Sonnets of John Keats

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The superb poetic skill and exquisite sensitivity of John Keats is brilliantly illustrated in this collection of meticulously selected sonnets. Keats had a passion for poetry as he had for life itself. His own life, although cut short at an early age, was one of creativity, productivity and one ornamented with immense poetic skill. His was a life that left an indelible mark of wonder on the world, an enduring legacy, a mark of greatness. Keats would write of his heroes, "How many bards gild the lapses of time!" - other poets and writers whose plight he often lamented, whose talent he always praised and whose loss, should it occur, he grieved. Keats would describe great artistry and the unsparing nature of time, "The gradual sand that through an hour-glass runs,- / A woodland rivulet,- a Poet's death." Indeed, Keats would draw his poetic inspiration not only from gifted poets but also from the magnificence of the natural world around him, "The poetry of earth is ceasing never." Keats's sonnets resound with a search for meaning and, where none seems probable, create a compelling vision of what may be to come. In Keats's work we witness the poetry of fascination, of hope, of gratitude, of uncertainty and of entreaty, "But when I am consumed in the Fire, / Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire." These sonnets reflect the heart of a man enraptured, albeit the heart of a man too soon to sound its final beat. But until that fateful day we behold a heart strong and determined with the perennial uncertainty foremost in mind, "O Darkness! Darkness! ever must I moan, / To question Heaven and Hell and Heart in vain." - Summary by Bruce Kachuk