“Now a soft kiss – Aye, by that kiss, I vow an endless bliss”
– John Keats, “Endymion”
“Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?”
– John Keats
– John Keats, “Endymion”Now a soft kiss – Aye, by that kiss, I vow an endless bliss
This quote from the 19th century English Romantic poet John Keats comes from the poem “Endymion”. Endymion is one of the major poems of John Keats, as well as his longest poem, written in 1817, and printed in 1818.
The title for Endymion comes from a classical Greek myth about the moon goddess, Selene, who falls in love with a young, handsome Aeolian shepherd and king of Olympia named Endymion. She goes to Zeus, Endymion’s father, to make him eternally youthful.
– John KeatsDo you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul? A place where the heart must feel and suffer in a thousand diverse ways!
The above quote comes from a long letter, John Keats wrote in early 1819, where Keats writes in his characteristic eloquence that the education of our soul comes from the human heart and its suffering.
John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was of the second generation of Romantic poets along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculosis at the age of 25. They were indifferently received in his lifetime, but his fame grew rapidly after his death.
There is a 2009 film “Bright Star”, written and directed by Academy Award winner Jane Campion, is a biographical romantic drama set around the three-year romance between John Keats and Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by Keats untimely death at 25 years of age. Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish star as Keats and Brawne, respectively. For those probably new to Keats, it may be an enjoyable introduction. Over the years I have enjoyed watching Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish performances, and they do shine in this film for me. I also have the accompanying book that includes John Keats’ complete poems and selected letters, in case you are interested and have not read his poetry.
Bright Star – Official Trailer
“Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art”
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the nightAnd watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,– John KeatsStill, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.