Keats’s first volume of poems, published in 1817, demonstrated both his belief in the consummate power of poetry and his liberal views. While he was criticized by many for his politics, his immediate circle of friends and family immediately recognized his genius. In his short life he proved to be one of the greatest and most original thinkers of the second generation of Romantic poets, with such poems as ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, ‘On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer’ and ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’. While his writing is illuminated by his exaltation of the imagination and abounds with sensuous descriptions of nature’s beauty, it also explores profound philosophical questions. John Barnard’s acclaimed volume contains all the poems known to have been written by Keats, arranged by date of composition. The texts are lightly modernized and are complemented by extensive notes, a comprehensive introduction, an index of classical names, selected extracts from Keats’s letters and a number of pieces not widely available, including his annotations to Milton’s Paradise Lost.

A comprehensive edition of one of America's greatest poets, this collection draws from her four published volumes, together with 50 uncollected works and translations of Octavio Paz, Max Jacob and others.

John Keats (1795-1821) was an English Romantic poet. The poetry of Keats is characterized by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular and most analyzed in English literature. Table of Contents: Introduction: Life of John Keats by Sidney Colvin Ode Ode on a Grecian Urn Ode to Apollo Ode to Fanny Ode on Indolence Ode on Melancholy Ode to Psyche Ode to a Nightingale Sonnets Sonnet: When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be Sonnet on the Sonnet Sonnet to Chatterton Sonnet Written in Disgust of Vulgar Superstition Sonnet: Why Did I Laugh Tonight? No Voice Will Tell Sonnet to a Cat Sonnet Written Upon the Top of Ben Nevis Sonnet: This Pleasant Tale is Like a Little Copse Sonnet - The Human Seasons Sonnet to Homer Sonnet to A Lady Seen for a Few Moments at Vauxhall Sonnet on Visiting the Tomb of Burns Sonnet on Leigh Hunt's Poem 'the Story of Rimini' Sonnet: A Dream, After Reading Dante's Episode of Paulo and Francesco Sonnet to Sleep Sonnet Written in Answer to a Sonnet Ending Thus: Sonnet: After Dark Vapours Have Oppress'd Our Plains Sonnet to John Hamilton Reynolds Sonnet on Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again Sonnet: Before He Went to Feed with Owls and Bats Sonnet Written in the Cottage Where Burns Was Born Sonnet to The Nile Sonnet on Peace Sonnet on Hearing the Bagpipe and Sonnet: Oh! How I Love, on a Fair Summer's Eve Sonnet to Byron Sonnet to Spenser Sonnet: As from the Darkening Gloom A Silver Dove Sonnet on the Sea Sonnet to Fanny Sonnet to Ailsa Rock Sonnet on a Picture of Leander Translation from a Sonnet of Ronsard Two Sonnets on Fame Lamia Isabella Endymion Hyperion Stanzas Spenserian Stanza Spenserian Stanzas on Charles Armitage Brown Stanzas to Miss Wylie Robin Hood The Eve of St. Agnes Modern Love ...

'I think I shall be among the English Poets after my death,' John Keats soberly prophesied in 1818 as he started writing the blankverse epic Hyperion. Today he endures as the archetypal Romantic genius who explored the limits of the imagination and celebrated the pleasures of the senses but suffered a tragic early death. Edmund Wilson counted him as 'one of the half dozen greatest English writers,' and T. S. Eliot has paid tribute to the Shakespearean quality of Keats's greatness. Indeed, his work has survived better than that of any of his contemporaries the devaluation of Romantic poetry that began early in this century. This Modern Library edition contains all of Keats's magnificent verse: 'Lamia,' 'Isabella,' and 'The Eve of St. Agnes'; his sonnets and odes; the allegorical romance Endymion; and the five-act poetic tragedy Otho the Great. Presented as well are the famous posthumous and fugitive poems, including the fragmentary 'The Eve of Saint Mark' and the great 'La Belle Dame sans Merci,' perhaps the most distinguished literary ballad in the language. 'No one else in English poetry, save Shakespeare, has in expression quite the fascinating felicity of Keats, his perception of loveliness,' said Matthew Arnold. 'In the faculty of naturalistic interpretation, in what we call natural magic, he ranks with Shakespeare.'