The Complete Poems

The Complete Poems
ISBN: 9780140422108
Publication Date: 1 August 1977

'I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart's affections and the truth of Imagination'

Keat's first volume of poems, published in 1817, demonstrated both his belief in the consummate power of poetry and his liberal views. While he was criticized by many for his politics, his immediate circle of friends and family immediately recognized his genius. In his short life he proved to be one of the greatest and most original thinkers of the second generation of Romantic poets, with such poems as 'Ode to a Nightingale', 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer', 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' and 'The Fall of Hyperion'. While his writing is illuminated by exaltation of the imagination and abounds with sensuous descriptions of nature's beauty, it also explores profound philosophical questions.

John Barnard's acclaimed volume contaiins all the poems known to have been written by Keats, arranged by date of composition. The texts are lightly modernized and are complemented by extensive notes, a textual introduction, an index of classical names, selected extracts from Keat's letters and a number of pieces not widely available, including his annotations to Milton's Paradise Lost.

About The Author John Keats was born in October 1795, son of the manager of a livery stable in Moorfields. His father died in 1804 and his mother, of tuberculosis, in 1810. By then he had received a good education at John Clarke's Enfield private school. In 1811 he was apprenticed to a surgeon, completing his professional training at Guy's Hospital in 1816. His decision to commit himself to poetry rather than a medical career was a courageous one, based more on a challenge to himself than any actual achievement.

His genius was recognized and encouraged by early Mends like Charles Cowden Clarke a...