Struggling to enjoy Keats

To some it may sound astounding, and I can understand that, but I am really struggling to get into Keats. I can see he was very clever - his poems leave many different possible interpretations, but I just don't really enjoy them. Maybe it's because he is so morose, and I can't really tap into that. Any reccomendations for poems that will get me to love Keats? I've already read Lamia, Grecian Urn, Eve of St. Agnes and On the Sea. I have to admit, Ode on a Grecian Urn was good, but I was slightly thrown off by Lamia which is a bit heavy (don't get me wrong, I'm not a lightweight, but it was just a bit of a straight narrative.)

Anyone completely and vehemently disagree with me?:flare:

I like "O Solitude" when he says "the deer's swift leap/startles the wild bee from the foxglove bell." Pure Romantic. Its nice and short also, unlike a lot of other Romantic poems, that go on for pages and pages and clearly did not have the shortened attention span of the modern intellectual on the move in mind.
Ode To Autumn also. My English teacher in second year used to say she imagined the guy from the Mr Kipling adverts reading it. Don't know if that means anything to you.

The top of Keats art are his odes. Grecian Urn, Melancholy, Psyche and Nighitingale.
Some of his short poems (Bright Star, If by Dull rhymes English must be chained, Give me woman, wine, and snuff) and others such La Belle Dame sans Mercy, maybe.
Long poems like Lamia, Hyperion, etc are his most irregular poems because keats poetry is all movemment using some invisible wings.

Anyways, it is absolutelly normal to not like a great writer, such is life. You do not have "to" like him.

This Keat's poem is amazing.

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

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Originally Posted by Rosencrantz

To some it may sound astounding, and I can understand that, but I am really struggling to get into Keats. I can see he was very clever - his poems leave many different possible interpretations, but I just don't really enjoy them. Maybe it's because he is so morose, and I can't really tap into that. Any reccomendations for poems that will get me to love Keats? I've already read Lamia, Grecian Urn, Eve of St. Agnes and On the Sea. I have to admit, Ode on a Grecian Urn was good, but I was slightly thrown off by Lamia which is a bit heavy (don't get me wrong, I'm not a lightweight, but it was just a bit of a straight narrative.)

Anyone completely and vehemently disagree with me?:flare:

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This is an interesting plus for Keats:


Author Crawford, Alexander Wellington, 1866-1933.
Title The genius of Keats; an interpretation, by Alexander W. Crawford.
Publication Information New York, Russell & Russell [1967]

If nothing else, it will help you see his work from a more positive perspective.

So, whose poetry do you enjoy? :;)

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Originally Posted by ktd222

Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.[/I]

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Sorry if this sounds unintelligent, but I'm a little unsure what Keats is getting at exactly with the last couple lines of "When I have fears that I may cease to be." I'd be interested to hear how someone else interprets it...is he trying to comfort himself because he will be unable to fulfill all his dreams? Almost as if he wants to push those thoughts of mortality out of his mind?

any thoughts would be appreciated.

I felt exactly the same when I studied Keats; he is certainly difficult and not always enjoyable upon first reading but now i'm looking at his works again i'm seeing something more in them, and beginning to enjoy them more. All I can suggest is that you do some background reading to try and get a better feel for the author and his works, but believe me when I say that there was many a time when the likes of 'Ode on Melancholy' had me wanting to put an end to it all! I read it to my family when we were stuck in a traffic queue as it seemed to fit the moment :lol:

would it help to know he was an opium addict?
lol, it worked for me at school
the poor thing has his TB and all.. but he was a pain killer junkie

poofy yes he was simply feeling sorry for himself there

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Originally Posted by poofyhead15

Sorry if this sounds unintelligent, but I'm a little unsure what Keats is getting at exactly with the last couple lines of "When I have fears that I may cease to be." I'd be interested to hear how someone else interprets it...is he trying to comfort himself because he will be unable to fulfill all his dreams? Almost as if he wants to push those thoughts of mortality out of his mind?

any thoughts would be appreciated.

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He talks about what we all feel on occasions…that we might run out of time before doing all of what we dreamt up; but obviously for him this fear of dying prematurely revolves around not living long enough to experience love. He compares these thoughts “teeming” in his brain to a field of “ripening grains.” His wish is too see those thoughts mature, and to be able to write about those experiences. The “high-piled books” are like the “ripened grains,” both are symbols of a complete maturation process; in this case the “high-piled books” represent a story told, with a beginning, middle and end…a symbol for thoughts harvested.

Then he looks up at the “night’s starr’d face” and sees “symbols of a high romance,” which are symbols like the “ripened grain” and “high-piled books,” and he realizes that he’ll never live long enough to write about his own experience in romance. He describes the night as a “starr’d face,” as if the “cloudy symbols of romance” written in the night itself is some publicly, well-known thing. Just as things can be publicly known one hour and be forgotten in the next hour, he sees love much like fame…in that it is something transient, something that will go as quickly out of existence as it did coming into existence; the only thing one is assured of is that everything becomes nothing in the end.

I like how the first time that I've read The Eve of St. Agnes I had no clue what was going on in the poem exceot for ALL those descriptions about the room until i read it the second time and found all of the sensual and sneaky action I missed out on the first time around. :D

Edit: wow. i didnt look at the age of this thread <_<

'eve of st agnes' is my favourite... ethereal, flushed, like a throbbing star.......... wow! and obviously 'to autumn'. i don't really like 'when i have fears'...too many personal pronouns.

I believe that Keats is one of the poets you must take out of his writings to fully understand. I believe that my own personal enjoyment in him is based on who he was, his beliefs, over his poetry. (Although I greatly love his poetry). And in order to understand such art as his own, you must first try and understand the artist.

This is just my opinion but I think Keats is the greatest English poet. His odes have never been surpassed in the realm of poetry.

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Originally Posted by Rosencrantz

To some it may sound astounding, and I can understand that, but I am really struggling to get into Keats. I can see he was very clever - his poems leave many different possible interpretations, but I just don't really enjoy them. Maybe it's because he is so morose, and I can't really tap into that. Any reccomendations for poems that will get me to love Keats? I've already read Lamia, Grecian Urn, Eve of St. Agnes and On the Sea. I have to admit, Ode on a Grecian Urn was good, but I was slightly thrown off by Lamia which is a bit heavy (don't get me wrong, I'm not a lightweight, but it was just a bit of a straight narrative.)

Anyone completely and vehemently disagree with me?:flare:

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I like Ode on a Grecian Urn and Ode to A Nightingale. Maybe watch 'Bright Star' for inspiration:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0810784/