John Keats: The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics) Paperback – August 25, 1977

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These words from Dostoevsky bear a different connotation than does beauty in the work of John Keats—but they are by no means in apropos. In some ways this message pertains more to our age than that when it was expressed.Their relevance stems from the aim of Keats’ verse to craft beauty in the imagination and senses. He tried to awaken a reason-besotted Europe to an awareness of nature and the beauty that surrounds them. He longed for a culture like classical Greece where the gods epitomized the agency and grandeur of nature. (Though Nietzsche would react strongly, and persuasively, against this simplification.)His poesy then abounds in allusions and recastings of Greek myths. There is not only no encomium of Socrates. There is a repudiation of the entire Greek philosophic tradition inasmuch as it blocked humanity from that quintessential feeling of being one with nature.Dostoevsky, on the other hand, saw the world devolving into rationalistic atheism and raising the material goods above any spiritual concern. He thought, amidst this flood against the supernatural, the pervasiveness of beauty could reawaken man to a knowledge of his true nature.Keats would have thought of Dostoevsky as so much superstition, but they did agree on the central role of beauty in the life of mankind.As a participant in a century that seems to have forgotten any sense of beauty as the splendor of being, for me Keats’ poetry stands as a reminder that the highest truths can be beautiful. Keats, though now he would be called an atheist, was not afraid to quote the medieval schoolmen in his paean to humanity, “Beauty is Truth, Truth beauty” though he had to add his own conclusion, “That is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”Perhaps, Dostoevsky and Keats were both right. Before we ruin the nature Keats so celebrated for the untold other species who co-inhabit it, we can pause and reconsider whether the highest truths are not only scientific but beautiful as well.

Most of us stop our education in school. But you’ll never believe how rewarding it is to pick up Keats at your own decision.

The book came quickly and was in good condition. Like it says, these are the completed works of Keats. I believe the poems are listed in chronological order of when they were written, which makes it interesting to see how Keats developed as an author as he wrote. The book also features extensive notes in the back of the book which provide helpful information about the poems.

As a teacher, I planned to use the "Dictionary of Classical Names" at the end of the volume for my students' reference, but it ends in the p's. The book says it is 752 pages, but mine does not include the last 14 pages. It is also missing the "Index of Titles" and "Index of First Lines" indicated in the Table of Contents.

His poems are palpable, vivid, and uplifting. This beautiful book features Keats' poems, and a grand portion of his letters, and helpful annotations. Not only a great poet, but a great understand-er, Keats died tragically at the age of 26, but his poetry lives on.

The reason we still go to Keats, and Yeats, and Tennyson, and Wordsworth is the power of the words and the way it opens the mind to see life in spectrums of beauty and melancholy.

Classic, beautiful poetry. A must for a collection, to share, or to enjoy on your own. A college student can submit great assignments from Keats.