John Keats

John Keats (1795-1821)

Poet

• "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
  Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; "
  • To Autumn

• "Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
  And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;"
  • On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer

• "Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
  I have been half in love with easeful Death,
  Call'd him soft names in many a musèd rhyme,
  To take into the air my quiet breath;"
  • Ode to a Nightingale

• "O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
  Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth;"
  • Ode to a Nightingale

• "You are always new. The last of your kisses was ever the sweetest; the last smile the brightest; the last movement the gracefullest."
  • Letter to Fanny Brawne, March 1820

from Endymion

• " A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
  Its loveliness increases; it will never
  Pass into nothingness; "

• "In spite of all,
  Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
  From our dark spirits.

• "All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
  An endless fountain of immortal drink,
  Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.

• " Nor do we merely feel these essences
  For one short hour;
  […] whether there be shine, or gloom o’ercast,
  They alway must be with us, or we die. "

• "He ne'er is crown'd
  With immortality, who fears to follow
  Where airy voices lead."

from Ode on a Grecian Urn

• " Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
  Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
  Sylvan historian, who canst thou express
  A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme".

• "What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
  What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?"

• " Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
  Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on"

• " Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
  Though winning near the goal - yet, do not grieve;
  She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
  For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

• "Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
  As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
  When old age shall this generation waste,
  Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
  Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
  &nbsp "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," —that is all
  &nbsp Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
  • The final lines of this poem have been rendered in various ways in different editions, some placing the entire last two lines within quotation marks, others only the statement "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," and others without any quotation marks. The poet's final intentions upon the matter before his death are unclear.