Book description
Keats is one of the major figures in the second generation of Romantic
Poets and was considered by Tennyson to be the greatest poet of the
nineteenth century. The preoccupying themes of Keats' poetry are love,
art, sorrow, the natural world and thenature of the imagination.
However, his poetry is often also indirectly critical of conventional
political, religious, and sexual beliefs. This collection contains
pieces from different periods in his short life, from his earliest verse
to his later unpublished poems. It also includes his best-loved works,
such as The Eve of St Agnes, Lamia, and the Odes, and extracts from
Endymion.
John Keats (1795-1821) was apprenticed to a surgeon when he decided
to commit himself to poetry. His genius was recognised and encouraged
by his friends, but it was not until after his death that his place in
English Romanticism was fully acknowledged.
John Barnard is Professor of English Literature at the University of
Leeds and is the editor of THE COMPLETE POEMS of Keats in the Penguin
English Poets series.
