“Oh weep for Adonais!—The quick Dreams,
The passion-wingèd Ministers of thought,
Who were his flocks, whom near the living streams
Of his young spirit he fed, and whom he taught
The love which was its music, wander not,—
Wander no more, from kindling brain to brain,
But droop there, whence they sprung; and mourn their lot
Round the cold heart, where, after their sweet pain,
They ne’er will gather strength, or find a home again.”—Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats”
On this date in 1821, the sickly Romantic poet John Keats died of tuberculosis at age 25 in Rome, far from his native England. (A year later, his admirer Shelley died in a drowning accident.)
Luckily, there was more to Keats’ life and work than an untimely death. The poems he created in his short life have won a devoted following in the years since, including by no less than F. Scott Fitzgerald, who included lines from Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” as the epigraph of his 1934 novel about expatriate Americans, Tender is the Night.
Here is a fascinating blog post featuring a YouTube recording of the great novelist paying tribute to this literary genius who died all too young, reciting, from memory "Ode to a Nightingale."
(My post today was inspired by friend and fellow blogger Linnea, who is not only a Keats fan but a one-woman cultural salon. For proof, see her blog Art Ravels. I've bookmarked it and hope that you will, too.)
The passion-wingèd Ministers of thought,
Who were his flocks, whom near the living streams
Of his young spirit he fed, and whom he taught
The love which was its music, wander not,—
Wander no more, from kindling brain to brain,
But droop there, whence they sprung; and mourn their lot
Round the cold heart, where, after their sweet pain,
They ne’er will gather strength, or find a home again.”—Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats”
On this date in 1821, the sickly Romantic poet John Keats died of tuberculosis at age 25 in Rome, far from his native England. (A year later, his admirer Shelley died in a drowning accident.)
Luckily, there was more to Keats’ life and work than an untimely death. The poems he created in his short life have won a devoted following in the years since, including by no less than F. Scott Fitzgerald, who included lines from Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” as the epigraph of his 1934 novel about expatriate Americans, Tender is the Night.
Here is a fascinating blog post featuring a YouTube recording of the great novelist paying tribute to this literary genius who died all too young, reciting, from memory "Ode to a Nightingale."
(My post today was inspired by friend and fellow blogger Linnea, who is not only a Keats fan but a one-woman cultural salon. For proof, see her blog Art Ravels. I've bookmarked it and hope that you will, too.)
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