John Keats, página 3 de 8

"An ''ignorant and unsettled pretender'' to culture and a ''bantling'' who has ''already learned to lisp sedition''." It was in these terms that the Tory Blackwood''s Magazine reviled Keats''s poetry in 1818. This is not to imply that Keats (1795-1821) was, like Shelley, a political poet. Indeed, he is the ''one great English Romantic poet whose prime belief was in art and beauty''. Love, art, sorrow, the natural world and the nature of the imagination are the preoccupying themes of his poetry. However, as John Barnard shows in this selection, Keats''s poetry is often indirectly critical of conventional political, religious and sexual beliefs. In his Introduction he discusses the focus of the volume, which emphasises Keats''s place as a ''second-generation Romantic''. While Keats sought to embody in his work the ''dreams of art'', he was also aware of the limitations of the claims of poetry and the imagination and remained deeply conscious of human suffering.

CIDEB. GB. INTERACT WITH LITERATURE AX.ALUM/IDIOMAS GENERAL

In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an accessible and passionate introduction to the most important poets in our literature.

John Keats is perhaps the most talented poet of the English Romantic Period. Although his life was cut short by disease at the age of 25, he produced some of the most famous poems in world literature. Less erudite and philosophical than Shelley and not so technically versatile as Byron, he displayed a sure poetic instinct and an amazing ability to appeal powerfully to the senses and to the emotions by the brilliance of his diction. Thus his poetry is noted more for exquisite feeling than for thought, but in his particular sphere he was unmatched. His influence upon later poets has been immense.

This Weekly Poem is taken from The Poetical Works Of John Keats (1817)

In his wonderful interpretation of the classic tale of Lamia - the mythological entity portrayed as being a deadly threat especially to children and young men - master poet John Keats construes this timeless and enigmatic story with a view towards intrigue, deception, loyalty, honor and fervor of a young mans lust for a life of passionate bliss with the newly found woman of his dreams. In retrospect, considering certain aspects of her past and recent serpent-like incarnation, the beautiful and seductive Lamia was a poor choice for the young man Lycius. But infatuation and the recklessness of youth superseded any rational thought and the wild attraction of the two lovers grew stronger. It would take his elderly mentor Apollonius , to alert Lycius to the hazards of this new relationship. However, whether Lycius will heed the warning of his "trusty guide and good instructor" seems uncertain. In fact, Lycius has marriage in his plans, although he is concerned about a certain inexplicable stress exhibited by Lamia in the presence of Apollonius. In an attempt to cool this mad romantic obsession of Lycius and rescue his student from a dubious future, all Apollonius can do now is try to expose Lamia for the evil entity she really is. An old philosophers cold logic and reason versus the hot passion of youth in a new found love. It must be tried. What could possibly go wrong. - Summary by Bruce Kachuk

Early poems of this famous English lyric poet, in which he openly expresses indebtedness to, and reverence for, his poetic predecessors, especially Spenser, into whose chivalric world he boldly ventures; and also for Milton, and the classic poets. There are also glimpses of his personal, family and political relationships. These poems are of medium length and often pastoral and contemplative in nature with many classical references. His lyric genius and love for humanity are clearly displayed.

De todos los poemas de Keats, \"La víspera de Santa Inés\" es el más bello y representa la culminación de su estilo poético. Se trata de un poema narrativo de ambientación medieval, a la manera de las viejas baladas, en el que se refleja la profunda pasión que en el momento de su escritura siente el poeta por Fanny Brawne, su gran amor. El poema se reparte en 42 estrofas spenserianas de nueve versos -el metro utilizado por Spenser en \"The Faerie Queene\"-, cada una de las cuales ha sido vertida por Luis Alberto de Cuenca y José Fernández Bueno en diez alejandrinos castellanos que guardan todos los matices del prodigioso original.

Keats comenzó a escribir su Hiperión a finales de septiembre de 1818 cuando tenía 22 años, y lo abandonó definitivamente en abril del año siguiente. La caída de Hiperión no se conoció hasta 1856. El poema intentaba reconstruir libremente el plan de su anterior Hiperion y fue empezado a escribir a mediados de julio de 1819 en Shanlin. En ambos textos se describe como fueron marginados los dioses pre-helenicos, los Titanes, con la llegada de los nuevos dioses olimpicos, encabezados por Jupiter. Al comienzo del mismo se ve a Saturno y a los demas Titanes derrotados, todos menos Hiperion, el Dios del Sol, que intenta animar a sus compañeros y levantar sus decaidos espiritus. Segun Richard Woodhouse: "El poema, de haber sido completado, habria tratado del destronamiento de Hiperion, el anterior Dios del Sol, por Apolo, e incidentalmente de los de Ocenao por Neptuno, de Saturno por Jupiter... y de la guerra de los Gigantes (o Titanes) por restablecer en el mando a Saturno, con otros sucesos sobre los que tenemos muy oscuras indicaciones en los poetas mitologicos de Grecia y Roma. De hecho, los incidentes habrian sido puras creaciones del cerebro del poeta."

"La noche esparcirá en la húmeda yerba miríadas de lánguidas hojas, y con ellas moriré, pues no duele mucho morir cuando el verano muere en el césped frío." ("Endimión", IV, 933-936)