John Keats (31st October 1795 – February 23rd 1821)
John Keats is one of the best known English romantic poets of all time. Born on 31st October 1795 his work is still loved, read and studied today, but you may be surprised to know that he wasn’t published until four years before his death, and he published just 54 poems and a few magazines in his lifetime.
Despite that his work has stood the test of time, making him a household name even today centuries later. His most well known poems are Endymion, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, and To Autumn. Today many, many books bear his name as his work has been dissected, studied and regarded through the years.
Today we have 10 poetic lines from Keats, both from his poetry and his personal writing. As you can see, they ring as true today as they did when the author lived over 200 years ago.
A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness.
I will give you a definition of a proud man: he is a man who has neither vanity nor wisdom one filled with hatreds cannot be vain, neither can he be wise.
The poetry of the earth is never dead.
It appears to me that almost any man may like the spider spin from his own inwards his own airy citadel.
Though a quarrel in the streets is a thing to be hated, the energies displayed in it are fine; the commonest man shows a grace in his quarrel.
The only means of strengthening one’s intellect is to make up one’s mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts.
Land and sea, weakness and decline are great separators, but death is the great divorcer for ever.
I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart’s affections and the truth of the Imagination.
Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?
You are always new. The last of your kisses was ever the sweetest; the last smile the brightest; the last movement the gracefullest.
Birmingham Poet, Benjamin Zephaniah dies, aged 65
QUIZ! On a Poet’s Birthday – Remember by Christina Rossetti
