Keats: Poems Published in 1820

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Title: Keats: Poems Published in 1820

Author: John Keats

Editor: M. Robertson

Release Date: December 2, 2007 [eBook #23684]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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[i]

 

KEATS

POEMS PUBLISHED IN 1820

 

EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND

NOTES BY

M. ROBERTSON

 

OXFORD

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

1909

[ii]

PREFACE.

The text of this edition is a reprint (page for page and line for line) of a copy of the 1820 edition in the British Museum. For convenience of reference line-numbers have been added; but this is the only change, beyond the correction of one or two misprints.

The books to which I am most indebted for the material used in the Introduction and Notes are The Poems of John Keats with an Introduction and Notes by E. de Sélincourt, Life of Keats (English Men of Letters Series) by Sidney Colvin, and Letters of John Keats edited by Sidney Colvin. As a pupil of Dr. de Sélincourt I also owe him special gratitude for his inspiration and direction of my study of Keats, as well as for the constant help which I have received from him in the preparation of this edition.

M. R.

[iii]

CONTENTS

PAGE
Preface	ii
Life of Keats	v
Advertisement	2
Lamia. Part I	3
Lamia. Part II	27
Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil. A Story from Boccaccio	47
The Eve of St. Agnes	81
Ode to a Nightingale	107
Ode on a Grecian Urn	113
Ode to Psyche	117
Fancy	122
Ode ['Bards of Passion and of Mirth']	128
Lines on the Mermaid Tavern	131
Robin Hood. To a Friend	133
To Autumn	137
Ode on Melancholy	140
Hyperion. Book I	145
Hyperion. Book II	167
Hyperion. Book III	191
Note on Advertisement	201
Introduction To Lamia	201
Notes on Lamia	203
[iv]Introduction to Isabella and The Eve of St. Agnes	210
Notes on Isabella	215
Notes on The Eve of St. Agnes	224
Introduction to the Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode on Melancholy, and To Autumn	229
Notes on Ode to a Nightingale	232
Notes on Ode on a Grecian Urn	235
Introduction to Ode to Psyche	236
Notes on Ode to Psyche	237
Introduction to Fancy	238
Notes on Fancy	238
Notes on Ode ['Bards of Passion and of Mirth']	239
Introduction to Lines on the Mermaid Tavern	239
Notes on Lines on the Mermaid Tavern	239
Introduction To Robin Hood	240
Notes on Robin Hood	241
Notes on 'To Autumn'	242
Notes on Ode on Melancholy	243
Introduction to Hyperion	244
Notes on Hyperion	249

[v]

LIFE OF KEATS

Of all the great poets of the early nineteenth century—Wordsworth, Coleridge, Scott, Byron, Shelley, Keats—John Keats was the last born and the first to die. The length of his life was not one-third that of Wordsworth, who was born twenty-five years before him and outlived him by twenty-nine. Yet before his tragic death at twenty-six Keats had produced a body of poetry of such extraordinary power and promise that the world has sometimes been tempted, in its regret for what he might have done had he lived, to lose sight of the superlative merit of what he actually accomplished.

The three years of his poetic career, during which he published three small volumes of poetry, show a development at the same time rapid and steady, and a gradual but complete abandonment of almost every fault and weakness. It would probably be impossible, in the history of literature, to find such another instance of the 'growth of a poet's mind'.

The last of these three volumes, which is here [vi]reprinted, was published in 1820, when it 'had good success among the literary people and . . . a moderate sale'. It contains the flower of his poetic production and is perhaps, altogether, one of the most marvellous volumes ever issued from the press.

But in spite of the maturity of Keats's work when he was twenty-five, he had been in no sense a precocious child. Born in 1795 in the city of London, the son of a livery-stable keeper, he was brought up amid surroundings and influences by no means calculated to awaken poetic genius.

He was the eldest of five—four boys, one of whom died in infancy, and a girl younger than all; and he and his brothers George and Tom were educated at a private school at Enfield. Here John was at first distinguished more for fighting than for study, whilst his bright, brave, generous nature made him popular with masters and boys.

Soon after he had begun to go to school his father died, and when he was fifteen the children lost their mother too. Keats was passionately devoted to his mother; during her last illness he would sit up all night with her, give her her medicine, and even cook her food himself. At her death he was brokenhearted.

[vii]The children were now put under the care of two guardians, one of whom, Mr. Abbey, taking the sole responsibility, immediately removed John from school and apprenticed him for five years to a surgeon at Edmonton.

Whilst thus employed Keats spent all his leisure time in reading, for which he had developed a great enthusiasm during his last two years at school.