When a Snake Loves a Human

[setsuled]

We finished with Romantic Poets yesterday by looking at John Keats, who I'd been reading for five days beforehand. I was surprised to find I really like him--for some reason I expected him to be another Wordsworth, maybe because Lord Byron didn't like his work. But I like his belief in an aesthetic concept of pleasure and pain being necessary as

Comments

[poliphilo]

Keats died half-formed. Imagine if he'd lived to be 70: He'd have dominated the 19th century- and given Shakespeare a run for his money.

[setsuled]

That's what a lot of the commentary I'm reading seems to say. I can't disagree, his work is really impressive. I like Shelley and Byron but there seems to be a perspective in Keats that encompasses more, indeed very like Shakespeare.