Keats's Poetry: What Are His Main Pre-Occupations?
Look at the first lines of these poems written by Keats. Beside each one, write down any immediate thoughts that come into your head about what it may be concerned with: genre, key ideas etc. Do any of them fit in with what we know about Romanticism already?
What can all thee,
knight at arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
-La Belle Dame Sans Merci
Seasons of mists and mellow
fruitfulness,
Close-bosom friend of the
maturing sun
-Ode To Autumn
What is love? It is a doll
dressed up
For idelness to cosset
-What is Love?
O Poesy! For thee I hold my pen!
-Sleep and Poetry
My heart aches, and a drowsy
numbness pain my sense, as if
of hemlock I had drunk.
-Nightingale
When I have fears that I may
cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd
my teaming brain.
-When I have Fears