Today's gonna have to be a short post because I am feeling poorly. Due to a recent viewing of the film Bright Star (which I loved) I am again obsessed with poetry. The film is about the short romance between poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne. I highly recommend it especially for one scene in particular. Brawne has asked Keats for a poetry lesson to improve her understanding of poetry. Keats tells her exactly what the best poetry teachers/readers/writers have told me.
"A poem is not to be worked out. It is to be experienced through the senses."
So give this one a shot today.
A Thing of Beauty (Endymion)
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its lovliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkn'd ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
'Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.
--John Keats
Have a great week! Book Slave.
