TRYST WITH A DEAD POET
Letter from John Keats to his muse Frances Brawne
OCTOBER 1819
My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you - I am forgetful of everything but seeing you again - my life seems to stop there - I see no further. You have absorb'd me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I was dissolving - I should be exquisitely miserable without the hope of soon seeing you. [...] I have been astonished that Men could die Martyrs for religion - I have shudder'd at it - I shudder no more - I could be martyr'd for my Religion - Love is my religion - I could die for that - I could die for you.
I particularly loved the use of the word dissolving as well as the the prefection of the phrase exquisitely miserable
I think many boys underestimate the power of romantic speech
Something like this would have me falling hard into the hands of anyone, as I'm sure it would render the same effect in most girls
But I have yet to meet a boy so eloquent in verse, so I guess I'm safe for now
THREE OTHER FAVOURITES:
"For myself I know not how to express my devotion to so fair a form: I want a brighter word than bright, a fairer word than fair. I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days, three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain."
"I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of imagination."
"Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath/ And so live ever - or else swoon to death." (From his poem Bright Star)
And I think Endymion is worth of joining Kubla Khan in my all-time favourite poems list
which now consists of two poems
Beautiful words are something that can be treasured forever yet are not anything to be less admired despite this quality
Precious few things are like that in nature.
Okay, Keats rant over.
YOU MAY BLAME THE MOVIE BRIGHT STAR FOR THIS.
WHICH I GIVE
BY THE WAY.
toodles