Customer Reviews

The Complete Poems of John Keats (Modern Library)

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The miniscule and sickly John Keats may not have been long for this world but he is an immortal of English language poetry. The accesibility of Keats's great poems is the reason he continues to be read while those who dismissed him in his own day have been swept into the ashcan of literary history. What's great about this complete edition is right there in the title: It's complete, allowing the Keats enthusiast to travel through all of Keats's romantic attempts, ranging from great to mediocre to poetic fumbles... The Keats novice can start with the major poems and odes and marvel, as I once did, how one so young created such a vast quantity of work. This edition also features valuable notes and the trajically short biography of Keats.

Overall this book is a great value, as would any book be that contains so many of Keats poems and puts them in a durable binding at an attractive price. However, I'm puzzled by the first two lines in the poem, " La Belle Dame Sans Merci" that read, " Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,/ Alone and palely loitering; ". In every book I've ever seen this poem in, or these two lines quoted , including my college Literature Text book, they read, " O what can ail thee, knight at arms,/ Alone and palely loitering ? " There is no information to tell us what the text of the poems for this volume are based on. And, I seem unable to find an e-mail address from The Modern Library's Web Site so I can ask. I would accept a response from The Modern Library if they cared to comment( e-mail at: stephenmccoy@cbnnow.com )

Not being an expert on all of the poetry of Keats, it appears this book does indeed contain his complete work of published poetry between 1813/14 (Immitation of Spencer) and 1820. The book itself (the hardback copy I purchased) is very well made and the printing on every bound page is clear and even. If you know only the first line of one of Keats' poems and can't recall the title, the publishers have included an additional alphabetical index of those lines. I am very happy with the quality of this book.

Next to Shakespeare I can not think of a Brittish poet who inspired me more than John Keats. His lyrical phrases, his sense of music and metaphor, and his visionary splendor dazzles one and leaves a reader in awe of his gift. My favorites are the Odes, especially the Ode To Psyche, and the Ode To A Nightingale. One can only wonder what great works might have come into existence from this great literary genius had he lived beyond the age of twenty six. Still, he did manage to distill from the heavens some of the finest poems of the English language.

This is to warn everyone that this Kindle edition does not have a linked Table of Contents. No way to find a particular poem, etc.

This book is great for those who love Keats work. It has it all and more. I remember studying Keats in HS, and only was able to find a few of his poems, but that was when I was determined to find a book that truly has his complete works. And I finally have found it and more than I could imagined. From a variety of his sonnets to one of my favorites "A Party of Lovers," and "La Belle Dame Sans Merci". For those who have been frustrated like I was by not finding the exact complete poems of Keats...this is it! This is what I was looking for and Im sure as an avid lover of complete works so will everyone else.

The only thing that I noticed was that some of the text was sketchy - there were some blanks where ink should be on some letters - but not enough to make any words unreadable, just little nicks in the text.

Contrary to the title of the book, this edition does not contain all of Keats' poems. I purchased it especially for the odes, and these are not included in the book. I am very disappointed and will likely not purchase another kindle product again.

As a previous reviewer noted this edition is not the complete poems - it doesn't have the odes. And the editors have still (25 June 2011) not added a linked table of contents. This is really not good. The days when providers for Kindle could charge $3.99 for out of copyright works with such woefully adequate editing are long past.

I purchased this book at Amazon.com recently,mainly for two reasons one that my parents had a book of John Keats,and secondly because in it there was a favourite work of my late wife,the book is up to my expectations,the index at the back of first lines and titles is very handy it is also nicely presented and priced.