Selected Poems (Penguin Classics): Amazon.co.uk: John Keats, John Barnard: Books

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Keats is one of the major figures in the second generation of Romantic poets and was considered by Tennyson to be the greatest poet of the 19th century. This collection contains pieces from different periods in his short life, from his earliest verse to his later unpublished poems.

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First Sentence
Much have I travelled 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. Read the first page

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5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beauty and Truth, 19 Oct 2003

By

Nicky (Liverpool UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Selected Poems (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

I was introduced to the poetry of Keats as part of my A Level studies last year, and I found his poetry to be deeply powerful and insightful. I absolutely adore Keats' poetry, and his book is ideal for both fans and those who are unfamiliar with his work. Whatever your favourite element of his poetry, from his narratives or the odes, this book has a selection of all to be enjoyed.

Although it does not include any of the letters Keats is also known to have written, the volume of poetry makes up for this, and truly there are some wonderful choices made in the verse included. The reader is able to enjoy Keats' love of the fantastical, his heavily opiumed obsession with perfection and immortality of love, and the God and Goddesses he uses to illustrate his feelings on love, life and the constant battles he had against the 'Classical' poets of the time. The struggles between Classicalism and Romanticism hover behind several of the poems, as do his feeling about women and his own introspections on life and love. But don't be thinking this is all heavy going poetry, because to just be read without analysis is also to enjoy the beauty of his poems, as they are full of powerful visions of nature and colour and love. You can't help but enjoy them. Of course, they are going to appeal to you more strongly if you are of a Romantic nature yourself...if you are a hopeless Romantic, this is the book for you!

Since I first read this book, Keats has become my favourite poet. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Poet, Great Selection, 10 April 2009

By

I. M. Knight (Huddersfield, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Selected Poems (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

There is a good selection of poetry from John Keats here. It includes all the work you would expect in a collection from Keats and obviously all the Odes.

If you've never read any of Keats' poetry then this is a great place to start. He is without doubt one of the leading Romantic Poets and in my mind probably the best. He was a writer of great imagination and has had an effect on readers and writers to this day.

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Amazon.com: 5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Collection - See Alternatives Also, 3 Oct 2003

By Michael Wischmeyer - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Selected Poems (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

There are many good collections of the poetry of John Keats. This selection by John Barnard is quite good and has long served as a text for college classes.

Barnard writes that the poetry of John Keats is uniformly serious and always poetic. Keats' prime concern was art and beauty. The casual reader may not even notice certain passages that resulted in severe political criticism by the Tory press and other supporters of Charles II.

The real popularity of this particular collection is the poetry of Keats himself. Barnard has assembled an excellent collection, one that is fully representative of Keats' remarkable genius. He largely avoided the longer poems of John Keats with the exception of Endymion in which he offers Book 1 in its entirety, but only extracts from Books 2, 3, and 4. Nonetheless, this abridged version of Endymion still exceeds 2000 lines.

Looking for alternative collections? John Barnard has also compiled John Keats, The Complete Poems. It was also published by Penguin Classics. It is about 750 pages, more than three times as long as Selected Poems. For example, the full Endymion is some 50 pages longer than the abridged version in Selected Poems. Barnard's explanatory notes in this collection are quite extensive, totaling nearly 200 pages in reduced print size. There is also a wide ranging appendix exceeding 50 pages, including selected letters of John Keats.

Another good choice is published by Modern Library. Complete Poems and Selected Letters of John Keats is actually a very good choice and is indeed my favorite. The introduction by John Hirsch is more than 25 pages and is quite helpful. I particularly like the explanatory notes by Jim Pollock. They are less extensive than those in Barnard's The Complete Poems, but I found them most useful.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Well written and Literely Breath taking., 20 Dec 1998

By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: John Keats: Selected Poems (Bloomsbury Poetry Classics) (Hardcover)

I loved this book. It is truly a classic. Keats is long before my time, however his work that he left behind is still here and leaves a big mark on the world of poets. Wanting to be a journalist myself, and having a hunger for literature, Keats' book was quite inspiring. I recommend it for any poet. One of my favorites is, of course, "When I have fears that I may Cease To Be."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The truth of his life is the incredible Beauty of his poetry, 22 Nov 2009

By Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Selected Poems (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

Keats is one of the great poets of the English language. There are of course many collections of his work, and I see no special reason to choose this one before all others. Most readers in any case will concentrate on the very great poems, the Odes above all. To know Keats fully it is also necessary to know the Letters as he was one of the great letter writers the English language has known.
Keats is one of the richest and most linguistically brilliant of all the great poets. The Truth of his life is the incredible Beauty of his Poetry.

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