How did you discover Keats?

I studied Keats in school...I'm trying to think which school, but I believe it would have been University where I was, for a short time, a creative writing major.

Although the entertainment industry has done a great disservice to this splendid film, I predict it will be viewed for many years to come and will always encourage people to fall in love with Keats' poetry. Ben Whishaw is such a dream as he recites; he breathes such life into the work...superior to any other I've heard and I've heard Andrew Motion recite.

"I'd never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul."

I'm 57 years old and have been entranced, fascinated, and yes, harmlessly obsessed with this lovely poet since I was 12. My father was a high school teacher and had a great respect for fine literature. He taught art, humanities, and was the faculty adviser for both the yearbook and the literary magazine. He was also a functioning alcoholic (sorry, Dad), and one of the things he would do when "overheated" (that's how we would refer to his "condition") was to quote the literature he loved at the top of his voice. This would always occur at night, so it made falling asleep difficult for my mom and my brothers and sister. We heard everyone from Shakespeare to Pound to Eliot to the Bible to Shelley to Byron, and Keats. One night when I was in the 7th grade (and I remember this like it was yesterday), my dad was on a Keats roll and that's all we heard. I remember hearing (what I now know to be)"La Belle Dame sans Merci," "When I Have Fears, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer," "This Living Hand," "Bright Star," the great odes, and snippets from "The Eve of Saint Agnes," and "Isabella, or the Pot of Basil." But what I remember most was "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "Ode to a Nightingale." I remember thinking that I didn't know what in the hell those poems were about, but my gosh, who could possibly weave such beautiful tapestries with words?! So, the next morning I asked him about the poet and I remember his exact words: "Some little British kid -- just a boy. Keats. John Keats. Born in 1795 in London and died in 1821 in Rome, one friend shy of dying alone. 25 years old. Just 25 damn years old. A tragedy worthy of Shakespeare. A damn waste." I asked my mom to take me to the library and I checked out the only biography they had -- Amy Lowell's 2 volume set! I read the entire thing and then began working my way through his poetry. It was such an inspiration that when I went off to college, I decided to major in British literature, with a concentration in the Romantic period. The English department, at that time, demanded more specific study, so I chose to concentrate on Keats.

Sorry for the autobiography. . .

I am unashamed to admit that it was this film that changed my life. Before this film, I had never even heard of Keats. I just happen to seek out Indie films and enjoy period films what with the costumes and such. Also, it was portrayed as being a romance film in a way so I saw it. All I knew was it was about "some poet guy." After the film, as corny as it sounds, I was changed. I began reading so much of Keats and just getting so passionate about his work and trying to find out more about him.

I'm a freshman in college and I'm considering changing my major to English or Creative Writing just because I'm so inspired, and as my English teacher says, a pretty excellent writer. Last week in my Forms of Creative Writing class we were studying Romantic poetry. Part of the homework was to read selected poets/poems and one of them was Keats. The professor only included two poems by Keats though and more by everyone else. This upset me a little bit, although I was thoroughly excited to have Keats somehow relate to my homework.

I read at least one poem by Keats everyday. It keeps me running.

I seem to have had a relationship with Keats even before I read him. He's my mother's favourite poet too and whenever he came up in conversation, she'd sigh romantically and say, "Ah, Keats", so I assumed I'd read him long before I actually did. When the day came, it was for an English class and we had to read Ode on a Grecian Urn and Ode to a Nightingale- I was expecting some Rubert Brooke-esque, golden-haired boy-child. Imagine my surprise when it was so much more than that- clear, painful, earnest, desperate, passionate, yearning and more. All it took was those opening lines- "Thou still unravished bride of quietness"- and a love story began that has stayed with me all my life so far (which is admittedly not very long- I'm only 20) and I am sure will continue with me for the rest of it.

I had to stop reading after the first verse, go back and read it aloud, weigh each sound for myself an it was simply perfect. By the time I reached the end of Ode to a Nightingale, I was crying. Even now, all I need is "My heart aches" and tears start up. In class the next day, the teacher asked me to read Ode on a Grecian Urn. I knew I only had one shot at making the rest of my (rather cynical) classmates feel the same way about this as me, so I fixed my eyes on the paper and read slowly, clearly and feelingly- unlike any of us had read in class before. When I finished there was a long silence and I realised everyone had been holding their breath. Eventually someone said "wow" softly and broke the spell- we all laughed a little and started discussing the poem fervently. My teacher gave me a very knowing look- I suspect she knew what she was doing when she asked me to read.

Since then, I've read him much more extensively and am now studying English at Oxford University- in two weeks time, we look at Keats. I feel like my entire career so far has been leading to this point, and I know already that my essay will be a labour of love.

Sorry for the long story- for my money, Keats is the most perfect poet in the English language. Maybe not the greatest, but the most perfect. There is no bad Keats, and at his best he is sublime. As my classroom reading experience taught me.

I first discovered Keats when reading Dan Simmons 'Hyperion', where not only is Keats actually a character in it, but there are numerous allusions and references to him in it. It's very much worth reading, and not just because of the Keatsness.

I got my first Keats book by mistake when wandering along the section of poetry in the bookstore and asking myself what to get. I saw the cover of this Keats bilingual anthology and it ringed a bell, I mistook him for Yeats. Begin to read the book, like one reads those poetry books, that is, occasionally whenever one feels like needing a lyric fix. Then I studied him at school and learned properly why he was such a good poet. But yeah it pretty much confirmed my first impression: Beautiful.

Can´t wait to see the movie.

My English teacher was a big fan, and she mentored me when she saw that I had a passion for literature, so we went beyond the syllabus, and she introduced me to lots of stuff she thought I would appreciate.






"I've been turned down more times than the beds at the Holiday Inn; I still try"

I read poetry early in life, especially anything links to mythology and I found Endymion since I loved Roman and Greek myths. I like the story of Endymion and Selene, which weirdly parallels the lives of Fanny and John...since he dies and goes into a metaphorical sleep, leaving her to deal with being the left muse or goddess of him. Like the moon around a sleeping or dead person, she went into mourning.

My favorite poem of his is Welcome Joy and Welcome Sorrow, I got to study him in high school and college. Really great. He was all about living, even through he died young. Maybe that was the point.

I would say I read Endymion in middle school or even in 4th or 5th grade. I tended to read at a higher level than others in my class.