'I heard that Mr L Said a thing I am not at all contented with - Says he 'O, he is quite the little Poet' now this is abominable - you might as well say Buonaparte is quite the little Soldier - You see what it is to be under six foot and not a lord - ' John Keats in a letter to his brother George, February 1819
27 January 2010 So I
was reading through Keats' letters again and came across this gem - 'I
am three and twenty with little knowledge and middling intellect.
It is true that in the height of enthusiasm I have been cheated into
some fine passages, but that is nothing.' That's from a letter to
Haydon in March 1819. Whenever I read arguments that great
artists don't need to be nice or humble or decent (their greatness gets
them a pass, right?), I think immediately of Keats. We love his
poetry, of course, but - especially in his later work - Keats managed
to achieve his Shakespearean goal. He became the
'Presider'. You catch glimpses of the man in his work, but not
much, - and that's to his poetry's benefit. But in his letters -
there he is in all his funny and brilliant and friendly and charming
glory. You want to reach back through time and clasp his living
hand.
The letter to Haydon also contained this - 'What a set of little people we live amongst. ... Conversation is not a search after knowledge, but an endeavour at effect.'
Reading through the letters made me think about how certain works / authors become a part of us. We read them so - deeply? intently? - I don't know the exact word for what I'm after, only that we read certain works and they get into us and never let go. I feel like Keats has been tagging along with me for about twenty years now. Could I find a better companion?
And this brings me to a question I have for you. I can still recite from memory the first two poems I read, - Shelley's blasted 'Indian Serenade' (read it and have it stuck in your head forever, too) and Keats' 'When I have fears'. What about you? What's the first poem you read? If you can't remember the first, then what's the poem that made you get poetry? Email me at marilee@keatsian.com. I'd like to see if my fellow Keatsians had similar poetic initiations. :-)
Is there any Keatsian news? 'Bright Star' is on dvd. Andrew Motion wrote a short introduction to Keats' poetry at The Guardian. And there was a Keats' quote in an automobile ad, but I lost it. I'm not up to webmaster-snuff lately. -Marilee
16 September 2009 'Bright Star' is now in limited release in the US. Click here to read the NY Times review.
I am as brisk
As a bottle of wisk -
Ey, and as nimble
as a milliner's thimble.
The above was scribbled down by Keats in early 1816. I like it.
19 June 2009 The Royal Academy of Arts has an exhibition on JW Waterhouse from 27 June to 13 September. Like his fellow pre-Raphaelites, Waterhouse admired Keats's work and it inspired one of his most famous paintings ('La Belle Dame Sans Merci'). Follow the link to learn more.
12 June 2009 Keats in Hampstead is back this year. It begins on 24 July and you can buy tickets online at their site. They have a Facebook group as well, but you need to be a member of Facebook to view it - and I, lowly Luddite, am not a member of Facebook. If you are, copy this link -
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=182456250060
I still haven't been able to find out when 'Bright Star' will be released in the US and UK.
And Stephen Hebron's John Keats: A Poet and His Manuscripts will be released in October 2009. It will include his 'finest poems and letters'. Who determines what's the finest? In any event, you can click on over to my Keats: Manuscripts page to view manuscripts right now.
25 May 2009 Lots of articles about 'Bright Star', which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival recently. The Guardian gave it a glowing review, as did The Telegraph. And The Huffington Post has pictures from the premiere, and a short article.
But even better than all the articles is a three-minute teaser of the film at YouTube. It looks wonderful, and it seems like they've worked bits of Keats's poetry and letters into conversation. If this film makes people want to read his work, I will be very happy indeed.
Thanks to everyone who sent in links.
So far there are no official US or UK release dates....
You can also read a lengthy review of Stanley Plumly's Posthumous Keats at the New York Review of Books website. The review ends by quoting a truly awful poem by Debora Greger about Fanny Brawne. It's so awful that it's not even worth mocking. Just think - that's what our greatest art form has devolved into - 'grimy as a chimney sweep', indeed.
Below is a still from 'Bright Star' that I copied from The Guardian website. Don't sue me, folks. And if you do, get in line behind the National Portrait Gallery. -Marilee
The letter to Haydon also contained this - 'What a set of little people we live amongst. ... Conversation is not a search after knowledge, but an endeavour at effect.'
Reading through the letters made me think about how certain works / authors become a part of us. We read them so - deeply? intently? - I don't know the exact word for what I'm after, only that we read certain works and they get into us and never let go. I feel like Keats has been tagging along with me for about twenty years now. Could I find a better companion?
And this brings me to a question I have for you. I can still recite from memory the first two poems I read, - Shelley's blasted 'Indian Serenade' (read it and have it stuck in your head forever, too) and Keats' 'When I have fears'. What about you? What's the first poem you read? If you can't remember the first, then what's the poem that made you get poetry? Email me at marilee@keatsian.com. I'd like to see if my fellow Keatsians had similar poetic initiations. :-)
Is there any Keatsian news? 'Bright Star' is on dvd. Andrew Motion wrote a short introduction to Keats' poetry at The Guardian. And there was a Keats' quote in an automobile ad, but I lost it. I'm not up to webmaster-snuff lately. -Marilee
16 September 2009 'Bright Star' is now in limited release in the US. Click here to read the NY Times review.
I am as brisk
As a bottle of wisk -
Ey, and as nimble
as a milliner's thimble.
The above was scribbled down by Keats in early 1816. I like it.
19 June 2009 The Royal Academy of Arts has an exhibition on JW Waterhouse from 27 June to 13 September. Like his fellow pre-Raphaelites, Waterhouse admired Keats's work and it inspired one of his most famous paintings ('La Belle Dame Sans Merci'). Follow the link to learn more.
12 June 2009 Keats in Hampstead is back this year. It begins on 24 July and you can buy tickets online at their site. They have a Facebook group as well, but you need to be a member of Facebook to view it - and I, lowly Luddite, am not a member of Facebook. If you are, copy this link -
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=182456250060
I still haven't been able to find out when 'Bright Star' will be released in the US and UK.
And Stephen Hebron's John Keats: A Poet and His Manuscripts will be released in October 2009. It will include his 'finest poems and letters'. Who determines what's the finest? In any event, you can click on over to my Keats: Manuscripts page to view manuscripts right now.
25 May 2009 Lots of articles about 'Bright Star', which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival recently. The Guardian gave it a glowing review, as did The Telegraph. And The Huffington Post has pictures from the premiere, and a short article.
But even better than all the articles is a three-minute teaser of the film at YouTube. It looks wonderful, and it seems like they've worked bits of Keats's poetry and letters into conversation. If this film makes people want to read his work, I will be very happy indeed.
Thanks to everyone who sent in links.
So far there are no official US or UK release dates....
You can also read a lengthy review of Stanley Plumly's Posthumous Keats at the New York Review of Books website. The review ends by quoting a truly awful poem by Debora Greger about Fanny Brawne. It's so awful that it's not even worth mocking. Just think - that's what our greatest art form has devolved into - 'grimy as a chimney sweep', indeed.
Below is a still from 'Bright Star' that I copied from The Guardian website. Don't sue me, folks. And if you do, get in line behind the National Portrait Gallery. -Marilee