Love Poems of John Keats: In Praise of Beauty

by John Keats, David Stanford Burr (Introduction), David Sanford Burr (Selected by), David Sanford Burr (Introduction)

Overview

These are the words John Keats chose to epitomize his short, frustrating, and tragic life. They appear as his epitaph in Rome's Protestant cemetery. Often called the greatest English poet after Shakespeare, Keats had a lifelong preoccupation with early death. This sense of mortality, along with the poet's famous, unrequited love for Fanny Brawne, sparked dozens of finely written sonnets and lyrics of love.

This beautifully crafted collection contains some of the most heartfelt of Keats' personal poems. "La Belle Dame Sans Merci A Ballad" and "The Eve of St. Agnes" are paragons of the gothic lyric, wherein mysterious lovers, dream visions, and late-night fantasy come magically to life. Lighter verse, such as "Where be ye going, you Devon maid?" and such passionate, pensive poems as "When I have fears that I may cease to be" provide a personal glimpse of the young poet's dreams and dreads.

This selection of twenty-six poems also presents an introduction to the life of John Keats, notes on the indivdual poems, and ten illustrations, half of which are of biographical interest and half underscore thematic elements contained in the poems.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312051051
Publisher:	St. Martin's Press
Publication date:	11/01/1990
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	80
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.31(d)

About the Author

John Keats (1795-1821), born in Finsbury Pavement in London, was one of the principal poets of the English Romantic movement. Keats died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-five.

Table of Contents

Introduction by David Stanford Burr

"Fill for me a brimming bowl"
To Some Ladies
To Emma
"Woman! When I behold thee flippant, vain"
To [Mary Frogley]
To——
To a Young Lady who sent me a Laurel Crown
Lines
Stanzas
"Hither, hither, love—"
"Think not of it, sweet one, so—"
"In drear-nighted December"
"When I have fears that I may cease to be"
"O blush not so! O blush not so!"
To——
"Where be ye going, you Devon maid?"
"Over the hill and over the dale"
"And what is love? It is a doll dressed up"
Song
The Eve of St. Agnes
La Belle dame sans Merci. A Ballad
"The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!"
"What can I do to drive away"
"I cry your mercy, pity, love—ay, love!"
"Bright star! Would I were steadfast as thou art—"
To Fanny