: John Keats
: Poems of 1817 and 1820
: Seltzer Books
: 9781455392629
: 1
: CHF 0.10
:
: Lyrik
: English
: 367
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

This collection, with poems published in 1817, Endymion, and poems published in 1820, includes his best known works, such as: Ode to a Nightingale, Ode to a Grecian Ur, Ode to Psyche, Lamia, Eve of St. Agnes, Ode on Melancholy, To Autumn, and Hyperion. According to Wikipedia: 'John Keats (1795 - 1821) was one of the principal poets of the English Romantic movement. During his short life, his work received constant critical attacks from periodicals of the day, but his posthumous influence on poets such as Alfred Tennyson has been immense. Elaborate word choice and sensual imagery characterize Keats's poetry, including a series of odes that were his masterpieces and which remain among the most popular poems in English literature. Keats's letters, which expound on his aesthetic theory of 'negative capability'[1], are among the most celebrated by any writer.'

ENDYMION: A POETIC ROMANCE. BY JOHN KEATS.


 

"THE STRETCHED METRE OF AN ANTIQUE SONG."

 

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR TAYLOR AND HESSEY,

93, FLEET STREET.

1818.

 

INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS CHATTERTON.

 

PREFACE.

 

Knowing within myself the manner in which this Poem has been produced, it is not without a feeling of regret that I make it public.

 

What manner I mean, will be quite clear to the reader, who must soon perceive great inexperience, immaturity, and every error denoting a feverish attempt, rather than a deed accomplished. The two first books, and indeed the two last, I feel sensible are not of such completion as to warrant their passing the press; nor should they if I thought a year's castigation would do them any good;--it will not: the foundations are too sandy. It is just that this youngster should die away: a sad thought for me, if I had not some hope that while it is dwindling I may be plotting, and fitting myself for verses fit to live.

 

This may be speaking too presumptuously, and may deserve a punishment: but no feeling man will be forward to inflict it: he will leave me alone, with the conviction that there is not a fiercer hell than the failure in a great object. This is not written with the least atom of purpose to forestall criticisms of course, but from the desire I have to conciliate men who are competent to look, and who do look with a zealous eye, to the honour of English literature.

 

The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a man is healthy; but there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambition thick-sighted: thence proceeds mawkishness, and all the thousand bitters which those men I speak of must necessarily taste in going over the following pages.

 

I hope I have not in too late a day touched the beautiful mythology of Greece, and dulled its brightness: for I wish to try once more, before I bid it farewel.

  _Teignmouth,

  April 10, 1818._

 

ERRATUM.

 

Page 108, line 4 from the bottom, for"her" read"his."

 

ENDYMION.

 

BOOK I.

 

  A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:

  Its loveliness increases; it will never

  Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

  A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

  Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

  Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing

  A flowery band to bind us to the earth,

  Spite of despondence, of t