littlepanda's review
3.0
I don't think Keats is one of my favorite poet. I enjoyed most of his poetry especially the one of the nightingale but some of them had too much reference to classics which were a bit drowning his style into a mass of knowledge necessary to read the poems.
mokey81's review against another edition
3.0
The ability to read, understand, and appreciate classic poetry is definitely one of those "use it or lose it skills." Reading Keats in college was enjoyable and challenging, but reading Keats 15 year out of college? Cumbersome and confusing.
I didn't really enjoy any of the poems in this collection. Except one. I'm so glad I discovered "Isabella, or the Pot of Basil." The story has taken over my brain, and I think about it a lot.
But in general, Keats just kinda drones on and on and on, barely hitting main points and ideas. It really was a trudge. Which is sad, because I really used to enjoy his poems.
I didn't really enjoy any of the poems in this collection. Except one. I'm so glad I discovered "Isabella, or the Pot of Basil." The story has taken over my brain, and I think about it a lot.
But in general, Keats just kinda drones on and on and on, barely hitting main points and ideas. It really was a trudge. Which is sad, because I really used to enjoy his poems.
djasson's review against another edition
4.0
I almost gave this book three stars, since I really loved only a few of the Keats poems contained within, but the book as a whole gave me such a great look at his progression from start to finish. That was one intent of the editor, Elizabeth Cook. She writes in her introduction: "But to read Keats's poetry through in chronological sequence (the principle of this volume) is to be impressed with the astonishing speed with which it matures. Keats effectively produced his life's work in two years; the greater part of it in one" (p. x).
I found several of his poems too verbose, as though he were trying to impress us with his vocabulary. I've seen intense poetry from Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley and other Romantics that hit on similar themes but did it in fewer words. I'm not looking to enforce a word limit (e.g. I love the Odyssey), but I want these poems to be beautiful, using only what is necessary. Keats succeeds best when his craft fades away and the story and emotions come to the foreground. But even in these longer works, he often has a moment of clarity. In "Sleep and Poetry," he writes: "Stop and consider! life is but a day; / A fragile dew-drop on its perilous way / From a tree's summit" (lines 85-87).
I like his narrative poems the best. "Lamia" is my favorite, by far. It is a well constructed story with beautifully chosen words the flows perfectly. I thoroughly enjoyed "Hyperion: A Fragment" as well. His attempt to rework this unfinished poem in "Fall of Hyperion" fails, in my opinion. He returns to using too many words again, almost like a student padding a paper to reach the required page count. The beauty and sadness of "Hyperion" is lost amongst the glut of words.
I wonder what Keats would have produced had he not died of tuberculosis at 25. Based on Hyperion and Lamia, I think he would have continued to grow and increased his legacy even further.
Let me give yet another shout out to the wonderful editions in the Oxford World's Classic series, produced by the Oxford University Press. I really love these editions ... this is my 7th in the series. A great introduction, timeline of the authors life, the work and then fantastic notes that provide context and elucidation.
I found several of his poems too verbose, as though he were trying to impress us with his vocabulary. I've seen intense poetry from Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley and other Romantics that hit on similar themes but did it in fewer words. I'm not looking to enforce a word limit (e.g. I love the Odyssey), but I want these poems to be beautiful, using only what is necessary. Keats succeeds best when his craft fades away and the story and emotions come to the foreground. But even in these longer works, he often has a moment of clarity. In "Sleep and Poetry," he writes: "Stop and consider! life is but a day; / A fragile dew-drop on its perilous way / From a tree's summit" (lines 85-87).
I like his narrative poems the best. "Lamia" is my favorite, by far. It is a well constructed story with beautifully chosen words the flows perfectly. I thoroughly enjoyed "Hyperion: A Fragment" as well. His attempt to rework this unfinished poem in "Fall of Hyperion" fails, in my opinion. He returns to using too many words again, almost like a student padding a paper to reach the required page count. The beauty and sadness of "Hyperion" is lost amongst the glut of words.
I wonder what Keats would have produced had he not died of tuberculosis at 25. Based on Hyperion and Lamia, I think he would have continued to grow and increased his legacy even further.
Let me give yet another shout out to the wonderful editions in the Oxford World's Classic series, produced by the Oxford University Press. I really love these editions ... this is my 7th in the series. A great introduction, timeline of the authors life, the work and then fantastic notes that provide context and elucidation.
remy_lourdes's review
4.0
4/5!
*extra reading as summer work for English Lit A Level*
I only read the poems I’ll be studying but I really enjoyed this actually! I love the rhyme scheme and the beautiful imagery wow
*extra reading as summer work for English Lit A Level*
I only read the poems I’ll be studying but I really enjoyed this actually! I love the rhyme scheme and the beautiful imagery wow
frackletum's review
3.0
I just want to mention that John Green actually had a party at 25 for outliving John Keats, so yeah, that's cultural impact
katheryn's review against another edition
5.0
Keats has been on my to-read list ever since I studied some of his poems during my MA. It was his use of language which first struck me (in particular the image, from Ode to Melancholy, of "him whose strenuous tongue / Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine"), and I couldn't help but read several of the poems in this edition aloud. This edition isn't particularly up-to-date, and the notes are purely informative, but it serves its purpose well as far as the poems themselves go. There is a nice variety, and I delighted in discovering and savouring them.
saraireads's review
3.0
The longer poems I listened to on audio, and found that I enjoyed them a lot more when I did that. However, I wasn't completely in love with this collection--I much prefer the poems relating to love, nature, and self-reflection rather than the poems that were inspired by Greek mythology, which were some of the longest poems in the collection and there were several of them so they took up a large portion of the book. These poems just weren't for me.
I did manage to mark down the poems I loved the most, which were:
- 'When I have fears that I may cease to be'
- Isabella; or The Pot of Basil
- 'Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art'
- 'What can I do to drive away'
I did manage to mark down the poems I loved the most, which were:
- 'When I have fears that I may cease to be'
- Isabella; or The Pot of Basil
- 'Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art'
- 'What can I do to drive away'