John Keats on Poetry
1795–1821 England
← All quotes by John Keats
10 quotes
A drainless shower
Of light is poesy; ’tis the supreme of power;
’Tis might half slumb’ring on its own right arm.
Poems (1817)
A poet is the most unpoetical of anything in existence; because he has no identity — he is continually informing — and filling some other body.
Letters (1817)
Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Poems (1817)
O 'tis a very sin
For one so weak to venture his poor verse
In such a place as this.
Endymion (1818)
I think I shall be among the English Poets after my death.
Letters (1817)
Poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one's soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself, but with its subject.
Letters (1817)
The poetry of earth is never dead;
* * * * *
The poetry of earth is ceasing never.
Souls of Poets dead and gone,
What Elysium have ye known,
Happy field or mossy cavern,
Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?
Poems (1820)
The poetry of earth is never dead.
Poems (1817)
In Poetry I have a few axioms, and you will see how far I am from their centre. I think Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity — it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance — Its touches of Beauty should never be halfway thereby making the reader breathless instead of content: the rise, the progress, the setting of imagery should like the Sun come natural to him — shine over him and set soberly although in magnificence leaving him in the luxury of twilight — but it is easier to think what Poetry should be than to write it — and this leads me on to another axiom. That if Poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.
Letters (1817)