed you soup

[Zach Brumaire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeply moving, existential fraught poetry, which maintains a thoughtful pang even through its (for this reader) over-romantic frills.

[Daniel Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know this is better than I thought it was. Alas, this is the kind of poetry that I'm not so good at reading.

[LeAnna · Rating 4 out of 5]

That oft-times hath charm’d magic casements, opening on the foam of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

[Daniel Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

“‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’- that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful collection.

[sofia bessette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Keats

[Abby Charak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely poetry, enjoyment reduced by my inability to silence the voice of morissey singing “keats and yates are by your side” repeatedly in my mind

[Michael Patton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've found Dover Thrift Editions a good "go to" place for checking out the literary giants.

[Cayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

these poems were meant to be read aloud

[Lille Knudsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems, what can I say ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Some great lines include “fondling nips” and “oh happy England”

Read analog on the couch at the femme films garage sale

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gosto bastante do estilo deste autor, da maneira como as coisas soam quando são lidas em voz alta. De certo modo fez-me lembrar Shakespeare, embora isso fosse talvez só por estar escrito em old English.

Os poemas mais longos foram de certo modo repetitivos. Por exemplo, o primeiro desta colecção, decorre durante seis páginas, mas fala constantemente da natureza o que para mim foi uma introdução um pouco medíocre. Por outro lado, um outro bem mais longo, Isabella or The Pot os Basil, é um dos meus favoritos porque conta uma história com princípio meio e fim e tem excelentes passagens.

No total os meus favoritos foram aqueles que tinham temas fora do normal, como o Ode on a Grecian Urn que falava exactamente daquilo que o nome indica, um poema dedicado ao gato de alguém, e um escrito numa carta à irmã do autor em que ele se descreve a si próprio.

Se tivesse sido eu a fazer esta colectânea provavelmente teria diminuído a quantidade de poemas em que o tema é a natureza e acrescentado mais histórias, sendo que essa é a única razão porque não dei as cinco estrelas. Tendo em conta que o autor morreu tão novo e tem uma quantidade ridicula de poemas dá para perceber que tem realmente um talento enorme para escrever poemas sobre tudo e mais alguma coisa.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Poems read so far--

I stood tip-toe upon a little hill--
To one who has been long in city pent--
On first looking into Chapman's Homer--
Happy Is England--
Isabella; or, the Pot of Basil--
The Eve of St. Agnes--
Ode to a Nightingale--
Ode on a Grecian Urn--
Ode to Psyche--
Fancy--
Bards of Passion and of Mirth--
Lines on the Mermaid Tavern--
Ode on Melancholy--
Hymn to Apollo--
La Belle Dame sans Merci--
Ode on Indolence--
On the Sea--
When I have fears--
To Homer--
To Sleep--
Why did I laugh--
Bright star, would I were--
On Seeing the Elgin Marbles--
To J. H. Reynolds, Esq.--
Ode to May--
To Mrs. Reynolds's Cat--
Four seasons fill--
In drear-nighted December--
A Song about Myself

[Gary Patella · Rating 2 out of 5]

When it comes to poetry, my knowledge is extremely lacking. I decided to read the poems of Keats in order to expand my horizons a bit. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy his poems.

With the rare exception of Isabella; or the Pot of Basil, which was an excellent poem that was more like a rhyming short story, and perhaps two or three other decent poems, I thought most of his poems were pretty bad. Some I would even say were terrible.

I know that Keats is recognized as one of the great English poets, but I just don't see why. I would not recommend reading anything by Keats except for Isabella.