Why I love Keats...

Ok i've entitled this post 'Why I love Keats', but really I plan to bombard you all with my passion for Keats. I find it a hard question to answer. Why do I love keats? I dont know if I can clearly answer that. Something about his poetry and him call out to me...

'Deep in the shady sadness of a vale

Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn

Far from the fiery moon, and eve's one star,

Sat grey-haired Saturn, quiet as a stone

Still as the silence round about his lair...

And sleep there since, Upon the sodden ground,

His old right hand lay nerveless, listeless, dead

Unsceptered and his realmless eyes were closed

While his bowed head seemed listening to the Earth,

His ancient mother, for some comfort yet' ( from Hyperion, a fragment)

Beautiful. Evocative. As I read him im transported to this other world. His writing is magical and beautiful, conjuring up these landscapes and scenes. Theres a feeling of nostalgia and melancholy, but also beauty.

This is one of my favourite lines by Keats... 'As when upon a tranced summer night'- so simple yet I love it. ( tranced pronounced trance/ed)

As Keats wrote 'A thing of Beauty is a joy for ever, its loveliness increases, it will never pass into nothingess', his poetry is beautiful and has survived him.

I have to admit somewhat guilitly that I was properly introduced to Keats poetry via the movie 'Bright Star', which is a fantastic film, and now stands as one of my favourites. Of course I had heard of Keats but I had never possesed any pronounced interest in reading him. But the film made me hungry for Keats poetry. I wanted to devour as much as I could of material of his, and relating to him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix68zq6jiJg The trailer. (Ignore the annoying american lady at the beggining)

Keats and Fnny's first kiss from the movie... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrUawrWgg5I&feature=related

The music is sublime. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvmqOUZyJqM The acting sublime. The movie is sublime.

I can't rave about this movie too much. Ok, granted, its not for everyone but for the more senstive romantic souls out there you will love this film. Im making myself want to watch it right now. Have the tissues at the ready. But it's not melodramtic. It feels very real. That's the beauty of it.

I think it's safe to say that in the movie I found myself attracted not only to Keats poetry but also to him as a character, and how he is portrayed. Obviously it can't be 100 percent realistic. I know that. But part of the initial attraction was my sense of yearning for that poetic senstivie soul. Where are there men like that?

Anyway , yes the movie bought me to Keats, and that can only be a good thing? I've discovered a passion for his poetry which I woulden't have if i'd never seen the movie. I loved hearing the poems read out in the movie. It really bought them to life. Specifically I searched out 'Bright Star' the poem he wrote for his love Fanny Brawne because I was really struck by it. So I will end by inserting the poem.

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--- Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite, The moving waters at their priestlike task Of pure ablution round earth's human shores, Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--- No---yet still stedfast, still unchangeable, Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast, To feel for ever its soft fall and swell, Awake for ever in a sweet unrest, Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, And so live ever---or else swoon in death.

So have I convinced anyone to give Keats a go if they havn't already? :D I would defenitely reccomend seeing the movie Bright Star and who knows it may inspire in you a passion to find out more about and read more of Keats. :)